Sanctions Screening Product Director - Payments - Executive Director

Ignite your passion for product innovation by leading customer-centric development, inspiring solutions, and shaping the future with your strategic vision and influence.

As a Product Director in Sanctions & Client List Screening, you lead innovation through the development of products and features that delight customers. As a leader on the team, you leverage your advanced capabilities to challenge traditional approaches, remove barriers to success, and foster a culture of continuous innovation that helps inspire cross-functional teams create groundbreaking solutions that address customer needs.

As an Executive Director, you will own and execute the global product strategy for firmwide sanctions screening—aligned to Payments but spanning enterprise screening requirements across multiple asset types and business lines. You will lead a team accountable for defining capabilities, translating customer and stakeholder needs into prioritized roadmaps, and delivering scalable, compliant screening services through close partnership with Technology, Operations, Compliance, Risk, Legal, and the Lines of Business.

This role has oversight responsibility for screening operations performance and outcomes (e.g., service levels, quality, controls, resiliency) while not directly owning day-to-day operations. You will set direction and standards, drive governance and continuous improvement, and ensure the end-to-end screening ecosystem (data, platforms, rules/models, case management, and operating model) is effective, auditable, and fit for purpose.

The role requires strong executive communication, attention to detail, and the ability to operate in a complex, regulated environment—balancing risk coverage, client experience, operational efficiency, and technology delivery.

Job responsibilities

• Own and implement the global product vision and strategy for sanctions screening capabilities, aligned to Wholesale Payments and firmwide control expectations.

• Manage a multi-year product roadmap that supports screening across asset types and business use cases; socialize priorities with senior stakeholders and governance forums.

• Identify top use cases and drive prioritization based on risk reduction, regulatory expectations, client outcomes, scalability, and total cost of ownership.

• Establish and run product governance to maintain design principles, standards, and decision frameworks (e.g., change management, data requirements, tuning/optimization approach, platform modernization priorities).

• Partner with Compliance, Risk, Legal, Model Risk/Validation (as applicable), and Audit stakeholders to ensure capabilities are defensible, well-documented, and exam-ready.

• Provide senior oversight of screening operations outcomes—working with operations leadership on capacity planning, SLA performance, quality assurance, escalation protocols, and continuous improvement.

• Define and monitor key KPIs/KRIs (e.g., alert volumes, aging/backlogs, quality results, false positive reduction, tuning outcomes, platform stability) and ensure performance is understood and acted upon.

• Drive end-to-end issue management and remediation for defects, data quality gaps, or process breakdowns, ensuring sustainable fixes across technology and operations.

• Recruit, coach, and retain a diverse team of product leaders and contributors accountable for requirements, user journeys, and end-to-end lifecycle delivery.

• Translate customer and internal stakeholder needs into clear business requirements, epics, and acceptance criteria; support technology execution from discovery through launch and iteration.

• Lead go-to-market/enablement activities for new capabilities (internal and external as relevant), including readiness materials, training, and stakeholder education.

Required qualifications, capabilities, and skills

• 10+ years of progressive Product Management experience within a bank, payments company, fintech, or regulated financial services environment.

• Demonstrated success building and scaling complex, cross-functional products/services with measurable outcomes and strong governance.

• Strong understanding of sanctions screening concepts and operating ecosystems (e.g., watchlist ingestion, matching, case workflows, tuning optimization, change control, data dependencies).

• Proven ability to lead in a matrixed environment—partnering effectively across Technology, Operations, Compliance, Risk, and Legal; able to challenge and drive decisions.

• Deep knowledge of APIs and platform product practices (client/developer needs, documentation, lifecycle/versioning, reliability, adoption).

• Exceptional executive communication skills (written and verbal), including senior management and client-facing materials.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent required.

• Create and manage a global vendor/partner framework and engagement model to support screening capabilities where applicable.

• Establish performance management disciplines and ensure vendor decisions support resiliency, compliance, scalability, and cost effectiveness.

• Strong prioritization and execution discipline across complex dependencies

• Clear, decisive communication and stakeholder influence

• Talent development and team-building at scale

Preferred qualifications, capabilities, and skills

• Recognized thought leader within a related field

• Experience delivering screening/controls capabilities across multiple asset types, products, or lines of business (beyond payments).

• Product experience in identity/verification, KYC/KYB, beneficiary validation, payment instrument validation, or trust & safety programs.

• Familiarity with e-commerce/marketplace/third-party processing models (B2B, B2C, B2B2C) and associated risk flows.

• Experience driving modernization (workflow automation, data quality controls, case management enhancements) while maintaining strong auditability.

• Enterprise product leadership with a strong risk-and-controls mindset

• Ability to operate with precision in a regulated environment