Sanctions Investigations Team Lead

Sanctions Investigations Team Lead
Company: Binance
Location: Malaysia; Singapore; United Arab Emirates
Department: Compliance
Binance is a leading global blockchain ecosystem behind the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and registered users. We are trusted by 300+ million people in 100+ countries for our industry-leading security, user fund transparency, trading engine speed, deep liquidity, and an unmatched portfolio of digital-asset products. Binance offerings range from trading and finance to education, research, payments, institutional services, and more. Our mission is to increase the freedom of money and financial access for people around the world.
About the Role:
Lead a team of sanctions and counter-terrorist-financing investigators responsible for identifying, investigating, and escalating sanctions exposure across the firm's global footprint. The role owns investigation quality, throughput, and consistency for the team, and acts as the escalation point for complex or high-risk matters while ensuring the investigative record stands up to regulatory and audit scrutiny.
What You’ll Do:
Investigation leadership and quality
Own end-to-end investigation quality for the team: case scoping, evidence standards, narrative quality, disposition rationale, and closure documentation
Act as escalation point and reviewer for complex, high-value, or politically exposed matters; make or endorse disposition recommendations
Ensure every disposition is defensible against applicable sanctions regimes and internal standards, and is documented to withstand regulatory, audit, and independent review
Operational performance
Manage intake, triage, and ageing across the team's queue; ensure matters are prioritised by risk and progressed within SLAs
Own team capacity planning: allocation, coverage across time zones, and surge handling
Track and report team throughput, cycle time, QA outcomes, and escalation volumes to senior management and governance forums
Identify and drive process improvements that reduce false positives and manual effort without weakening controls
Regulatory and stakeholder engagement
Represent the team in interactions with regulators, external auditors, and independent reviewers; own response quality and evidence packs
Partner with Sanctions Advisory on interpretive questions and novel typologies, and with Technology on screening rule tuning, model changes, and tooling
Escalate material or time-sensitive exposure to Financial Crime Compliance leadership and, where required, to the business and Legal
Coordinate with law enforcement, industry bodies, and peer institutions where appropriate and approved
Team and capability
Set clear performance expectations; manage, coach, and develop investigators, including career progression and succession coverage
Build sanctions and CTF technical depth within the team: typologies, evasion techniques, digital-asset and cross-border payment risks
Partner with Compliance Training on mandatory and role-specific training; ensure the team's knowledge stays current with evolving regimes and designations
Drive adoption of investigative tooling and AI-assisted workflows, including validating output quality before scaling
Governance and control
Maintain team SOP, investigation playbooks, and escalation protocols; keep them current and aligned to policy
Ensure records, retention, and confidentiality standards are met, including for the most sensitive matters
Support internal audit, risk assessment, and control-testing exercises; own remediation of team-level findings
What We’re Looking For:
7+ years of experience in sanctions investigations, CTF investigations, or financial crime investigations in a crypto or financial services environment
Direct people leadership experience, including performance management, coaching, and career development of investigators
Demonstrated ability to build SOPs, playbooks, and escalation protocols
Experience with regulatory exams, external audits, or independent reviews, including owning the evidence pack and remediating findings
Experience driving process improvement with measurable outcomes, reducing false positives or cycle time without weakening controls
Hands-on experience with blockchain analytics tools: Chainalysis, Elliptic, TRM Labs, or equivalent
Exposure to emerging evasion typologies and digital-asset risks, including mixers, chain hops, and nested VASPs
Strong working knowledge of global sanctions frameworks (OFAC, UN, EU, UK) and CTF regulatory requirements
Working knowledge of sanctions-specific reporting obligations beyond SARs/STRs, including blocking and rejected transaction reporting
Nice to Haves:
Degree in Finance, Law, Criminal Justice, Computer Science, or a related field
Experience managing third-party or BPO investigation capacity, including quality scorecards, sampling, and corrective action
Experience designing or running a QC or QA programme, including sampling methodology and how scores translate into action
Why Binance
Shape the future of finance
Collaborate with world-class talent in a user-centric global organization with a flat structure
Tackle challenging projects in a fast-paced and innovative enviornment with autonomy
Thrive in a results-driven workplace with opportunities for career growth and continuous learning
Competitive salary and company benefits
Remote-first, work-from-home arrangement (may vary depending on the nature of the role and team)
Binance is committed to being an equal opportunity employer. We believe that having a diverse workforce is fundamental to our success.
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