Financial Crimes Sanctions Screening Coverage Director (AVP)

Director, Sanctions Screening Initiatives & Optimization in Global Financial Crimes

We're seeking someone to join our team as a Director, Sanctions Screening Initiatives & Optimization in Global Financial Crimes to lead business analysis and project delivery for screening transformation, optimization, and strategic initiatives across reference data and transaction screening programs. In the Legal & Compliance division, we assist the Firm in achieving its business objectives by facilitating and overseeing the Firm's management of legal, regulatory and franchise risk. This is a Director level position within the Global Financial Crimes Sanctions Screening Controls team, which is responsible for the design, implementation, and ongoing governance of the Firm's sanctions screening control framework across reference data and transaction activity.

Since 1935, Morgan Stanley is known as a global leader in financial services, always evolving and innovating to better serve our clients and our communities in more than 40 countries around the world.

What you'll do in the role:

• Lead business analysis and project management support for cross-program transformation initiatives spanning reference data and transaction screening.
• Elicit, document, and manage business requirements for screening enhancements, translating regulatory expectations and control standards into user stories, acceptance criteria, and process documentation.
• Develop and maintain project plans, timelines, RAID logs, and implementation records, tracking milestones, risks, dependencies, and remediation actions through closure.
• Partner with Compliance, Technology, Operations, and business stakeholders to design solutions that are operationally executable and supported by appropriate runbooks, SLAs, and readiness artifacts.
• Support testing and validation activities, including test strategy, UAT coordination, post-deployment verification, and documentation of pre- and post-implementation outcomes.
• Drive optimization workstreams involving threshold calibration, fuzzy logic tuning, suppression rules, pre-screening enhancements, and related screening effectiveness initiatives.
• Perform data analysis and develop management information to identify tuning opportunities, quantify operational impact, and support governance decisions on screening changes.
• Support new product assessments, issue remediation, regulatory and internal audit responses, and data governance activities by producing organized, audit-ready documentation and control evidence.

What you'll bring to the role:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Computer Science, Data/Analytics, or a related discipline with 5-8+ years of experience in business analysis, project management, sanctions compliance, AML/financial crime risk, or compliance controls within a regulated financial institutions.
• Strong business analysis, requirements management and process design skills, including experience developing functional specifications, user stories, acceptance criteria, and process maps.
• Demonstrated project delivery capability, with the ability to manage timelines, dependencies, stakeholder expectations, and multiple concurrent workstreams in a matrixed environment.
• Strong analytical skills, including advanced Excel and preferably SQL and/or Python, with experience analyzing screening data, producing management information, and supporting data quality or optimization assessments.
• Working knowledge of sanctions screening frameworks, relevant regulations, and transaction screening data, including familiarity with SWIFT MT/MX messaging standards.
• Experience with screening platforms or related technologies and, ideally, control tuning, model governance, UAT, and implementation validation activities.
• Working knowledge of OFAC and global sanctions regulations and their application to screening frameworks, including familiarity with model risk management practices and screening model governance concepts
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to produce governance materials, audit-ready documentation, and clear deliverables for cross-functional stakeholders; professional certifications such as CAMS, CFCS, or CFE are a plus.
• Typically, 5+ years' relevant experience would generally be expected to find the skills required for this role

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM MORGAN STANLEY:

At Morgan Stanley, we raise, manage and allocate capital for our clients helping them reach their goals. We do it in a way that's differentiated and we've done that for 90 years. Our values - putting clients first, doing the right thing, leading with exceptional ideas, committing to diversity and inclusion, and giving back - aren't just beliefs, they guide the decisions we make every day to do what's best for our clients, communities and more than 80,000 employees in 1,200 offices across 42 countries. At Morgan Stanley, you'll find an opportunity to work alongside the best and the brightest, in an environment where you are supported and empowered. Our teams are relentless collaborators and creative thinkers, fueled by their diverse backgrounds and experiences. We are proud to support our employees and their families at every point along their work-life journey, offering some of the most attractive and comprehensive employee benefits and perks in the industry. There's also ample opportunity to move about the business for those who show passion and grit in their work.

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunity employer committed to building and maintaining a workforce that is diverse in experience and background. Our recruiting efforts reflect our strong commitment to a culture of inclusion, where individuals are hired, developed, and advanced based on their skills and talents.

Our workforce reflects a broad cross-section of the global communities in which we operate, bringing a variety of backgrounds, talents, perspectives, and experiences.

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