Sanjay Virmani to lead FBI counterterrorism division in DC

Sanjay Virmani, a senior Indian American FBI official, has been named the special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Counterterrorism Division of the Washington Field Office by Director Christopher Wray.

He most recently served as deputy assistant director in the Counterterrorism Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC, according to an FBI press release.

Virmani joined the FBI as a special agent in 2003 and was assigned to the San Francisco Field Office where he worked on cyber and counterterrorism matters. In 2007, he was promoted to supervisory special agent in the Counterterrorism Division.

In 2010, he was selected as the supervisory special agent to lead the San Francisco Field Office’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in the Oakland Resident Agency. In that role, he led a squad of agents, analysts, and task force officers working on international terrorism investigations.

In 2013, Virmani was selected to serve as Director of the INTERPOL Digital Crime Center at the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation in Singapore. In this role, he led the directorate in providing operational support to INTERPOL’s 190 member countries to address cybercrime threats.

In 2016, Virmani returned to FBI Headquarters as a unit chief of the Cyberterrorism unit, which was focused on identifying, obtaining intelligence on, and disrupting cyberterrorists and their networks globally.

READ: Shohini Sinha named chief of FBI Salt Lake City Field Office (August 9, 2023)

In 2018, he was promoted to assistant section chief of the Counterterrorism Division’s Internet Operations Section, where he worked to foster partnerships within the US intelligence community and with international partners.

In 2018, he also returned to the San Francisco Field Office as the supervisory special agent of the Private Sector Engagement squad, then was promoted to assistant special agent in charge over the Cyber Branch.

In 2021, Virmani returned to the Counterterrorism Division as section chief of the Strategic Partner Engagement Section, where he oversaw the FBI’s liaison efforts with the law enforcement community, US interagency, and private sector partners on counterterrorism-related matters.

In 2022, he served as the acting special agent in charge of the Tampa Field Office. In 2022, he was also promoted to deputy assistant director in the Counterterrorism Division.

READ: Indian American Rashad Hussain appointed by the White House to key counter-terrorism role (February 19, 2015)

He earned a bachelor’s in industrial engineering from California State Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo and received a master’s in business administration from the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, California.