Sanctions Investigations Team Lead

Binance; Singapore; Remote; SGD 260,000 - 340,000; Full time

Job summary

Binance is seeking a senior sanctions and counter-terrorist-financing investigations leader to guide a global team across the firm's footprint. You will own investigation quality, escalation handling, and regulatory evidence packs while balancing throughput with risk controls.

Lead cross-border investigations, coordinate with regulators and auditors, and drive tooling adoption, process improvements, and professional development within the team.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in sanctions or financial crime investigations in crypto/finance.
• Direct people leadership including performance management.
• Experience building SOPs, playbooks and escalation protocols.
• Experience with regulatory exams or external audits.
• Experience reducing false positives or cycle times with controls.
• Hands-on with blockchain analytics tools: Chainalysis, Elliptic, TRM or equivalent.
• Knowledge of OFAC, UN, EU, UK sanctions frameworks.
• Experience reporting obligations beyond SARs/STRs.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end investigation quality, including case scoping and evidence standards.
• Review complex or high-risk matters and endorse disposition recommendations.
• Ensure dispositions are defensible under sanctions regimes and audits.
• Manage intake, triage, and ageing; prioritize by risk and meet SLAs.
• Plan capacity across time zones and handle surges.
• Report throughput, cycle time, QA outcomes, and escalation volumes.
• Drive process improvements to reduce false positives and manual work.
• Represent team to regulators, auditors, and reviewers; ensure evidence packs.
• Collaborate with Sanctions Advisory and Technology on rules and tooling.
• Coach investigators and support career progression.
• Develop team knowledge of typologies and digital-asset risks.
• Drive training and AI-assisted workflows; validate outputs.
• Maintain SOPs and escalation protocols; ensure confidentiality.
• Support internal audits and remediation of findings.

Skills

Sanctions investigations

CTF investigations

People leadership

SOPs / playbooks

Regulatory exams / audits

Process improvement

Blockchain analytics

Education

Degree in Finance, Law, Criminal Justice, Computer Science

Tools

Chainalysis

Elliptic

TRM Labs

Job description

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.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.