Economic Crime Risk & Control Manager in Manchester

The Group’s Economic Crime Risk Strategy, Systems & Analytics Team plays a key role in helping prevent and reduce economic crime across the organisation. Working closely with operational, digital, change and product teams, we are now recruiting for an Economic Crime Risk and Controls Manager whose role sits at the heart of the wider economic crime function and helps set clear, practical prevention strategies. This team takes an innovative approach, using modern technology and data to respond to new and changing risks and to drive improvement across the Group.

As Economic Crime Risk & Control Manager, the role holder will have a SME insight into economic crime risks and how they affect the business. This role will manage, coach and develop a team of 6 subject matter experts and help ensure the Group understand and follow risk policies, control standards and define effective operating procedures with clear traceability back to policies and standards. They will also support senior leaders by providing clear, practical advice, carrying out analysis into complex issues and making sure new regulations are understood and acted on.

This role will also play an important part in change and transformation activity, making sure economic crime risks are considered when new systems, processes or customer journeys are designed. The role holder will build strong relationships across the first, second and third lines of defence to support better controls and ways of working. Working with a high level of independence, this role offers the opportunity to make a real difference to how the Group prevents and detects economic crime, while continuing to develop knowledge and skills in a fast‐moving area.

The successful candidate will be a confident leader, acting as a subject matter expert and who enjoys working with a wide range of stakeholders. They will have a strong desire to improve how things are done and a genuine commitment to protecting customers and the business from economic crime. Keeping up with regulatory change and internal expectations, and feel comfortable sharing ideas, challenging where needed and influencing decisions will be important.

This role can operate from either our Head Office campus in Binley, Coventry or our Manchester office but as a Group role, travel to both locations will be required. A team-led hybrid working arrangement is in place.

• 28 days holiday a year plus bank holidays and a holiday buy/sell scheme
• Annual discretionary bonus scheme
• Personal pension with enhanced contributions
• Maternity, paternity and shared parental leave
• Extensive wellbeing support
• Life assurance (6 times annual salary)

For this role you’ll naturally lead, mentor and inspire others, sharing knowledge to help strengthen the organisation and its economic crime model. You’ll be naturally analytical and highly organised, you work independently with strong attention to detail and clear communication skills. You’ll make evidence‐based decisions and apply risk and compliance practices pragmatically.

For this role you’ll need to have:

• Recent experience of leading a team within a regulated industry.
• Strong, current knowledge of the economic crime space across AML and sanctions with practical experience of working in risk and/or advisory.
• Experience working within projects and continuous improvement initiatives.
• An extensive practical knowledge of economic crime techniques and processes to mitigate risks.
• The ability to lead the creation of insights and spot areas of opportunity for improvement, proactively.
• The knowledge to identify trends within root causes and understand the wider implications of a problem.
• Excellent communication skills both internally and externally with the ability to persuade and influence at all levels as well as strong stakeholder management skills.

Experience in these areas would be helpful:

• Experience working within the fraud space, with recent experience of emerging threats.
• Strong report writing skills and experience creating formal documentation to support with the mitigation of risk.
• Experience working to time sensitive deadlines, with an ability to self-prioritise workload where appropriate.

In 2025, Coventry Building Society purchased The Co-operative Bank. Bringing together our purpose-led building society with the UK’s original ethical bank was the start of an exciting journey. Trusted by over four million people, we’re a mutually owned business free from shareholders, and with our combined experience of almost 300 years, our ethics and dedication will continue to guide us. Together, we have shared values and an ethical approach towards our members, customers and colleagues.

We’re officially recognised as a ‘Great Place to Work’ and our benefits go beyond basic pay, with a discretionary bonus scheme, a culture of reward and recognition and comprehensive support for wellbeing. We’re serious about equality, of race, age, faith, disability, and sexual orientation and we celebrate diversity. By working together, we know you’ll build more than just a career with us.

We understand the need for flexibility, so wherever possible, we’ll consider alternative working patterns. Have a chat with us before you apply to see what the possibilities are for this role.

We’re proud to offer an interview or assessment to every disabled applicant who meet the minimum criteria for our vacancies. As part of the application process, disabled applicants can opt in for the Disability Confident Interview Scheme. If there are ever occasions where it is not practicable to interview all candidates that meet the essential criteria, such as when we receive a high number of applications, we commit to interviewing disabled candidates who best meet the minimum essential and desirable criteria.