Financial Crime Controls and Advisory Specialist

Location: Hybrid (3 days per week in the office: Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday)

As a Financial Crime Controls & Advisory Specialist, you will act as a trusted subject matter expert, partnering with stakeholders across the business to strengthen Vanguard's financial crime control framework and ensure financial crime risks are effectively managed in line with Vanguard's risk appetite and regulatory obligations.
You will provide expert guidance on financial crime risks, control design and effectiveness, regulatory expectations, and emerging threats, while supporting the governance, oversight, and continuous improvement of key financial crime controls, processes, and risk management activities.
This role offers an excellent opportunity for an experienced financial crime professional to broaden their expertise across risk management, controls, governance, and advisory activities, while contributing to the ongoing evolution of Vanguard's financial crime framework within a globally respected investment management organisation.

Core responsibilities:

• Provide subject matter expertise on Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Sanctions, Anti-Bribery and Corruption (ABC), Tax Evasion Facilitation, and Counter-Terrorist Financing risks.
• Assess the financial crime implications of new products, services, and business initiatives.
• Advise on the impact of regulatory changes and emerging financial crime threats.
• Support and contribute to financial crime risk assessments, including the Business-Wide Risk Assessment (BWRA), ensuring risks are appropriately identified, assessed, documented, and mitigated.
• Participate in project working groups and strategic change initiatives, providing financial crime advisory support to ensure controls are appropriately designed, implemented, and embedded, while constructively challenging proposals that may increase financial crime risk exposure.
• Support RCSA activities, including design and effectiveness assessment, control testing and identifying gaps and opportunities for enhancements.
• Support the governance, review, and continuous enhancement of financial crime operational procedures, ensuring alignment with regulatory requirements, Vanguard's risk appetite, and established business standards
• Support the investigation of financial crime-related incidents and control failures, ensuring appropriate root cause analysis is conducted, and remediation actions are effectively tracked through to completion.
• Support with reporting for senior management and governance forums to ensure insight is provided into key risks, issues, thematic findings and remediation activities.
• Promote a strong financial crime risk culture across the organisation through effective collaboration, challenge, awareness, and stakeholder engagement.

Essential Skills & Competencies:

• Strong AML, Sanctions and CDD/EDD knowledge.
• Strong understanding of UK financial crime regulatory requirements, including the Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs), JMLSG Guidance, OFSI requirements, and FCA expectations.
• Experience conducting financial crime risk assessments and supporting the design, implementation, and enhancement of controls.
• Experience reviewing the design and effectiveness of financial crime controls and identifying opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Understanding of financial crime typologies, emerging threats, and industry best practices.
• Experience supporting policy and procedure development and maintenance.
• Strong analytical, investigative and problem-solving skills.
• Strong attention to detail with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver high-quality outcomes.
• Ability to balance commercial objectives with risk management.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to build effective relationships across all levels of the organisation.
• Ability to provide constructive challenge, and influence decision-making in a collaborative manner.

Desirable Skills & Experience:

• Experience within a financial crime advisory, controls, governance, risk, or compliance function.
• Experience and/or Knowledge of investment management and retail wealth products or financial services.
• Experience conducting structured gap analyses against regulatory requirements or industry guidance.
• Experience supporting business change initiatives, new product launches, or operational transformation programmes from a financial crime perspective.
• Experience performing RCSA assessments, control reviews, or control mapping activities.
• Professional qualifications such as ICA Advanced Certificate, ICA Diploma, ACAMS, or equivalent financial crime qualification.

Additional Information

• Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.
• This is a hybrid position, requiring attendance in the office three days per week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday).
• Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. We encourage early applications, as the role may close before the advertised deadline if a high volume of interest is received.

Ready to help strengthen our defence against financial crime while influencing meaningful business decisions? We'd love to hear from you.

How We Work

Vanguard has implemented a hybrid working model for the majority of our crew members, designed to capture the benefits of enhanced flexibility while enabling in-person learning, collaboration, and connection. We believe our mission-driven and highly collaborative culture is a critical enabler to support long-term client outcomes and enrich the employee experience.