Head of Compliance

Head of Compliance & MLRO (SMF
16 & SMF
17)

London (City)

Hybrid (3 days in 2 from home)

A newly-authorised, fast-growing UK specialist retail/lending bank is looking for its next Head of Compliance & MLRO to take full ownership of the second-line compliance and financial crime framework.

This is a genuine build role with Board access. You'll hold both the SMF
16 (Compliance Oversight) and SMF
17 (MLRO) functions and shape the compliance culture of a scaling institution from an early stage.

• The firm-wide compliance monitoring framework, policies and FCA/PRA relationship
• Consumer Duty embedding across mortgage and savings propositions, evidencing good outcomes for a non-standard customer base
• The full AML, CTF, sanctions and fraud framework as Nominated Officer — including a customer base with meaningful cross-border and PEP exposure
• SMCR implementation, financial crime risk assessment, SAR reporting and the annual MLRO report to the Board
• Building and developing the compliance function as the bank grows

• Current or recent FCA/PRA approval as SMF
  16 and/or SMF
  17, with proven retail lending experience (ideally mortgages)
• Strong working knowledge of MCOB, BCOBS, Consumer Duty, SMCR and the financial crime regime (MLRs 2017, POCA, JMLSG, OFSI sanctions)
• A track record of building or maturing compliance in a smaller, growing or newly-authorised firm — balancing rigour with proportionality
• Experience managing higher-risk or cross-border customer exposure is a strong advantage
• A pragmatic, commercial partner to the business who can also hold the line

The autonomy to build a function the right way, a clear social mission, direct Board engagement, and the chance to grow with a bank at the start of its journey.