Director of Financial Crime

A growing, forward-thinking bank based in Manchester is seeking an experienced and commercially astute Director of Financial Crime to lead and evolve its Financial Crime function.

This is a senior leadership opportunity to oversee a well-established team of 30 professionals, with 4–5 direct reports, in a business that is committed to strengthening controls, embracing automation, and leveraging technology to enhance financial crime prevention.

As Director of Financial Crime, you will take full ownership of the end-to-end Financial Crime framework, ensuring robust governance, regulatory compliance, and operational excellence across the full suite of financial crime disciplines.

You will play a key role in modernising and optimising the function - driving automation initiatives, enhancing transaction monitoring capabilities, and exploring AI-driven solutions to improve efficiency, insight and risk mitigation.

This is a highly visible leadership role requiring strong regulatory knowledge, stakeholder engagement skills, and the ability to lead and inspire large operational teams.

• Lead, develop and mentor a Financial Crime team of 30, with 4–5 direct reports.
• Drive performance, accountability and continuous improvement across the function.
• Build strong succession planning and leadership capability within the team.
• Oversee the full financial crime suite including:
• AML
• Transaction Monitoring
• Ensure policies, procedures and controls remain robust, proportionate and aligned to regulatory expectations.
• Drive automation initiatives across financial crime processes to improve efficiency and reduce manual intervention.
• Champion the use of analytics and technology to enhance detection and reporting capabilities.
• Explore and implement AI-led solutions where appropriate (experience in this area highly desirable).

• Act as a senior point of contact for regulators and internal audit.
• Ensure compliance with UK regulatory requirements and evolving financial crime standards.

• Work closely with Risk, Compliance, Operations and Executive leadership.
• Provide clear MI and reporting to senior stakeholders and board‑level committees.

• Significant experience leading Financial Crime functions within a banking environment.
• Deep expertise across KYC, AML, Transaction Monitoring and Financial Crime Analytics.
• Proven experience driving automation within financial crime operations.
• Exposure to AI‑enabled financial crime solutions (highly desirable).
• Strong understanding of UK regulatory expectations.
• A hands‑on, engaging leader with the ability to manage and motivate a sizeable team.

• Opportunity to shape and modernise a key control function.
• Lead a sizeable, established team with strong executive visibility.
• Play a strategic role within a growing and ambitious bank.

If you are a driven Financial Crime leader ready to make a tangible impact within a progressive banking environment, we’d love to hear from you.

Director of Financial Crime - Manchester