Financial Crime Operations

Senior Associate - Financial Crime Operations

Location: West London
Job Type: Permanent
Salary: Up to 29,000 per annum
Experience Required: 2-5 years

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Senior Associate - Financial Crime Operations to join a growing Financial Crime team. This is an excellent opportunity for a financial crime professional with experience in a UK regulated financial institution to play a key role in preventing, detecting and investigating financial crime risks.

Reporting to the Manager - Financial Crime Operations , you will support the organisation's Financial Crime framework by helping to prevent, detect, investigate and report financial crime risks. You will work across Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Counter Terrorist Financing (CTF), sanctions compliance, fraud prevention, transaction monitoring, customer due diligence and financial crime investigations, ensuring compliance with UK regulatory requirements, internal policies and industry best practices.

Key Responsibilities

As a Senior Associate, you will be responsible for:

• Investigating transaction monitoring alerts and analysing customer activity to identify suspicious behaviour.
• Reviewing sanctions screening alerts and escalating potential sanctions concerns where appropriate.
• Investigating fraud cases, including APP fraud, mule accounts, identity theft and impersonation.
• Conducting Customer Due Diligence (CDD) and Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) reviews for high-risk and complex customers.
• Preparing detailed financial crime investigation reports and escalating suspicious activity through internal SAR processes.
• Supporting the optimisation and enhancement of transaction monitoring and sanctions screening systems.
• Assisting with regulatory compliance initiatives and ensuring adherence to FCA, JMLSG, OFSI, HM Treasury and internal policy requirements.
• Contributing to risk assessments, audits, governance activities and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Maintaining accurate management information, investigation records and audit trails.
• Coaching junior team members and sharing financial crime knowledge across the wider team.

What We're Looking For

Essential Skills & Experience

• 2-5 years' experience within Financial Crime Operations in a UK regulated financial institution.
• Strong knowledge of UK AML, CTF, sanctions, fraud prevention and financial crime regulations.
• Experience investigating transaction monitoring and sanctions screening alerts.
• Good understanding of Customer Due Diligence (CDD) and Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD).
• Strong analytical and investigative skills with excellent attention to detail.
• Ability to make sound, risk-based decisions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and meet deadlines.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications.

Desirable

• Experience with transaction monitoring and sanctions screening systems.
• Knowledge of payment screening and customer screening processes.
• Experience using core banking platforms such as Finacle and financial crime case management systems.
• Experience supporting system tuning, optimisation or User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
• Professional qualifications such as ACAMS, ICA, AML/KYC or equivalent.

Personal Attributes

We're looking for someone who is:

• Highly ethical with excellent integrity and professionalism.
• Customer-focused while maintaining a strong risk-based approach.
• Self-motivated, resilient and adaptable within a changing regulatory environment.
• A collaborative team player with excellent stakeholder management skills.
• Committed to continuous learning and driving process improvements.

Why Apply?

This is an excellent opportunity to join a collaborative Financial Crime Operations team where you'll play an important role in protecting customers and the organisation from financial crime. You'll work alongside experienced professionals, contribute to regulatory compliance and operational excellence, and continue developing your expertise within a supportive and professional environment.

If you're passionate about financial crime prevention and are looking to take the next step in your career, we'd love to hear from you.