AFC Lead - Risk Identification and Controls in Edinburgh

At Aberdeen, our ambition is to be the UK’s leading Wealth & Investments group. Strengthening talent and culture is one of our strategic priorities. We strive to make Aberdeen a great place to work so that we can attract and retain the industry’s best talent. Our people put our stakeholders at the heart of everything they do by helping us to make a positive difference to the lives of our clients, customers, colleagues, shareholders, and society.

We are focused on growing our direct and advised wealth platforms and repositioning our specialist asset management business to meet client demand. We are committed to providing excellent client service, supported by leading technology and talent.

The Anti‑Financial Crime (AFC) function sits within Risk & Compliance and plays a critical role in protecting the organisation, its clients, and broader financial markets. The team partners closely with the business and corporate functions to identify, assess, and manage financial crime risk, ensuring robust governance, regulatory compliance, and effective controls across all jurisdictions in which Aberdeen operates.

The Anti‑Financial Crime Lead – Risk Identification & Control is responsible for shaping and executing the organisation’s approach to risk identification, investigations, and control within the Global AFC function. This role includes acting as the UK Nominated Officer, coordinating financial crime investigations, designing and overseeing the Financial Crime Enterprise‑Wide Risk Assessment (EWRA) methodology, and managing key systems owned by the second line of defence.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, implement, and maintain the AFC Enterprise‑Wide Risk Assessment framework, ensuring it remains effective and aligned to regulatory expectations.
• Lead the annual EWRA process, including planning, stakeholder engagement, analysis, reporting, and presentation to senior management and governance committees.
• Oversee the operation and compliance of AFC‑owned systems within the second line of defence.
• Manage system enhancements, user access controls, and data integrity to support effective risk identification and control.
• Own and lead financial crime investigations, ensuring timely, thorough, and compliant outcomes.
• Act as the UK Nominated Officer, providing oversight of suspicious activity reporting and managing the end‑to‑end reporting lifecycle.
• Provide expert advisory support on financial crime risk identification and control, including maintenance of AFC risk methodologies and country risk assessments.
• Design and deliver targeted training to promote best practice and address capability gaps.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including regulators and auditors.
• Manage and develop a team of two professionals, providing clear objectives, coaching, and performance management.

The ideal candidate will possess the following:

• Extensive experience in anti‑financial crime, risk management, and regulatory compliance.
• Proven expertise in leading Financial Crime Enterprise‑Wide Risk Assessments.
• Strong experience designing and embedding financial crime risk and control frameworks.
• Demonstrated capability in leading investigations and managing suspicious activity reporting.
• Experience managing risk and control systems with a strong focus on governance and data quality.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to translate complex risk information into actionable insight.
• Proven leadership capability, with experience developing teams and influencing senior stakeholders.
• Excellent communication skills, including engagement with regulators and auditors.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer. If you have a disability and would like to apply to one of our UK roles under the Disability Confident Scheme, please notify us by completing the relevant section in our candidate questionnaire. One of our team will reach out to support you through your application process.

There’s more to working life than coming home with a good salary. We have an environment where you can learn, get involved and be supported. When you join us, your reward will be one of the best around. This includes 40 days’ annual leave, a 16% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance‑based bonus (where applicable), private healthcare and a range of flexible benefits – including gym discounts, season ticket loans and access to an employee discount portal.

Whatever way you like to work, if you have the talent and commitment to join our team, we’d like to hear from you. At Aberdeen we’ve adopted a ‘blended working’ approach. This approach combines the benefits of face‑to‑face collaboration, coaching and connecting in our offices with the flexibility of working from home. It enables colleagues to find a balance that works for their roles, their teams, our clients and our business.

An inclusive culture, where diverse perspectives drive our actions, is at the core of who we are and what we do. If you need assistance with your application, or a reasonable adjustment to your interview arrangements – for example, because you are neurodivergent, or have a physical, sensory, cognitive, mental, visible or invisible disability – please let us know and we’ll be happy to help.

We’re committed to providing an inclusive workplace where all forms of difference are valued and which is free from any form of unfair or unlawful treatment. We define diversity in its broadest sense – this includes but is not limited to our diversity of educational and professional backgrounds, experience, cognitive and neurodiversity, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief and ethnicity and geographical provenance. We support a culture that values meritocracy, fairness and transparency and welcomes enquiries from everyone.