Posted: June 26, 2026
Director, FC Analytics & Model Validation - Sun Life, Toronto is listed at Sun Life in Toronto, ON. The Beaver Board aggregates this opening from the employer's career page — apply using the button below to reach the official application. Browse more jobs at Sun Life.
Sun Life in Toronto, Ontario is seeking a Director, Financial Crime Analytics & Model Validation. This enterprise leadership role involves defining strategy, governance, and independent validation for financial crime models. Key responsibilities include ensuring models are risk-based, effective, and compliant with regulatory expectations. Candidates need over a decade of experience in financial crime analytics or model validation, with strong data and analytics skills.
As the Director, Financial Crime Analytics & Model Validation at Sun Life, you will be an enterprise leader responsible for the comprehensive strategy, robust governance, and independent validation of critical financial crime models. This includes essential systems such as Name Screening, Transaction Monitoring, and Client Risk Rating models. Your primary objective will be to ensure these models are inherently risk-based, demonstrably effective, and fully audit-defensible, aligning seamlessly with stringent regulatory expectations from bodies like OSFI, FINTRAC, and OFAC/OFSI, as well as the firm’s defined risk appetite. This pivotal role involves leading the independent validation across all financial crime detection models, assessing their conceptual soundness, data integrity, and underlying assumptions. You will execute advanced validation techniques, including back-testing, sensitivity analysis, and benchmarking, while meticulously evaluating key performance metrics such as false positives and alert conversion rates. Furthermore, you will lead ongoing model calibration to reflect evolving financial crime risks, optimizing thresholds to achieve an optimal balance between detection effectiveness and operational efficiency.
A significant aspect of this role involves establishing comprehensive model performance monitoring frameworks, complete with key performance indicators (KPIs) and key risk indicators (KRIs), to proactively identify model drift, data issues, and emerging risk typologies. You will oversee all aspects of data sourcing, lineage, and controls supporting financial crime models, defining and enforcing rigorous data quality standards for accuracy, completeness, and timeliness. Leveraging advanced analytics, you will identify model gaps and emerging risks, ensuring end-to-end traceability from raw data to final model outputs. This position also requires acting as the primary lead for all regulatory and audit interactions concerning financial crime models, providing expert subject matter expertise on model validation practices and supporting regulatory exams and remediation initiatives. Strategically, you will define and evolve the financial crime model validation strategy and governance framework, leading the roadmap for analytics and model validation capabilities. Your leadership will drive enterprise alignment across various regions and stakeholders, fostering a culture of independence, challenge, and continuous improvement within the financial risk landscape.
To excel in this Director role, candidates must possess a minimum of 10 years of experience in financial crime analytics, model validation, or broader model risk management. Expertise across transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, and client risk scoring models is essential. A deep understanding of advanced statistical techniques, comprehensive model validation methodologies, and critical performance metrics is required, alongside profound knowledge of regulatory expectations and audit defensibility. Practical, hands-on experience of at least five years with screening and transaction monitoring systems such as Actimize, NetReveal, or Firco is crucial. Proficiency in leading analytics tools, including Python, R, SQL, and SAS, is expected, coupled with strong data governance and data quality knowledge. The ability to clearly communicate complex models and their validation processes to senior executives and regulatory bodies is paramount, demonstrating strong judgment, stakeholder management, and influencing skills. An advanced degree in a quantitative discipline and experience within large, global financial institutions are preferred assets for this challenging and rewarding position.
