VP of Financial Crime

We are a leading trading platform that is ambitiously expanding to the four corners of the globe. Our top-rated products have won prestigious industry awards for their cutting-edge technology and seamless client experience. We deliver only the best, so we are always in search of the best people to join our ever-growing talented team. is expanding into new products, payment methods and jurisdictions, and our financial crime controls need to stay ahead of that growth. As **VP, Financial Crime**, you will own first-line financial crime across the business, from how investigations run day to day to the systems and controls behind them. You will lead two senior direct reports: the Head of Financial Crime Operations, who runs our investigations and casework, and the Head of Financial Crime Product, who owns the systems and controls the function relies on. Together you will cover the full customer lifecycle: onboarding, customer due diligence, risk assessment, screening, fraud, transaction monitoring, investigations and offboarding. You will set the strategy, shape the leadership team and give senior stakeholders a clear view of how well our controls are working. This is a senior role with a clear mandate and real scope: build a financial crime function ready for a much larger, more complex business. This is a new position based in **Dubai or London**, reporting directly to the Group Chief Operating Officer ### Responsibilities - Set the first-line financial crime strategy and delivery plan. Shape the organisation, capacity and delivery model as the business grows, and track whether investment delivers the intended control and operational improvements. - Build and lead the financial crime leadership team across Operations and Product. Develop managers, set clear accountability, align priorities and resolve delivery dependencies. - Own the effectiveness of first-line controls across your remit. Work with Compliance and entity leadership to identify gaps, agree improvements and show that the changes address the underlying risk. - Oversee operational performance, balancing investigation quality, timely decisions, customer experience and cost. Step in where recurring problems call for a change to the operating model or technology. - et priorities for financial crime technology. Guide build-or-buy decisions using evidence of risk reduction, customer impact, delivery effort and ongoing cost. - Prepare the function for new products and jurisdictions. Define the controls, systems and operational capacity each launch needs, and bring unresolved risks and readiness gaps into launch decisions. - Lead the use of automation and AI where they improve outcomes, with proper testing, human oversight, ongoing evaluation and clear ownership of decisions and performance. - Give senior leaders a clear view of control effectiveness, performance, material issues and the decisions required. Support audits and regulatory reviews, and lead the operational response to material issues with Compliance and local leadership ### Requirements - A track record of leading first-line financial crime (fraud, AML, sanctions) at a fintech, neobank or bank operating at scale across several jurisdictions. - Hands-on experience building financial crime controls and products from an early stage, covering deposits, withdrawals and the wider payments lifecycle. - Experience leading leaders: managing managers across operational and product or technical teams, with clear accountability and measurable results. - A strong grasp of operational performance management, including backlogs, SLAs, quality assurance, capacity planning and cost, and of how these trade off against customer experience. - Experience setting financial crime technology priorities and making build-or-buy decisions based on risk reduction, cost and delivery effort. - Sound judgement across AML, sanctions and fraud, including how policy and risk appetite translate into workable first-line controls, and a clear view of where Compliance's and the regulated entities' accountabilities begin. - A practical, well-governed approach to automation and AI in financial crime operations, including model testing, human oversight and performance monitoring. - Experience preparing for new product or market launches, working with Compliance, Product and local leadership to define readiness and surface risk.Confidence presenting to executive leadership and supporting regulatory reviews and audits, with clear, evidence-based reporting on control effectiveness and material issues. - Nice to have: ICA or CAMS, exposure to online trading or digital assets