Head of enterprise kyc technology risk engine development- director

Are you looking for a career move that will put you at the heart of a global financial institution? Then bring your skills in distributed systems engineering, risk technology, and large-scale platform delivery to our Enterprise KYC team.

By joining Citi, you will become part of a global organization whose mission is to serve as a trusted partner to our clients by responsibly providing financial services that enable growth and economic progress.

Job Overview

This senior engineering leadership role is responsible for the design, development, delivery, and operational excellence of Citi's Customer Risk Scoring (CRS) and Decisioning Engines. You will lead the engineering teams that build and maintain the real-time and batch calculation engines evaluating customer risk across the KYC, Customer Due Diligence (CDD), Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD), and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) lifecycle.

The team's purpose is to ensure these risk engines are accurate, explainable, audit-compliant, and performant at scale, balancing advanced distributed systems engineering, complex rule execution, and graph-based analytics to deliver trustworthy risk scores across client onboarding and continuous customer monitoring. This is a highly visible, high-scrutiny team, central to Citi's ability to demonstrate robust, defensible risk decisioning to regulators, auditors, and internal control functions.

What you will do

As the Head of KYC Technology Risk Engine Development, you will be responsible for driving the team's strategic vision and ensuring flawless execution of its commitments.

• Lead end-to-end software development lifecycle for core KYC risk calculation engines, scoring platforms, and decisioning services.
• Architect and deliver high-throughput, low-latency, fault-tolerant microservices executing multi-factor customer risk algorithms in both real-time (API-driven) and batch modes.
• Design stream-processing architectures to ingest real-time customer data updates, sanctions/Politically Exposed Person (PEP) alerts, and transactional signals for continuous risk scoring.
• Partner with quantitative analysts and data science teams to productionize predictive models and machine learning algorithms (e.g., anomaly detection, behavioral scoring, automated risk tiering).
• Ensure all scoring engines provide full algorithmic explainability, factor-level breakdowns, and deterministic reproducibility to satisfy internal compliance audits and external regulatory inquiries.
• Develop resilient, standardized APIs integrating with Front-Office Onboarding Portals, Relationship Manager (RM) tools, and Case Management systems.
• Build secure, scalable connectors to internal reference databases and external RegTech data sources.
• Ensure a robust reconciliation process is built and maintained for validating the risk model.
• Ensure greater audit capabilities to support evidence on risk changes, meeting Regulatory, Internal Audit, and Operations reporting requirements.
• Manage, mentor, and grow a high-performing engineering team of software engineers, distributed systems developers, data engineers, and QA automation specialists.

What we will ask of you

We are looking for a senior leader with a proven track record of delivering risk-technology transformation within a complex, global financial services environment.

• Extensive experience architecting and delivering distributed, high-throughput systems, ideally within KYC, AML, CDD/EDD, or broader risk-decisioning domains.
• A proven track record of partnering with data science/quant teams to move models from research into production.
• Deep subject matter expertise in stream processing, event-driven architecture, and low-latency service design.
• Demonstrable experience ensuring algorithmic explainability, reconciliation, and audit-readiness to satisfy regulators, auditors, and internal control functions.
• Strong understanding of the KYC/CDD/EDD/AML lifecycle and how risk scoring integrates with onboarding and case management systems.
• Exceptional leadership and collaboration skills, with the ability to inspire engineering talent and build consensus across engineering, data science, risk, and compliance stakeholders.
• A strategic mindset with the judgment to balance innovation against regulatory defensibility and audit rigor.

Required Qualifications & Skills

• You bring 10 or more years of experience leading distributed, high-throughput engineering within KYC, anti-money laundering, or broader risk-decisioning technology.
• You hold proven expertise in KYC technology management and hands-on proficiency with Finargo.
• You have delivered stream-processing and event-driven architectures that support low-latency, real-time service design.
• You have partnered with data science and quantitative teams to move risk and scoring models from research into live production systems.
• You understand the KYC, customer due diligence, enhanced due diligence, and anti-money laundering lifecycle and how risk scoring connects to onboarding and case management systems.
• You have built scoring systems that deliver algorithmic explainability, reconciliation, and audit-readiness for regulators and internal control functions.

Education

Bachelor’s/University degree or equivalent experience, potentially Masters degree and managerial experience.

What we can offer you

This is a highly visible role that will offer you the opportunity to define and deliver the future of KYC risk technology across the whole of Citi. You will be empowered to drive one of the most significant modernization agendas within the institution, developing skills that will accelerate your career.

We work hard to have a positive financial and social impact on the communities we serve. In turn, we put our employees first and provide the best-in-class benefits they need to be well, live well and save well:

• Competitive base salary (annually reviewed) and discretionary annual performance-related bonus
• Comprehensive medical coverage
• 401(k) with Citi match in US locations
• Generous paid time off, increasing with tenure
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Assistance Program
• Access to an array of learning and development resources

Alongside these benefits Citi is committed to ensuring our workplace is where everyone feels comfortable coming to work as their whole self every day. We want the best talent around the world to be energized to join us, motivated to stay, and empowered to thrive.

Sounds like Citi has everything you need? Then apply to discover the true extent of your capabilities.

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Job Family Group:

Technology

Job Family:

Applications Development

Time Type:

Full time

Primary Location:

Jersey City New Jersey United States

Primary Location Full Time Salary Range:

$170,000.00 - $300,000.00

In addition to salary, Citi’s offerings may also include, for eligible employees, discretionary and formulaic incentive and retention awards. Citi offers competitive employee benefits, including: medical, dental & vision coverage; 401(k); life, accident, and disability insurance; and wellness programs. Citi also offers paid time off packages, including planned time off (vacation), unplanned time off (sick leave), and paid holidays. For additional information regarding Citi employee benefits, please visit citibenefits.com. Available offerings may vary by jurisdiction, job level, and date of hire.

Most Relevant Skills

Please see the requirements listed above.

Other Relevant Skills

For complementary skills, please see above and/or contact the recruiter.

Anticipated Posting Close Date:

Nov 05, 2026

Automated Processing and AI

We use automated processing, including artificial intelligence, for our legitimate business interests (or our reasonable and appropriate business purposes) to identify and align the candidate's skills and abilities with a specific job opening. Additionally, if you so choose, or consent, we can match your skills and abilities to other suitable roles at Citi. Importantly, all our hiring processes and decisions, including determining your suitability for a role, are conducted, checked, and decided by individuals. Our automated processing and AI do not involve relying on automatic or autonomous decision-making. Please refer to any Jurisdictional Considerations, with specific provisions for your country (where relevant) for further details. Illinois residents – AI Notice and Right

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