Global Financial Crimes Technology – AI Transformation Team Lead

Do you want your voice heard and your actions to count?

Discover your opportunity with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of the world’s leading financial groups. Across the globe, we’re 150,000 colleagues, striving to make a difference for every client, organization, and community we serve. We stand for our values, building long-term relationships, serving society, and fostering shared and sustainable growth for a better world.

With a vision to be the world’s most trusted financial group, it’s part of our culture to put people first, listen to new and diverse ideas and collaborate toward greater innovation, speed and agility. This means investing in talent, technologies, and tools that empower you to own your career.

Join MUFG, where being inspired is expected and making a meaningful impact is rewarded.

The selected colleague will work at an MUFG office or client sites four days per week and work remotely one day. A member of our recruitment team will provide more details.

MUFG is seeking an exceptional Director of AI Transformation to lead the strategic development and project execution of AI-powered solutions that will transform financial crimes processes and core compliance operations. This newly created role will report directly to the Global Head of Financial Crimes Compliance Technology and will be responsible for defining the AI transformation roadmap, lead the strategic design, execution, and scaling of artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI, and advanced automation capabilities, and building a high-performing team to drive innovation across the Global Financial Crimes Division. 

The successful candidate will combine deep expertise in AI/ML technologies with substantial financial crimes and compliance experience, enabling them to bridge technical innovation with regulatory requirements and business impact. Operating at the intersection of technology, compliance, and innovation, the Director will drive adoption of AI-enabled operating models, establish scalable delivery patterns, and ensure alignment with MUFG’s AI governance, risk management, and regulatory expectations. This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of compliance technology at one of the world's leading financial institutions. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Leadership & Vision 

• Define and Execute AI Transformation Strategy: Develop and lead the comprehensive AI transformation execution strategy for GFCD, aligning technology innovation with business objectives, regulatory requirements, and risk management priorities. 

• Use Case Prioritization: Leverage the existing framework for identifying, evaluating, and prioritizing AI use cases. Providing feedback and enhancements as needed to ensure alignment with business value, technical feasibility, regulatory compliance, and risk mitigation goals.

• Stakeholder Engagement: Serve as the primary AI strategy advisor to GFCD leadership, presenting transformation roadmaps, progress updates, and ROI analysis to executive stakeholders. 

• Define Success Metrics: Establish clear success metrics and track realized benefits to measure the effectiveness and impact of AI transformation initiatives.

Technical Execution & Innovation 

• AI Agent Development: Lead teams responsible for the design, development, and testing of AI agents and machine learning models tailored to e-communication surveillance, trade surveillance, financial crimes operation, and compliance workflows. 

• Technology Infrastructure: Collaborate with technology teams across MUFG to ensure GFCD has access to the right tools, platforms, cloud environments, and data infrastructure necessary to build, deploy, and scale AI solutions. 

• Innovation Pipeline: Establish repeatable AI delivery patterns to accelerate time-to-value and global scalability

Governance, Risk & Compliance 

• Governance Framework: Refine the comprehensive AI governance framework that defines standards for compliance including, bias detection, explainability, and regulatory compliance. Collaborating with Model Risk Management and Legal to support AI risk assessments and validations

• Guardrails & Controls: Establish clear guardrails and control mechanisms for vetting, approving, and monitoring AI use cases to ensure alignment with regulatory expectations and embed explainability and auditability into AI solutions.

• Regulatory Alignment: Ensure all AI initiatives comply with relevant financial crimes regulations, data privacy requirements, and model risk management standards across multiple jurisdictions. 

Cross-Functional Collaboration 

• Business Unit Partnership: Drive cross-functional collaboration with business units within financial crimes, AML operations, sanctions compliance, fraud detection, and front-line teams to understand requirements and deliver impactful solutions. 

• Technology Team Coordination: Work closely with enterprise data engineering, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and enterprise architecture teams to ensure seamless integration and scalability of AI solutions. 

• Global Collaboration: Partner with MUFG teams across regions, including Japan, to share best practices, align on global standards, and leverage enterprise-wide AI capabilities. 

Team Building & Leadership 

• Team Development: Build and lead a high-performing AI transformation team over time, recruiting top talent in data science, AI/ML engineering, and compliance technology. 

• Talent Development: Mentor and develop team members, fostering a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and excellence. 

• Change Management: Champion AI adoption across GFCD and Core Compliance through change management, training programs, and communication strategies. 

 EDUCATION

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Finance, or related field required. 

• Advanced degree (Master's or PhD) in AI/ML, Data Science, or related technical discipline strongly preferred. 

• Relevant certifications (e.g., CAMS, ACAMS, AWS/Azure AI certifications) are a plus.

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in technology leadership with AI or automation exposure

• Experience leading enterprise-scale transformation in regulated financial institutions

• Strong understanding of financial crimes compliance domains

• Experience successfully building software products as a product manager or product owner within a technology organization in the financial industry

• Experience leading product development in an evolving Agile environment

• Strong understanding of technical concepts and consideration in building complex web applications, systems integration, and comfort in working closely with engineers

• Experience managing product lifecycles from planning to completion

Technical Expertise 

• AI/ML Foundation: Demonstrated hands-on experience with AI/ML technologies, including supervised/unsupervised learning, natural language processing, generative AI, model development, and deployment. 

• Compliance Technology Knowledge: Deep understanding of compliance technologies, including sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, KYC/CDD, fraud detection, markets surveillance, control room, e-communications surveillance, and suspicious activity detection. 

• Technology Acumen: Strong technical background with understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), data architecture, APIs, and enterprise software development lifecycle. 

• Regulatory Awareness: Knowledge of regulatory frameworks governing AI in financial services, model risk management (SR 11-7), and compliance technology requirements. 

Functional Skills

• Strategic Thinking: Proven ability to develop and execute transformational strategies that deliver measurable business outcomes. 

• Executive Presence: Strong communication and presentation skills with ability to influence senior executives and cross-functional stakeholders. 

• Collaboration: Exceptional interpersonal skills with track record of building partnerships across technology, business, risk, and compliance functions. 

• Change Leadership: Experience leading organizational change, driving adoption of new technologies, and managing resistance. 

• Problem-Solving: Analytical mindset with ability to navigate complex challenges, balance competing priorities, and drive solutions. 

The typical base pay range for this role is $166,000 to $229,000 depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience and location. This role may also be eligible for certain discretionary performance-based bonus and/or incentive compensation. Additionally, our Total Rewards program provides colleagues with a competitive benefits package (in accordance with the eligibility requirements and respective terms of each) that includes comprehensive health and wellness benefits, retirement plans, educational assistance and training programs, income replacement for qualified employees with disabilities, paid maternity and parental bonding leave, and paid vacation, sick days, and holidays. For more information on our Total Rewards package, please click the link below.

MUFG Benefits Summary

We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws (including (i) the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, (ii) the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, (iii) the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, and (iv) the California Fair Chance Act) to the extent that (a) an applicant is not subject to a statutory disqualification pursuant to Section 3(a)(39) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 or Section 8a(2) or 8a(3) of the Commodity Exchange Act, and (b) they do not conflict with the background screening requirements of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the National Futures Association (NFA). The major responsibilities listed above are the material job duties of this role for which the Company reasonably believes that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship potentially resulting in the withdrawal of conditional offer of employment, if any.The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed. They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities duties and skills required of personnel so classified.We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and committed to leveraging the diverse backgrounds, perspectives and experience of our workforce to create opportunities for our colleagues and our business. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, gender expression, gender identity, sex, age, ancestry, marital status, protected veteran and military status, disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, genetic information, or any other status of an individual or that individual’s associates or relatives that is protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.