VP, Complex Investigations Manager

Job Description

Job Description

Position Summary:
The Complex Investigations Manager is responsible for overseeing and supporting higher risk and more complex financial crime investigations within the Financial Intelligence Unit. This role provides day to day leadership over complex investigative matters, supports investigator development, and helps ensure investigations are timely, well documented, risk based, and defensible.

The Complex Investigations Manager is expected to bring strong investigative judgment, clear writing, and practical knowledge of BSA/AML requirements, suspicious activity monitoring, customer risk, transaction analysis, and SAR decisioning. This role works closely with FIU leadership, AML Operations, Sanctions, Compliance, Legal, and other internal stakeholders to identify meaningful risk, escalate concerns, and support appropriate regulatory reporting decisions.

Key Responsibilities:

Complex Investigation Oversight

• Manage and support complex investigations involving higher risk customers, transaction patterns, counterparties, products, geographies, or typologies.
• Provide day-to-day guidance to investigators on case strategy, investigative steps, documentation expectations, and escalation decisions.
• Review complex cases for investigative quality, completeness, and appropriate risk-based conclusions.
• Identify matters requiring escalation to FIU leadership, the BSA Officer, Sanctions, Compliance, Legal, or other internal stakeholders.
• Support SAR filing decisions, continuing activity reviews, customer risk recommendations, and other appropriate risk actions.

SAR Quality and Case Documentation

• Ensure investigative narratives clearly describe the activity reviewed, the concern identified, the investigative steps completed, and the basis forthe final conclusion.
• Review case files to confirm conclusions are supported by available facts, documentation, and analysis.
• Help identify gaps in investigative files and work with investigators to resolve them before closure or escalation.
• Promote consistent documentation standards across complex investigations.
• Support quality expectations for SAR narratives, no SAR decisions, continuing activity reviews, and related case documentation.

Team Leadership and Investigator Development

• Provide coaching, guidance, and day-to-day support to investigators assigned to complex matters.

• Help develop investigator skills in transaction analysis, typology identification, source of funds review, escalation judgment, and SAR narrative drafting.
• Assist with workload prioritization for complex matters, including aging cases, regulatory timing, and high-risk escalations.
• Serve as a subject matter resource for investigators handling elevated risk alerts, referrals, and escalations.
• Support a consistent, accountable, and well-controlled investigative process.

Risk Identification and Program Feedback

• Identify patterns, themes, and typologies observed through complex investigations.
• Share relevant findings with FIU leadership, AML Operations, Sanctions, Compliance, and model tuning teams, as appropriate.
• Support feedback loops between investigations, suspicious activity monitoring, alert tuning, customer risk, and program controls.
• Assist in identifying opportunities to improve investigation procedures, playbooks, escalation criteria, and case templates.
• Contribute to process improvements that strengthen investigation quality, consistency, and regulatory defensibility.

Cross-functional Coordination

• Partner with Sanctions, Compliance Advisory, Legal, Relationship Management, Operations, and other internal teams on sensitive or cross functional matters.
• Coordinate information requests related to complex investigations and ensure timely follow up on open items.
• Support law enforcement, subpoena, 314(b), and regulatory related matters when connected to complex investigations.
• Participate in meetings related to high-risk, customer risk decisions, and broader financial crime risk concerns.

Governance, Reporting, and Exam Support

• Support audit, regulatory exam, quality assurance, and model validation requests related to complex investigations.
• Assist with the development and maintenance of procedures, job aids, training materials, and investigation standards.
• Help ensure investigation practices align with applicable laws, regulations, internal policies, procedures, and documented expectations.
• Contribute to management reporting related to complex investigation volumes, themes, aging, quality, escalations, and outcomes.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Strong investigative judgment and ability to distinguish meaningful risk from routine or explainable activity.
• Strong written communication skills, including the ability to prepare clear, concise, and well supported investigative narratives.
• Ability to evaluate complex fact patterns and make sound, risk based recommendations.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to identify inconsistencies, documentation gaps, and escalation concerns.
• Ability to manage sensitive matters with discretion, professionalism, and appropriate urgency.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage competing priorities, aging cases, and regulatory timelines.
• Ability to work effectively across teams and communicate with investigators, managers, senior leaders, and control partners.
• Strong understanding of financial crime risks related to payments, fintech partnerships, money movement, sanctions, customer risk, and suspicious activity monitoring.

Education, Training, and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant experience required.
• Minimum of 5 to 7 years of experience in BSA/AML, financial crimes investigations, sanctions, law enforcement, or related compliance functions.
• Experience conducting or reviewing complex investigations involving higher risk customers, transaction activity, counterparties, geographies, products, or typologies.
• Strong understanding of suspicious activity monitoring, SAR decisioning, SAR narrative expectations, customer due diligence, enhanced due diligence, and transaction analysis.
• Experience working in a regulated financial institution, fintech partner bank, payments environment, money services business, or similar financial services environment preferred.
• Prior experience leading, coaching, or reviewing the work of investigators preferred.
• CAMS, CFE, CRCM, or similar certification preferred.

About Community Federal Savings Bank (CFSB)

Community Federal Savings Bank (CFSB) is a federally chartered bank founded in 2001 and headquartered in New York City. CFSB has focused on providing superior service and added value to clients though a solid understanding of relationship banking. We offer a full range of services, including loans, bill payments, card services, internet banking, and merchant processing.

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, military and/or veteran status, or any other Federal or State legally-protected classes.