Head of Financial Crime Operations

Role Purpose

As the Head of Financial Crime Operations, you will own the financial crime function end-to-end: its strategy, its delivery, and the operational model that underpins it. Reporting to the Director of Complaints, Fraud and Financial Crime, and with the Financial Crime Manager reporting directly to you, you will manage a team of 15 people with varying levels of experience, setting the direction of the function while ensuring day-to-day operations run with the resilience and consistency the business requires.

A central part of this role is making the financial crime framework legible to people who are not immersed in it day to day. You will take complex regulatory obligations, risk appetite decisions, and operational data and translate them into reporting and insight that is genuinely useful to senior leadership, Product Managing Directors, and the Board. That means understanding what the data is saying, knowing what matters, and communicating it with precision - and using that data actively to drive the function forward, not just to report on it.

You will drive the continuous improvement agenda across the function: refining processes, strengthening operational resilience, and ensuring how the team works scales with business growth and the evolving regulatory environment. This is a role for someone who can hold the strategic view and the operational detail at the same time, and who knows when to act on each.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy, Planning and Execution

- Own the Financial Crime Operations strategy end-to-end: develop the annual plan, set clear priorities, manage delivery against it, and make adjustments as the regulatory environment or business needs shift.

- Translate the financial crime control framework into an operational model that is well-understood, consistently applied, and capable of evolving without losing integrity.

- Act as the primary voice of Financial Crime Operations working closely with the Second Line Financial Crime Risk Department, Deputy and MLRO, presenting the function's performance, and strategic direction in a way that supports informed decision-making.

- Provide senior management with clear, concise analysis of financial crime risk, moving beyond activity reporting to give genuine insight into what the data means and what action it warrants.

- Work closely with the MLRO and other senior stakeholders to ensure the financial crime strategy remains aligned to the firm's overall risk appetite and growth objectives.

Operational Resilience and Excellence

- Maintain a financial crime operations function that is operationally sound: clear ownership, reliable processes, and the capacity to absorb regulatory change, volume spikes, or incidents without material degradation in quality.

- Set and hold the standard for investigative quality, SAR output, transaction monitoring, and sanctions screening across the function.

-Build and maintain resilience plans for the function, ensuring critical controls remain effective under stress and that the business can demonstrate operational continuity to regulators when required.

- Hold accountability for all escalated matters that require senior judgement or external engagement, including regulatory interactions and enforcement-adjacent situations.

- Ensure the function's governance and MI framework gives senior management and the Board genuine visibility of the control environment, with emerging risks surfaced early and clearly.

Process Optimisation and Transformation

- Lead the function's improvement agenda: identify where processes can be fundamentally redesigned rather than incrementally adjusted, and drive those changes through to completion.

- Oversee the adoption of automation, analytics, and technology across financial crime operations, working closely with both Products and Ops Product teams to ensure initiatives are prioritised by impact and embedded in a way that is sustainable.

- Set the framework for root cause analysis on incidents and thematic issues, ensuring remediation is robust and addresses underlying causes rather than symptoms.

- Build a culture where process improvement is an expectation at every level of the function, not a periodic exercise.

Operational Metrics, Productivity and Efficiency

- Define and own the function's operational metrics framework: set clear targets for case throughput, SLA adherence, SAR timeliness, and investigation quality, and hold the team accountable for performance against them.

- Use MI and management reporting to identify where productivity is being lost, whether through process friction, resourcing gaps, or tool limitations, and drive targeted action to address it.

- Ensure the function produces regular, meaningful performance reporting for the Director of Complaints, Fraud and Financial Crime, covering output volumes, quality trends, SLA performance, and capacity utilisation.

- Lead a programme of efficiency improvement across the function: map current-state processes, identify waste and duplication, and deliver measurable improvements in how the team spends its time.

- Build the business case for investment in tooling, automation, or headcount where operational data demonstrates the need, and track return on investment once changes are made.

- Ensure capacity planning is forward-looking, anticipating the impact of business growth, regulatory change, and seasonal volume shifts before they affect performance.

Governance, Risk and Regulatory Engagement

- Own the financial crime policies and procedures framework, ensuring they remain current, proportionate, and fit for purpose as the business grows and the regulatory environment evolves.

- Represent the business in regulatory dialogue, audit processes, and industry forums, acting as the authoritative voice on the firm's financial crime risk and controls.

- Contribute to enterprise risk forums and governance committees, bringing the financial crime perspective into broader business decision-making.

- Maintain oversight of all regulatory reporting obligations within the function, ensuring submissions are accurate, timely, and defensible.

Leadership and People Development

- Lead, develop, and hold accountability for the Financial Crime Manager and through them the wider operations team.

- Build the capability and capacity of the function to meet its current obligations and the demands the business will place on it over the medium term.

- Set the culture of the function: high standards, clear accountability, and a genuine commitment to continuous improvement.

- Partner with People and Talent to develop succession plans and ensure the function has the depth of capability it needs to remain effective under change.

Person Specification

Experience and Skills

- Substantial experience leading a financial crime operations function, or a significant part of one, within a regulated financial services environment.

- A track record of owning and delivering financial crime strategy, including planning, execution, and course-correction, not just contributing to it.

- Demonstrated ability to translate complex regulatory frameworks and operational data into clear, well-structured reporting for C Suite, Board, and regulatory audiences.

- Strong working knowledge of the UK financial crime regulatory environment: AML, sanctions, fraud, PEPs, POCA, and counter-terrorist financing.

- Experience managing material change in a financial crime context, whether regulatory-driven, technology-driven, or driven by business growth.

- Proven track record managing senior stakeholders and influencing at C suite level.

- Experience as a named individual or equivalent in dealings with the FCA or NCA is advantageous.

Behaviours and Approach

- Strategically minded, with the discipline to translate strategy into delivery and hold the function accountable for results.

- Clear and confident communicator, able to make complex subjects accessible to non-specialist audiences without losing rigour.

- Calm under pressure, with sound judgement on when to escalate, when to act, and when to push back.

- Solutions-focused and comfortable with ambiguity, able to navigate uncertainty without losing sight of the function's obligations.

- High standards of personal accountability and a consistent instinct to ask what could be done better, not only what is being done.

- Inclusive and supportive leader, building trust and resilience across the team while maintaining high expectations.

Working Hours

40 hours per week, Monday to Friday—typically 9am to 6pm, with a one-hour lunch break.

3 days a week in office - Hybrid (London)

Interview Process

Screening Call

Cognitive Assessment

Case Interview followed by Manager interview

COO Interview (Culture)