Deputy Head of Financial Crime (1LOD)

Shawbrook provides finance to a wide range of customer segments that value the premium experience, flexibility and certainly we deliver.  We are a purpose-led organisation, with a focus on delivering long-term sustainable value for all our stakeholders.

We have a diversified offering, with our innovative lending propositions tailored to meet specific customer needs in carefully selected markets across SME, Real Estate and Personal. Our products range from complex structured credit facilities for growth-focused businesses to mortgages for professional landlords and property investors, as well as simple loans for consumers delivered digitally.  We fuel our lending through customer deposits, which we attract by delivering a premium experience, choice and consistently great value to smart savers.

The business model we have created is unique and difficult to replicate, with our ‘best of both’ approach combining deep human expertise with advanced digital, tech and data capabilities.  This combination not only allows us to deliver excellent customer experiences, but to do so efficiently and at scale.  We are proud of our innovative and agile culture, which drives consistently high employee engagement scores and makes Shawbrook an attractive destination for the best talent. If you’re willing to roll up your sleeves, contribute new ideas and believe anything is possible, you’re our kind of person.

Work with us because you:

• Want to be part of a bank built for the dynamics of the modern world
• Relish a challenge and enjoy a fast-paced, innovative and hardworking culture
• Enjoy finding new and better ways to solve complexity and make things happen
• Want to belong to a diverse culture that stands shoulder to shoulder with minority and underrepresented groups
• Care about society and the environment and want to be part of a business that cares too
• Want to continue to grow professionally and be the best version of yourself

The Deputy Head of Financial Crime will act as the principal deputy to the Head of Financial Crime Risk Services, providing hands-on leadership across the first-line financial crime function. This is a working leadership role: the successful candidate will be expected to lead people and lead by doing - personally analysing data and trends, designing and documenting procedures and controls, and completing risk assessments, alongside overseeing day-to-day operational delivery.

The role sits at a pivotal point in the function's evolution, as Shawbrook transitions from a largely manual, legacy-structured financial crime operation towards a more data- and automation-driven model. The successful candidate will be a driving force behind this transition, bringing credible experience of using data, AI and automation to strengthen control effectiveness and streamline operational processes, while maintaining the rigour and audit trail expected of a regulated first-line function.

Beyond the operational and technical remit, the Deputy Head will play a central role in guiding the team through this transformation - building confidence, cross-skilling and upskilling colleagues, and helping individuals unlock their full capability. Supporting development and progression across the team, and acting as a mentor to team leads and senior colleagues, is a core and ongoing part of the role.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Leadership & Delivery

• Provide day-to-day management and oversight of financial crime operations, including transaction monitoring, investigations, screening, CDD and EDD.
• Act as a point of escalation for complex cases, sensitive customer relationships, and operational bottlenecks, making timely, well-reasoned decisions.
• Manage approvals within delegated authority, ensuring decisions are proportionate, well-evidenced and consistent with policy and risk appetite.
• Deputise for the Head of Financial Crime Risk Services, including representing the function in their absence.

Data, Analytics & Automation

• Personally analyse operational and risk data to identify trends, control weaknesses, emerging typologies and opportunities for improvement.
• Champion the effective use of AI and automation across the function, identifying practical opportunities to streamline processes, reduce manual effort and improve detection quality.
• Work with data and technology partners to translate analytical insight into tangible process, control or system improvements.
• Support the build-out of MI and reporting capability as the function matures, ensuring outputs are accurate, timely and decision-useful.

Risk Assessment, Controls & Process Design

• Design, document and maintain robust financial crime procedures and process maps, ensuring they are practical, controlled and audit-ready.
• Complete risk assessments across products, customer types, and business processes, and translate findings into proportionate control design.
• Support the ongoing development and testing of the financial crime control library, ensuring controls remain fit for purpose as the business and its risks evolve.
• Identify control gaps and lead or support remediation activity through to closure, including responses to internal audit and second-line findings.

