Sanctions Compliance Officer

This position is located at Departmental Offices, Terrorism and Financial Intelligence – Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). As a Sanctions Compliance Officer, you will be responsible for monitoring operations and transactions of financial institutions, corporations, and other entities to ensure compliance with appropriate OFAC regulations. The position serves as a professional resource on issues related to U.S. economic sanctions and plays an integral role in sanctions compliance.

The education generally must be from an accredited (or pre-accredited) college or university recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. If you are qualifying based on foreign education, you must submit proof of creditability of education as evaluated by a credentialing agency. Refer to the OPM instructions.

The following are the duties of this position at the GS-13. If you are selected at a lower grade level, you will have the opportunity to learn to perform all these duties, and will receive training to help you grow in this position.

As a Sanctions Compliance Officer, you will:

• Plan and develop monitoring procedures and priorities on an ongoing basis, and make recommendations for new initiatives and amendments to OFAC’s compliance review program.
• Perform complex and high profile compliance reviews and investigations, which increase the effectiveness of the program and may result in the development and implementation of policies.
• Provide expert technical advice, guidance and recommendations to agency management on compliance reviews and procedures.
• Develop new approaches in response to identified weaknesses and vulnerabilities in ongoing compliance operations.
• Use personal initiative to develop criteria for compliance reviews, where methods are subject to changing legal admissibility.

You must meet the following requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: For the GS-13, you must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-12 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized Experience for this position includes all of the following:

• Working in a position that deals with analysis of regulations and related laws concerning economic sanctions and trade controls or other economic measures to advance national security, such as export control or foreign investment regulations; AND
• Working in a position that requires knowledge of banking, securities, or other financial and commercial transactions such as international banking, trade finance or securities transactions; AND
• Working in a position that requires excellent oral and written communication skills and interpersonal relations practices; AND
• Experience in utilizing database languages, such as SQL, to extract and manipulate data from a relational database, applying advanced analytical methods such as Python libraries, R, or Stata, and using visualization tools like Power BI or Tableau to present findings.

*Examples of where this type of experience could be obtained but is not limited to, a think tank, a federal government agency or banking regulator, a financial institution, a corporate entity, an academic institution, or a non-governmental organization.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: For the GS-12, you must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-11 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized Experience for this position includes all of the following:

• Experience with U.S. economic sanctions and embargo programs or other economic measures to advance national security, such as export control or foreign investment regulations; AND
• Experience with the international financial system, such as knowledge of banking, securities, or other financial and commercial transactions such as insurance or securities; AND
• Experience in using advanced statistical analysis tools in spreadsheet software to manually review data for trends and anomalies, and perform basic statistical functions within the spreadsheet software.

* Examples of where this type of experience could be obtained but is not limited to, a think tank, a federal government agency or banking regulator, a financial institution, a corporate entity, an academic institution, or a non-governmental organization.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: For the GS-11, you must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-9 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized Experience for this position includes all of the following:

• Experience relating to U.S. economic sanctions, embargo, anti-money-laundering programs, or other economic measures to advance national security such as export control or foreign investment regulations. such as terrorist financing or weapons proliferation issues. This may include but is not limited to applying the regulations surrounding evaluating transactions for compliance with sanctions regulations; AND
• Experience with issues related to the international financial system, such as international payments, international banking, or international investment issues; AND
• Experience in using basic spreadsheet software to manually review data for trends and anomalies, and perform basic statistical functions within the spreadsheet software.

OR EDUCATION: You may substitute education for general or specialized experience as follows:

• Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree in a field related to the position; OR
• 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree; OR
• LL.M., if related to the position.

OR COMBINATION OF EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION: You may qualify by a combination of experience and education. Options for qualifying based on a combination will be identified in the online questions.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: For the GS-9, you must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the GS-7 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized Experience for this position includes the following:

• Experience relating to illicit finance issues or other economic measures to advance national security, including sanctions, trade embargos, export controls, anti-money laundering, or foreign investment regulations.

OR EDUCATION: You may substitute education for general or specialized experience as follows:

• Master’s or equivalent graduate degree in a field related to the position; OR
• 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree; OR
• LL.B. or J.D., if related to the position.

OR COMBINATION OF EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION: You may qualify by a combination of experience and education. Options for qualifying based on a combination will be identified in the online questions.

The experience may have been gained in either the public, private sector or volunteer service. One year of experience refers to full-time work; part-time work is considered on a prorated basis. To ensure full credit for your work experience, please indicate dates of employment by month/day/year, and indicate number of hours worked per week on your resumé.