Financial Crimes Operations Lead

We're excited to be partnering with a leading institution in the UAE that is building a digital-first, AI-enabled financial services organization from the ground up. This is a unique opportunity to join at an early stage and help shape the operational, compliance, and risk foundations of a business with significant institutional backing and long-term ambition. If you're passionate about financial crime prevention, operational excellence, and building scalable control frameworks, we'd love to hear from you. As Financial Crimes Operations Lead, you will be responsible for building and leading the bank's unified Financial Crime, Risk, AML, and Fraud Management (FRAML) operations function. Working closely with the MLRO, you'll establish the operating model, controls, processes, and AI-enabled capabilities needed to detect, investigate, and respond to financial crime across both retail and corporate banking from day one. Responsibilities• Lead the day-to-day operation of the bank's unified financial crime function across transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, and fraud investigations. • Oversee alert triage, investigations, case management, and adjudication across financial crime activities. • Direct sanctions screening activities, true-match investigations, and escalation of sanctions-related matters. • Ensure suspicious activity is investigated and escalated appropriately to support regulatory reporting obligations. • Build and continuously improve detection scenarios, screening thresholds, and case management workflows. • Recruit, develop, and lead a high-performing financial crime operations team while embedding AI-enabled tooling and a digital-first operating model. Requirements• 8+ years of financial crime operations experience within banking or financial services, including leadership responsibility for transaction monitoring, sanctions, or fraud investigations teams. • Deep expertise across transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, fraud investigations, and case management. • Proven experience building financial crime detection frameworks, investigation processes, and controls within a regulated environment. • Strong understanding of AML/CFT regulations, sanctions requirements, suspicious activity reporting obligations, and financial crime risk frameworks. • Experience leveraging technology, analytics, and AI-enabled tools to strengthen financial crime detection and investigations. • Professional certifications such as ACAMS/CAMS, ICA, or equivalent are highly desirable.Ready to join us?Apply today and take the next step in your career.