Head of Detection & Decisioning in Stretford

Location: Hybrid, Manchester

Salary: £70,000 to £90,000 DOE

Our client is looking for an experienced Head of Detection & Decisioning to lead the development of a brand-new function at the heart of their Financial Crime operation. This is a rare opportunity to shape how fraud and financial crime are detected across a growing fintech business. You'll take ownership of detection strategies, transaction monitoring, rules engines and machine learning driven decisioning, helping to protect customers while ensuring the business remains compliant with UK regulations.

If you have a strong background in financial crime and fraud, combined with experience working alongside data science and machine learning teams, this could be the ideal next step in your career.

The Role

As Head of Detection & Decisioning, you'll be responsible for building and leading a specialist function focused on financial crime detection across customer onboarding and payment activity. You'll oversee transaction monitoring, optimise detection rules, govern machine learning models and ensure automated decisions are transparent, explainable and aligned with FCA expectations. Working closely with senior stakeholders across Financial Crime, Compliance, Product and Technology, you'll play a key role in shaping the future of the organisation's detection capability.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the Detection & Decisioning function and develop a high-performing specialist team.
• Own customer onboarding (KYC) decisioning and transaction monitoring across Faster Payments and card payments.
• Manage and optimise rules engines, including thresholds, suppression strategies and detection logic.
• Improve alert quality by reducing false positives while maintaining strong fraud detection.
• Act as the business owner for machine learning models used in financial crime detection.
• Monitor model performance, governance and explainability, working closely with Data Science teams.
• Ensure monitoring capabilities evolve in line with emerging fraud trends and regulatory requirements.
• Maintain governance frameworks and audit-ready documentation for detection rules and automated decisions.
• Collaborate with Product, Compliance, Operations and external technology partners to enhance detection capabilities.
• Support regulatory engagement and represent the detection function during audits and FCA reviews.

Skills & Experience

• Significant experience in financial crime, fraud prevention or AML within a UK regulated financial services environment.
• Experience managing transaction monitoring platforms, rules engines or machine learning driven detection systems.
• Strong understanding of UK financial crime regulations, including FCA requirements, Money Laundering Regulations and POCA.
• Knowledge of machine learning model governance and performance metrics, including false positive rates and model monitoring.
• Proven experience leading specialist or technical teams.
• Track record of improving detection effectiveness and reducing false positives.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.

Desirable experience includes:

• Financial crime experience within a UK payments or fintech organisation.
• Experience with AI or machine learning decisioning in financial crime.
• Knowledge of Faster Payments, APP fraud or card fraud prevention.
• Experience working with third-party fraud detection platforms and technology providers.

What's on Offer

• Salary of £70,000 to £90,000, depending on experience.
• Hybrid working with 2 to 3 days per week in the Manchester office.
• 25 days' annual leave plus bank holidays.
• Employer pension contributions.
• The opportunity to build and shape a brand-new detection function with strong executive backing.
• Exposure to cutting-edge AI and machine learning technology within financial crime.
• A collaborative environment with genuine opportunities to influence strategy and drive innovation.

If you're looking for an opportunity to combine financial crime expertise with emerging technology in a leadership role, we'd love to hear from you.