Inside TRM's Global Investigations Team

I served as a Special Agent at IRS-Criminal Investigation for over a decade. During that time I worked with some of the most extraordinary investigators and prosecutors in the world. When I left IRS, I was looking for an opportunity to continue that mission, scale that work, and do it with great people. I found this in TRM Labs' global investigations team.

For me, career satisfaction has always come down to two things: the mission and the people.

Our team comprises investigators from diverse backgrounds and mission sets, operating across North America, Europe, APAC, and LATAM. We work with organizations on their most important and complex crypto-enabled investigations, spanning threats from nation-state actors and darknet markets to fraud, ransomware, CSAM, and market manipulation.

Everyone on the team brings deep, hands-on crypto tracing experience. Many have built or led their agency's crypto methodologies. TRM is where the best come to get better and where each new member raises the bar.

This is a look at who we are, how we operate, and what it's actually like to do this work.

What the global investigations team actually does

TRM is a blockchain intelligence company that combines blockchain data, threat intelligence, OSINT, and advanced analytics to link cryptocurrency activity to illicit activity. Our team applies this data and TRM tooling to support and disrupt real-world cases.

Day to day, we:

• Support investigations end-to-end, from initial leads through complex tracing, to expert testimony.
• Drive real-world outcomes, including victim rescues, asset seizures, arrests, prosecutions, and infrastructure disruption.
• Deliver strategic intelligence at the country, sector, and threat level to help agencies prioritize threats and allocate resources.

We do this using TRM's tools, including TRM Triage, Chainabuse's 1.2 million victim reports, Co-Case Agent™ (TRM's investigative AI assistant), and Graph Visualizer (which maps thousands of transactions across 45+ blockchains and 200M+ assets in real time).

The work is fast, complex, and demanding. But the wins are hugely rewarding.

Who's on the team

Our team is intentionally international, made up of expert crypto tracers who also understand how crypto fits into broader investigations — because they've all lived it.

The global investigations team includes former agents and analysts from:

• IRS-CI, FBI, HSI, US Secret Service, DEA, DoD, DOJ, and the intelligence community
• National crime and cyber units, including the UK's National Crime Agency, Korean National Police Agency, Australian Federal Police, Brazilian Federal Police, Israel Police, Singapore Police Force, Europol, and others

Many have led or contributed to landmark cryptocurrency investigations, from major exchange hacks and national security threats to kidnapping and child exploitation cases. Team members have also trained investigators at institutions like FLETC, Quantico, NCFI, and DOJ's National Advocacy Center.

If you join this team, you're not just "moving to the private sector." You're joining a mission-driven, international unit.

How we work with the public sector

Most of our work supports government agencies on their highest-priority investigations that can have precedent-setting outcomes. In short, when something happens on-chain, we look to solve: what happened, where the funds went, and who is responsible.

A typical engagement might include:

• Agency reach-out: Agencies come to us with anything from a full case file to a single address pulled from a victim report or handwritten on a piece of paper found during an arrest.
• Lead development: We also identify illicit activity and leverage our expansive professional networks to route leads to the agency best positioned to act.
• Tracing on-chain assets: "Following the money" is the crux of what we do. We trace funds around the world across blockchains, through bridges and mixers, to off-ramps and services that investigators can work with to seize assets and identify controllers.
• On-site support: Some members of the team sit on-site and in the bullpens with clients as members of the team working together on the mission.
• Capacity building: In parallel, we equip partners to run blockchain investigations independently through TRM Academy, hands-on workshops, and threat-focused sprints, so every case leaves them stronger than before.

Done well, this work both closes cases and strengthens how agencies handle crypto investigations going forward.

Why this work is hard

We're deliberate about talking about the challenges of the work and moving at TRM speed.

Some realities:

• The problem space moves fast. New protocols, services, and laundering techniques appear constantly. In crypto, the goalposts are always moving, which is part of what makes the work so compelling.
• Most cases are cross-border. Threat actors intentionally move across jurisdictions, time zones, and legal systems. Coordination through TRM Deconflict and the Beacon Network is critical to avoid disrupting active investigations and enable effective collaboration.
• Speed and rigor both matter. When a major exchange is hacked or a ransomware group cashes out, timing matters. Work can happen in hours, not weeks, but the analysis still needs to stand up in court.
• We're pro-innovation. Where government offers access and authority, we bring adaptability and speed. We challenge our team to leverage AI and other tools to develop more efficient investigative methodologies.

If that resonates, you may be a good fit for this team.

What we look for

We hire experienced investigators with a proven track record and an inherently inquisitive mindset. People who see something and feel compelled to figure it out, pushing past roadblocks when initial approaches don't work.

At a minimum:

• You have led complex on-chain investigations end-to-end.
• You are comfortable tracing across chains and obfuscation techniques.
• You can articulate your findings clearly, in writing and verbally, for varied audiences.

Strong investigators also tend to be:

• Impact-oriented: Comfortable operating in ambiguous environments and able to adjust quickly toward a defined goal.
• Master craftspeople: Caring deeply about the quality, structure, and defensibility of their work.
• Inspiring colleagues: Raising the bar for others by sharing lessons learned and collaborating on new ones.
• Humble: Perhaps most importantly, the most successful global investigators exhibit the ability to say, "I don't know." Credibility matters in investigations, and no one knows everything. Stepping back and admitting gaps in your knowledge could unlock the next lead.

Backgrounds vary, but often include experience working in law enforcement, national security, or private sector crypto investigations. Titles matter less than how you think and operate.

What you can expect

TRM is a fully remote company. You will work alongside lawyers, sales and marketing professionals, engineers, and data scientists with deep experience from leading companies and institutions. TRM may be remote-first, but our people are highly connected and collaborative, not siloed in their functions.

Culture at TRM is intentional and shapes how we approach our work. We value direct, constructive feedback to help each other improve — while never putting others down to lift oneself up. Clear communication, high ownership, and a willingness to fail and learn are essential.

While the company is distributed, we invest in bringing people together through regular in-person offsites and team gatherings.

And while you may spend much of your time supporting a specific partner, you are not tied to a single engagement. You are part of TRM first.

If you're considering this path

If you're leaving government service, you may miss parts of your old role. Being a public servant is a truly humbling and rewarding career.

At TRM, you'll apply those same skills in a different environment. You'll help build cases, support partners, and contribute to a team working on some of the most complex investigations in crypto today. You will also work alongside experts across disciplines and geographies in ways that are rarely possible in government roles.

If this type of work resonates with you, explore our open roles on the TRM careers page.