Director, Financial Crime Operations - Business Banking

Overview

At OakNorth, we’re on a mission to empower the UK’s most ambitious businesses. Since 2015, we’ve lent over $18 billion across the UK and US, helped create more than 58,000 new homes and 36,000 new jobs, and supported hundreds of thousands of personal savers — all while fuelling the UK economy.

The Director, Financial Crime Operations will provide strategic leadership of OakNorth Bank’s first line of defense for business current accounts, covering fraud prevention, AML transaction monitoring, and sanctions screening. This role will set the vision, lead cross-functional execution, and ensure that financial crime risk management not only meets regulatory standards but enables OakNorth’s ambitious growth plans which is designed and executed for scale.

The Director will:

• Own and continuously evolve the Bank’s financial crime and claims management framework.
• Lead, mentor, and scale teams across Manchester and India, embedding innovation and resilience.
• Provide oversight of core platforms and optimise them for effectiveness, efficiency, and compliance.
• Partner with senior stakeholders across Compliance, Operational Risk, Product, Engineering, and Operations to build a scalable and compliant operating model.
• Represent OakNorth with regulators, auditors, and industry bodies, ensuring credibility and thought leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Leadership & Risk Ownership
• Define and lead the first line strategy for fraud, AML, sanctions, and claims management.
• Anticipate emerging financial crime threats and regulatory changes (FCA, POCA, MLRs, JMLSG, OFSI, PSD2, VISA scheme rules).
• Serve as executive escalation point for all major fraud, AML, sanctions, or dispute claims issues.
• Own risk appetite calibration, KRIs, and thresholds in partnership with Compliance and Operational Risk.
• Provide OpCo with thematic insights, residual risk reporting, and forward‑looking risk strategies.

• Systems & Technology Ownership
• Act as business owner for the fraud and transaction monitoring and screening platforms.
• Own continuous optimisation of rules across fraud, AML, and sanctions — ensuring balance between detection, efficiency, and customer friction.
• Lead structured monthly reviews of system performance, exercising decision‑making authority to tighten, loosen, or reconfigure rules as appropriate, subject to relevant socialisation and governance reviews.
• Implement synthetic testing, A/B experimentation, and challenger/champion models to validate rule effectiveness even when genuine cases are absent.
• Partner with Engineering to embed machine learning, automation, and advanced analytics.
• Ensure monitoring and screening systems are future‑proofed to support scaling from 100s → 10,000s of accounts.

• UK Business Current Account & Card Payments Risk Management
• Oversee financial crime and risk controls across all features of UK business current accounts (payments, overdrafts, lending, direct debits, standing orders, international transfers, faster payments, CHAPS, card payments).
• Lead the claims management function for card payments, including Section 75 claims, VISA chargebacks, consumer disputes, fraud reimbursements, and adherence to VISA scheme requirements.
• Ensure compliance with PSD2, Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), and APP scam reimbursement rules.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to build seamless customer journeys with fraud/claims controls embedded at design stage.
• Serve as OakNorth’s subject matter expert on payments regulation, card scheme requirements, and dispute processes.

• Cross‑Functional Partnership & Product Enablement
• Act as SME for new product launches, features, and expansions — defining “what good looks like” for fraud, AML, sanctions, and claims risk.
• Collaborate with Compliance (2LOD) and Operational Risk to ensure risk appetite, policies, and assurance frameworks are aligned.
• Drive activity with Product and Engineering to design new functionality with embedded controls (e.g., card issuance, international payments).
• Partner with Operations to delegate low‑risk processes in a controlled way, optimising cost and efficiency.
• Influence senior stakeholders at HQ on strategy, investment, and risk management priorities.

• People Leadership & Team Development
• Lead, mentor, and scale high‑performing teams across London, Manchester and India.
• Build functional expertise in fraud analytics, transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, and dispute claims.
• Provide visible leadership to adjacent teams in client onboarding, ongoing monitoring, and quality control.
• Establish succession planning, career pathways, and a leadership bench for sustainable growth.
• Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.

• Governance, Reporting & Assurance
• Own and present MI, KRI, and risk dashboards to senior management
• Chair financial crime and claims governance forums, ensuring all rule changes, system upgrades, and product launches are risk‑reviewed.
• Lead internal and external audit engagements, evidencing robust control design and operation.
• Ensure casework, investigations, and dispute handling are documented to the highest standard, compliant with internal policies and regulatory expectations.
• Oversee bank‑wide QA and QC frameworks, including error taxonomies and remediation tracking.

• External Engagement & Representation
• Represent OakNorth with regulators (FCA, OFSI), card schemes (VISA), auditors, and industry forums (e.g., UK Finance fraud panels).
• Maintain active awareness of industry‑wide fraud and claims trends, bringing insights back into OakNorth’s strategy.
• Negotiate with vendors to secure technology enhancements, service level improvements, and value for money.
• Position OakNorth as a leader in safe, scalable, technology‑enabled financial crime and claims management.

Experience & Skills

• Essential Experience
• Deep familiarity with UK business current account features and associated financial crime risks across sanctions, money laundering and fraud.
• 10+ years of senior leadership in financial crime risk management, covering fraud, AML, sanctions, and card payments claims.
• Proven experience managing VISA debit disputes, chargebacks, and consumer claims.
• Track record of designing, implementing, and optimising transaction monitoring systems.
• Proven experience leading teams across multiple geographies.
• Strong knowledge of fraud typologies (APP scams, impersonation, CNP fraud, mule activity, synthetic ID, etc).
• Experience leading technology transformation in financial crime (transaction monitoring, screening, machine learning, fraud authentication).
• Significant experience influencing and advising at Executive level

• Leadership & Stakeholder Skills
• Exceptional ability to partner across Compliance, Operational Risk, Product, Engineering, and Operations
• Proven record of influencing executives, regulators, and auditors with clarity and authority.
• Skilled in balancing regulatory expectations, operational efficiency, and customer experience.
• Strong mentor and people leader, with experience developing future leaders.

• Personal Attributes
• Strategic thinker with a hands‑on curiosity for systems, data, and analytics.
• Pragmatic and decisive, with the resilience to operate in a scaling, fast‑paced environment.
• Collaborative and credible with internal and external stakeholders.
• Passionate about customer protection, product enablement, and building best‑in‑class controls.

Benefits & Perks

• Equity. We want people to have a stake in the business so that all our interests are aligned.
• 25 days holiday
• Personalized benefits – opt‑in to what matters to you
• Subsidised Private Medical Insurance with Bupa
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave
• Wellbeing and social events
• In‑house Barista Bar in London office
• Support causes that matter to you – Volunteering time off
• Salary sacrifice schemes (Cycle to work, nursery, gym, electric car scheme)