Overview

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.

Responsibilities

• Own and continuously evolve the Banks 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.
• Ensure monitoring and screening systems are future-proofed to support scaling from hundreds of accounts.
• 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.
• Act as OakNorth's subject matter expert on payments regulation, card scheme requirements, and dispute processes.
• 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.
• 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.
• Own and present MI, KRI, and risk dashboards to senior management; chair financial crime and claims governance forums.
• 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.

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.
• Exceptional ability to partner across Compliance, Operational Risk, Product, Engineering, and Operations; strong stakeholder management.
• Pragmatic and decisive, with resilience to operate in scaling, fast-paced environments.
• Collaborative and credible with internal and external stakeholders; passionate about customer protection 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
• Volunteering time off
• Salary sacrifice schemes (Cycle to work, nursery, gym, electric car scheme)