Compliance, FCC - Digital Assets, Vice President, New York

Financial Crime Compliance ("FCC") coordinates Goldman Sachs' enterprise-wide anti-money laundering (AML), economic sanctions and anti-bribery compliance efforts. The combined FCC team administers an array of surveillances, due diligence, investigative expertise, and other control processes designed to identify potential money laundering, terrorist financing, bribery, securities fraud and other violations of law.

We seek professionals who demonstrate sound judgment, intellectual curiosity, strong risk management capabilities and the ability to operate effectively in a rapidly evolving regulatory and technology environment.

Job Summary & Responsibilities

The candidate will be an integral member of the Financial Crime Compliance Digital Assets team and will support FCC coverage for the firm’s digital assets activities. The role will focus on financial crime risks arising from blockchain, distributed ledger technology (DLT), cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, tokenized assets, digital money and related products, services, clients and infrastructure.

The successful candidate will help define and execute the firm’s FCC strategy for digital assets in an emerging and regionally divergent regulatory environment. The role requires close collaboration with global and regional FCC colleagues, business teams and other control functions, including Legal, Compliance, Internal Audit, Operations, Technology, and Risk.

The role will support a cross-divisional approach to financial crime risk management across commercial use cases, which may include capital markets activity, crypto-linked trading products, collateral mobility, tokenized deposits and other digital money solutions, blockchain infrastructure, and strategic investments. The scope may evolve based on business activity, regulatory developments and the candidate’s experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as a senior FCC point of contact for digital assets matters and contribute to the global FCC Digital Assets framework.

• Identify and assess money laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions, fraud, and other illicit finance risks associated with digital asset products, services, clients, counterparties, technologies and transaction flows.

• Provide risk-based advice and effective challenge throughout the product and client lifecycle, including new business initiatives, product approvals, client onboarding, and material changes to existing activities.

• Lead or support the onboarding and integration of digital asset related vendors to provide blockchain analytics, and digital assets intelligence services

• Partner with relevant teams to design, enhance and oversee controls relating to customer due diligence, enhanced due diligence, sanctions screening, blockchain analytics, transaction monitoring, investigations, suspicious activity escalation and recordkeeping.

• Develop a deep understanding of blockchain, DLT, wallets, custody models, token structures, smart contracts, stablecoins and transaction typologies to identify novel risks and control implications.

• Assess cross-business and cross-regional risk impacts, promote consistent minimum standards and support documented treatment of regional variances.

• Monitor and analyze new or amended laws, regulations, regulatory guidance, enforcement actions and industry practices, translating developments into practical requirements, guidance and action plans.

• Support engagement with regulators, auditors and other independent reviewers, including preparation for examinations, responses to information requests and remediation of findings.

• Develop and deliver policies, procedures, training, management information, metrics and governance materials for senior stakeholders and relevant committees.

• Collaborate with business, technology and control stakeholders to improve data quality, system capabilities, automation and the effectiveness of preventive and detective controls.

• Build strong networks across the firm and with relevant industry forums or trade associations to support informed and consistent approaches to emerging financial crime risks.

• Identify and escalate material risks and control weaknesses and oversee agreed remediation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Minimum of 7 years of relevant experience in Financial Crime Compliance, Compliance, Legal, Risk, Internal Audit or a related control function, preferably within a large financial institution or regulated digital assets business.

• Working knowledge of blockchain, DLT and digital assets, or demonstrated experience assessing financial crime risks and controls for new products, technologies or payment models.

• Experience working building out compliance controls to cover digital assets risks, including experience working with blockchain analytics vendors

• Strong working knowledge of anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, sanctions and fraud risk management frameworks, including customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, investigations and regulatory reporting.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience; a legal, financial, technical, risk or compliance background is preferred.

• Experience conducting risk assessments and designing, implementing or overseeing effective financial crime controls.

• Ability to interpret complex and evolving regulatory expectations and translate them into practical guidance, control requirements and executable action plans.

• Strong analytical skills and the ability to understand complex product structures, technology-enabled workflows, transaction flows and data dependencies.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present complex issues, risk decisions, metrics and recommendations clearly to diverse stakeholders and senior management.

• Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate across functions and regions, influence stakeholders and provide constructive, independent challenge.

• Demonstrated project and time management skills, including the ability to prioritize multiple initiatives and deliver high-quality outcomes in a changing environment.

• Inquisitive, proactive and solutions-oriented mindset, with a focus on sustainable control enhancement and appropriate automation.