Director – Financial Crime Operations

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)