Financial Crime Risk Manager - 12 month FTC in Leeds

GoCardless is a global bank payment company. Over 100,000 businesses, from start-ups to household names, use GoCardless to collect and send payments through direct debit, real-time payments and open banking. GoCardless processes US$130bn+ of payments annually, across 30+ countries; helping customers collect and send both recurring and one-off payments, without the chasing, stress or expensive fees. We use AI-powered solutions to improve payment success and reduce fraud. And, with open banking connectivity to over 2,500 banks, we help our customers make faster, more informed decisions.

We are headquartered in the UK with offices in London and Leeds, and additional locations in Australia, France, Ireland, Latvia, Portugal and the United States. At GoCardless, we're all about supporting you! We’re committed to making our hiring process inclusive and accessible. If you need extra support or adjustments, reach out to your Talent Partner — we’re here to help! And remember: we don’t expect you to meet every single requirement. If you’re excited by this role, we encourage you to apply!

The Financial Crime Risk Team is part of the Risk Organisation and is at the forefront of GoCardless’ global expansion. We ensure that GoCardless adopts, implements and maintains innovative and appropriate processes and controls, paving the way for our company to deliver superb products in a compliant manner.

As the Second Line of Defence (2LoD) subject matter expert, the Financial Crime Risk Manager will report directly to the Group MLRO and will play both a regional and global role. In this role, you will be primarily tasked with building and maintaining effective AML/CTF, ABC, and sanctions systems and controls to ensure compliance with laws and regulations in various GoCardless locations. This is a 12 month fixed term contract.

What excites you:

• Executing the firm’s annual financial crime Enterprise-wide Risk Assessments, including risk identification, data analysis, inherent risk assessment and control evaluation;
• Closely follow legal, compliance, and regulatory developments in relation to AML/CTF, ABC, and sanctions in the Fintech industry, to ensure our processes keep pace;
• Drafting annual external reports to regulatory authorities, and liaise with the FCA, NCA and other external agencies where applicable;
• New products, markets business partnerships/initiatives risk assessments and programme updates;
• Drafting financial crime management information and periodic reports to senior management, analysing trends and recommending enhancements to first line controls;
• Delivering targeted financial crime training to the Compliance Operations team and Sales team on areas that are identified as requiring improvement;
• Advising on CDD escalations based on internal policies and procedures;
• Monitoring and responding to AML / Sanctions-related escalations in JIRA;
• Reviewing and approving of high-risk customers at onboarding (e.g. PEPs);
• Reviewing and approving of requests for waivers, dispensations and minor policy exceptions from the first line defence;
• Promoting a culture of good financial crime management across the firm;
• Covering MLRO annual leave / absences;
• Supporting on the Financial Crime Risk roadmap projects to design and deploy controls over new products, new markets, and enhancements throughout the company;
• Support the wider Compliance based on capacity, need and expertise.

What excites us:

• You have 5+ years’ experience in financial crime within the 2 LoD of an FCA regulated financial services firm or within consultancy;
• You have strong working knowledge of regulatory frameworks, guidelines, and requirements across the UK, US, EU, New Zealand, Australia, and/or Canada, as well as bodies like the FATF, Wolfsberg Group, etc.;
• You have experience in designing internal controls from scratch and driving their implementation, including automation where feasible;
• You have worked within a fast growing, scale-up business;
• You have experience conducting AML/CTF and sanctions compliance monitoring reviews, including model calibration and validation;
• You have exceptional analytical, writing and presentation skills;
• You have a 'sleeves-rolled-up' approach to your work.

Base salary range: £46,400 - £69,600. Base salary ranges are based on role, job level, location, and market data. Please note that whilst we strive to offer competitive compensation, our approach is to pay between the minimum and the mid-point (£46,400 - £58,000) of the pay range until performance can be assessed in role. Offers will take into account level of experience, interview assessment, budgets and parity between you and fellow employees at GoCardless doing similar work.

The good stuff:

• Wellbeing - stay healthy with dedicated support and medical cover;
• Work away scheme - gives you the option to work away from your country of residence for up to 90 days in any 12 month period;
• Adaptive Working - allows you to work flexibly, around your lifestyle;
• Equity - all permanently employed GCs get equity to help you make a valuable contribution;
• Parental leave - to suit everyone embarking on life's great adventure;
• Learning Budget - lead your own development with an annual learning budget;
• Time off - generous holiday allowance, + 3 annual volunteer days, + 4 annual business-wide wellness days (‘GC Fridays’).

We're an organisation defined by our values; We start with why before we begin any project, to ensure it’s aligned with our mission. We act with integrity, always. We care deeply about what we do and we know it's essential that we be humble whilst we do it. Working this way creates the GC magic- the reason we all love showing up to work.

We’re rooting for you during your application and GoCardless aims to provide reasonable adjustments to make our recruitment process as remarkable and accessible as we can. Please speak to your Talent Partner if you need extra support.

We’re committed to reducing our impact on the environment, leaving a more sustainable world for future generations. In 2021 we became co-founders of the Tech Zero coalition, a group of businesses committed to taking climate action as part of the UNFCCC Race to Zero. We aim to reduce our impact and to create positive change on the natural world.