Head of Financial Crime

🛡️ Head of Financial Crime — Global Fintech

🌍 About the Company

We’re partnering with a rapidly scaling international payments company operating across EMEA, LATAM, and APAC , helping global merchants move money seamlessly in some of the world’s most complex markets.

The business processes high‑volume cross‑border transactions and navigates diverse regulatory frameworks across multiple jurisdictions. As the company continues to grow, so does the need for a stronger, more structured Financial Crime function to support expansion, enhance automation, and ensure consistent global standards.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a truly global organisation that is scaling fast, transforming its operations, and investing heavily in compliance innovation. 🚀

🌟 The Opportunity

We’re searching for a hands‑on, commercially minded Head of Financial Crime to serve as the primary day‑to‑day escalation point for the global Financial Crime team.

You’ll bridge strategy and execution—driving operational improvements, ensuring global alignment, and partnering closely with regions and product/tech to modernise financial crime controls.

This role is ideal for someone who has operated in fast‑paced fintech or payments environments and thrives in organisations where agility, adaptability, and cross‑functional collaboration are essential.

📍 Location: Europe or UK (high preference due to time‑zone alignment with LATAM, EMEA, and APAC)

🧭 Reports to: VP of Compliance

👥 Team: 3–5 direct reports (regional FC leads + MLROs)

💼 Key Responsibilities

🔧 Strategy & Framework

• Oversee and evolve the global Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) framework—including AML, CTF, sanctions, CPF, and related risks.
• Drive consistency across regions while allowing for local regulatory adaptation.
• Support the VP of Compliance with strategic planning, governance structures, and risk alignment.

🏗️ Operations & Execution

• Serve as the day‑to‑day escalation point for complex financial crime issues across global teams.
• Ensure alignment between LATAM, EMEA, and APAC on processes, policies, and operational decisions.
• Oversee KYC/CDD/EDD, transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, investigations, and control enhancements.
• Guide regional leads and act as a trusted advisor on merchant escalations and backend operational questions.

🤖 Automation & Technology Enablement

• Lead the financial crime automation roadmap from a project management and oversight perspective.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to define requirements, track progress, and ensure efficient delivery of internal compliance tooling.
• Seek opportunities to reduce manual work, improve detection logic, and enhance scalability.

🏛️ Regulatory & Stakeholder Engagement

• Support regulatory interactions, audits, and partner due‑diligence exercises.
• Ensure strong reporting, management information (MI), and documentation standards.
• Collaborate with Legal, Ops, Commercial, Tech, and Product stakeholders globally.

👥 Leadership

• Manage regional financial crime leads across LATAM, APAC, and EMEA.
• Build capability, improve processes, and develop a cohesive global culture of compliance.
• Champion agility, high ownership, and strong execution across the organisation.

✅ Requirements

Experience

• 7+ years in Financial Crime, AML, FCC, or related roles within fintech, payments, e‑money, PSPs, or high‑volume transactional environments .
• Proven experience operating across multi‑jurisdictional environments.
• Hands‑on expertise with:
• AML/CTF/CPF frameworks
• Corporate KYC/CDD/EDD
• Sanctions controls
• Transaction monitoring & investigations
• SAR/STR reporting

Skills

• Strong understanding of risk‑based FCC principles across diverse markets.
• Analytical mindset with experience improving controls through process optimisation or data‑driven tuning.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, especially in fast‑moving, high‑growth environments.
• Comfortable shifting between strategic thinking and operational problem‑solving.

Bonus

• Experience in scale‑ups or high‑growth fintechs (agile, fast‑paced, constantly evolving environments).
• Spanish language skills (not essential but highly valued).
• Experience managing remote, distributed teams.
• Professional certifications (ACAMS, ICA, etc.).

🎁 Benefits

• Competitive salary + annual performance bonus
• Comprehensive benefits package
• Opportunity to lead and shape a global Financial Crime function
• Work with international teams across three continents
• High-impact role with real ownership and visibility