Head of Financial Crime Operations

The Role

You will own and run [Employer hidden]’s Financial Crime Operations, sitting at the heart of how we protect customers while keeping the product fast, accessible, and fair.

This is a hands-on operations leadership role focused on live decisioning, investigations, unblocks, and continuous improvement of in-life controls. You’ll be accountable for how work flows through operations, how quickly cases are resolved, working within the risk framework set by compliance.

You won’t just manage queues - you’ll design, run, and improve an operation that balances fraud prevention, customer experience, and growth in a high-volume, fast-moving environment.

How You'll Contribute

• Own the Operation
• Lead the day-to-day Financial Crime Operations function, overseeing investigations, unblocks, and fraud decisioning for in-life customers.
• Own operational outcomes including time-to-unblock, investigation turnaround, throughput, and decision quality.
• Ensure queues are prioritised effectively and SLAs are consistently met as volumes scale.
• Optimise Controls & Customer Experience
• Continuously assess and improve operational controls to reduce false positives and unnecessary friction.
• Partner with Product and Data to refine rules, unblock logic, and experiments that improve conversion while maintaining risk standards.
• Use operational insight to influence how controls perform in the real world, not just how they’re designed on paper.
• Lead & Develop the Team
• Manage and mentor a team of 20-30 Financial Crime analysts and managers, setting clear expectations and driving high performance.
• Build a culture of ownership, sound judgement, and customer awareness within the operation.
• Coach teams to make consistent, risk-based decisions at scale.
• Use Data to Drive Improvement
• Monitor trends in alerts, unblocks, false positives, and investigation outcomes.
• Translate data into practical operational changes that improve speed, quality, and customer outcomes.
• Build and maintain operational dashboards that surface what matters most.
• Work with Compliance
• Collaborate with Compliance and the MLRO on escalations, SARs, and regulatory matters where required.
• Support audits and reviews by ensuring operations are well-run, documented, and continuously improving.
• Act as the operational voice in discussions around risk, controls, and regulatory expectations.

Who You Are

Impact-Oriented: You thrive in a fast-paced, high-volume environment, balancing fraud prevention, customer experience, and regulatory safety.

Analytical & Process-Focused: You enjoy solving complex problems, improving workflows, and leveraging data to optimise operations.

Leadership-Driven: You are experienced in leading teams, mentoring analysts, and driving high performance.

Collaborative: You communicate effectively with Product, Compliance, and external partners, ensuring alignment across the business.

Curious & Adaptive: You seek opportunities to improve systems, unblock bottlenecks, and scale operations across multiple markets.

What You'll Bring

6+ years’ experience in Fraud or Financial Crime Operations, with at least 3 years in a leadership role.

Strong experience managing live investigations, unblocks, alerts, and decisioning in a fintech or high-volume financial environment.

Proven ability to run and improve operational workflows, SLAs, and performance metrics.

Experience partnering closely with Product, Data, or Engineering teams on control performance and operational improvements.

Solid analytical capability (Excel or similar tools) to assess trends and operational effectiveness.

Experience in payments or fintech is strongly preferred.

The Interview Process

• Chat with a Talent Partner (30 mins)
• Behaviours & Culture Interview (45 mins)
• Case Study (3 days to complete + 1-hour presentation)
• Final Interview (30 mins)