Architect Lead - Financial Crime

Financial Crime Architecture Lead

Location: London (Hybrid)
Employment Type: Permanent

We're seeking an experienced Financial Crime Architecture Lead to define and drive the target-state architecture for a major financial services organisation undergoing significant transformation.

This is a strategic leadership role focused on creating a modern, integrated financial crime technology ecosystem spanning client onboarding, screening, transaction monitoring, client risk management, workflow orchestration, data platforms and AI-enabled capabilities.

You will work closely with senior stakeholders across Technology, Risk, Compliance, Data and Operations to deliver a scalable, resilient and future-ready architecture that enhances regulatory compliance while improving operational efficiency.

• Own the end-to-end architecture strategy for financial crime technology capabilities.
• Design and implement a unified architecture covering data, workflow, decisioning and user experience layers.
• Lead architecture assessments and platform rationalisation initiatives across multiple enterprise applications.
• Define integration patterns, API standards, event-driven architectures and data governance frameworks.
• Shape AI-enabled financial crime capabilities including alert optimisation, case investigation support and anomaly detection.
• Establish architecture guardrails covering security, resilience, auditability, regulatory traceability and model governance.
• Influence vendor selection and platform strategy through architecture leadership and technical due diligence.
• Drive alignment between business priorities, regulatory obligations and enterprise technology strategy.
• Act as the senior architecture authority within governance and transformation programmes.

• Significant architecture leadership experience within regulated financial services environments.
• Strong understanding of Financial Crime domains including:
  • Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
  • Sanctions Screening
  • PEP & Adverse Media Screening
  • Client Risk Rating
  • Transaction Monitoring
  • Case Management & Alert Triage
• Expertise in enterprise architecture, solution architecture and platform transformation.
• Experience designing complex integrations using REST APIs, event-driven patterns and modern cloud technologies.
• Strong knowledge of CRM, workflow and data platform architectures.
• Ability to engage and influence senior stakeholders across technology and business functions.
• Experience balancing strategic architectural direction with incremental agile delivery.

We are particularly interested in candidates with experience across:

• Enterprise data platforms and analytics environments
• Cloud-native architecture and security design
• API-led and event-driven integration patterns
• Data governance, lineage and quality frameworks
• Dev Sec Ops  and modern engineering practices
• Python-enabled automation and analytics solutions
• AI, Machine Learning and Generative AI architecture
• Responsible AI, explainability and model governance controls

This is a rare opportunity to play a pivotal role in defining the long-term financial crime technology strategy for a complex financial services organisation. You'll influence enterprise-wide architecture decisions, help shape AI-enabled capabilities, and create a platform foundation that supports future regulatory and business growth.

Location: London (Hybrid Working)
Type: Permanent Salary: Competitive + Benefits + Bonus

If you receive suspicious outreach claiming to be from us, please contact us via the Manpower Group website.