Payments Recruitment Limited
Associate Head of Financial Crime Operations
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Associate Head of Financial Crime Operations
Location: London / Hybrid / 2-3 days in office
Package: circa £100k + bonus & benefits
Job Type: Permanent
Our client is a global fintech operating within payments, issuing, and processing. We enable businesses to deliver secure, seamless, and scalable payment experiences across multiple markets and channels.
Our Financial Crime Operations function sits at the core of our first line of defence. The team is responsible for identifying, investigating, and mitigating financial crime risks including money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, and sanctions breaches across a global payments portfolio. Working at scale and speed, we monitor transactions, investigate complex behavioural patterns, and protect both our customers and the wider financial ecosystem.
The function brings together specialists across transaction monitoring, fraud, AML investigations, data analytics, and operations, working closely with Compliance, Technology, Product, and Commercial teams, as well as external stakeholders including regulators, sponsor banks, and vendors.
The Role:
The Associate Head of Financial Crime Operations will act as the right hand to the Head of Financial Crime Operations, taking ownership of the day-to-day leadership and performance of core financial crime controls globally. This includes primary responsibility for Transaction Monitoring, Sanctions Screening (payments and cardholders), and associated financial crime operational controls.
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This is a highly operational leadership role with a strong focus on AML/CTF transaction monitoring effectiveness, control optimisation, and scalable process delivery. You will also support wider financial crime activities including KYB/KYC onboarding and screening processes where required.
Key Responsibilities:
- Act as deputy to the Head of Financial Crime Operations, providing leadership cover, escalation support, and decision-making authority
- Own the effectiveness, quality, and consistency of global transaction monitoring operations
- Ensure alerts are processed accurately, consistently, and within agreed SLAs, supported by strong QA frameworks
- Lead root cause analysis and remediation of control issues, missed alerts, and operational incidents
- Support regulatory reviews, audits, sponsor bank assessments, and assurance activities
- Drive continuous improvement across financial crime controls, processes, and operational frameworks
- Collaborate with Product and Technology teams to enhance financial crime tooling, including automation, AI, and analytics capabilities
- Oversee effective handoffs and escalation pathways with the Fraud function
- Act as escalation point for complex cases and high-risk investigations
- Develop and maintain key risk indicators (KRIs), MI dashboards, and board-level reporting
- Lead and develop high-performing teams, fostering a culture of accountability, curiosity, and operational excellence
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What You’ll Bring:
- Proven experience leading AML transaction monitoring operations within financial services or payments
- Hands on experience in a 1LOD role, with a background in managing transaction monitoring programmes.
- Strong background managing high-volume alert environments and complex financial crime investigations
- Experience with financial crime tools and platforms, including tuning, optimisation, and performance oversight
- Working knowledge of KYB/KYC and customer onboarding processes
- Strong understanding of global AML, CTF, and sanctions regulations, applied in an operational context
- Experience driving control improvement, remediation, and operational transformation within a first-line environment
- Strong stakeholder management skills across Compliance, Technology, Product, and external partners (including sponsor banks and regulators)
- Commercial awareness of how financial crime controls impact customer experience, scalability, and operational efficiency
- Excellent analytical and written communication skills, with the ability to produce regulator-ready outputs
- Professional certifications such as CAMS, ICA, or equivalent are highly desirable
- Confident delivery within a fast-paced company, able to react to change positively and maintain standards in sometimes ambiguous environments.
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