Data Scientist - Financial Crimes, Sanctions, AML

About the Company

Overview of role and associated job description. Economic Sanctions and Screening team responsible for developing, enhancing, and validating sanctions screening frameworks and models. This role plays a pivotal part in fortifying the firm's financial crime risk posture by ensuring our screening capabilities align with global regulatory expectations and industry best practices.

About the Role

This role is integral to the Economic Sanctions and Screening team, focusing on the development and validation of sanctions screening frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Design and Development:

  Develop, test, and optimize sanctions screening frameworks including name and payment screening methodologies.

• Model Enhancement:

  Evaluate existing sanctions models (fuzzy matching algorithms, rules logic, thresholds) and propose enhancements based on regulatory guidance and operational feedback.

• Framework Review:

  Conduct periodic and event-driven reviews of sanctions screening models to ensure continued relevance and compliance with OFAC, EU, UN, and other regulatory standards.

• Scenario Calibration and Tuning:

  Support tuning and threshold analysis for match scoring, leveraging historical alert data and false positive metrics.

• Data Analytics and Insights:

  Analyze screening outcomes to identify gaps, trends, and patterns that inform risk mitigation strategies and enhance effectiveness.

• Documentation and Governance:

  Prepare and maintain comprehensive model documentation, validation reports, and technical specifications in line with model risk governance frameworks.

• Stakeholder Engagement:

  Collaborate with compliance officers, technology teams, and business stakeholders to gather requirements, explain model logic, and support audits and regulatory reviews.

Qualifications

• Education:

  Bachelor's Degree / Master's Degree

Required Skills

• Domain Expertise:

• 2-10 years of hands-on experience in sanctions screening framework development, tuning, and validation.
• Familiarity with leading screening platforms (e.g., FircoSoft, Bridger, Actimize, Oracle Watchlist Screening, etc.) and list management practices.
• In-depth understanding of global sanctions regimes (OFAC, EU, UN, HMT) and related regulatory expectations.
• Experience in integrating sanctions screening models with broader AML/CFT frameworks.
• Exposure to AI/ML techniques for entity resolution or fuzzy matching optimization.
• Prior involvement in regulatory examinations or independent validations of screening tools.

• Technical Proficiency:

• Strong programming and scripting skills (Python, R, SQL, SAS).
• Experience in data modeling, scoring logic calibration, and large-scale dataset analysis.

• Analytical Thinking:

  Ability to conduct root cause analysis on alert quality issues. Strong quantitative and qualitative problem-solving capabilities.

• Communication:

  Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical models to non-technical stakeholders. Ability to craft data-backed narratives and present recommendations with clarity.

Preferred Skills

• Experience in regulatory examinations or independent validations of screening tools.

Base location: Chennai. This profile involves working from to client location.