Governance, Reporting & Committee Engagement

• Produce high-quality reports and MI packs summarising financial crime performance, risk trends and control effectiveness.
• Present reports and MI packs to relevant governance forums and committees, articulating risk and performance clearly and credibly to senior stakeholders.
• Support preparation of materials for Executive Committee and Board-level risk reporting as required.

Stakeholder & Change Management

• Build and maintain effective working relationships with senior stakeholders across the business, second line, and internal audit.
• Balance the demands of operational business teams with the need to maintain robust, defensible financial crime controls.
• Act as a credible, confident advocate for the function's direction of travel, supporting colleagues through the transition to a more data- and automation-driven operating model.

People Development & Team Capability

• Support and guide the team through the broader transformation of the function, helping colleagues understand the case for change and building confidence in new ways of working.
• Identify cross-skilling and upskilling opportunities across investigations, controls, CDD/EDD and alert management, reducing single points of failure and building a more flexible, resilient team.
• Help unlock the team's full capability by identifying untapped potential, delegating meaningfully, and creating opportunities for colleagues to stretch into new areas of work.
• Actively support development and career progression across the team, including input into talent and succession planning.
• Act as a mentor and coach to team leads and senior team members, modelling the analytical and hands-on approach expected of the wider function.

Essential Experience

• Significant experience within a financial crime function (bank, specialist lender, or similar regulated financial services firm), covering transaction monitoring, investigations, screening, CDD and EDD.
• Proven experience managing and developing people, alongside a genuine willingness to remain hands-on with analytical and operational work.
• Experience designing, documenting and embedding financial crime policies, procedures and controls.
• Experience conducting or contributing to financial crime risk assessments (e.g. BWRA, RCSA, or equivalent).
• Experience producing and presenting MI and reports to senior stakeholders and governance committees.
• Practical experience or a strong working knowledge of how AI, automation or data analytics tools can be applied to financial crime processes.

Analytical & Technical Skills

• A logical, analytical mindset, comfortable working directly with data to identify patterns, trends and outliers.
• Strong working knowledge of financial crime typologies, regulatory obligations (e.g. MLRs, JMLSG, Proceeds of Crime Act, sanctions regimes) and industry good practice.
• Confidence with data and reporting tools (e.g. Excel, SQL, Power BI or equivalent) sufficient to interrogate MI and challenge findings, rather than relying solely on others to do so.
• Clear, precise written and verbal communication, with the ability to flex style between technical, operational and executive audiences.

Behavioural & Leadership Attributes

• Comfortable leading from the front - equally credible directing a team and rolling up their sleeves to do the underlying analysis or drafting themselves.
• Resilient and confident under scrutiny, able to manage senior stakeholders and hold a position on risk and control matters where necessary.
• Pragmatic and commercially aware, able to balance robust control with the practical needs of operational business teams.
• Change-oriented, with genuine enthusiasm for modernising and improving how a financial crime function operates.
• A genuine coaching and development mindset, invested in growing others rather than simply directing them.

Desirable

• Relevant professional qualification (e.g. ICA Diploma, ACAMS, or equivalent).
• Prior exposure to a data or automation transformation programme within a risk or compliance function.

Your Wellbeing - We take your health and well-being very seriously by providing a range of benefits to give you and your family peace of mind. These include:

• Market leading family friendly policies such as access to our Maternity, Adoption and Paternity policies from Day 1 of your employment
• Free access to Headspace, a mindfulness & meditation digital health app
• Free access to Peppy digital health app that offers personalised support through fertility treatment becoming a parent or menopause
• EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) - Offering you support on a wide range of subjects including financial concerns, mental wellbeing and more general queries around family, work, housing, and health
• Cycle to work scheme
• Discounts on gym membership
• Contributory pension scheme & death in service

Your Lifestyle - It’s important you strike the right balance between your work and personal life. We provide benefits to support you when at work and when you’re enjoying your leisure time.

• Minimum of 27 days holiday per year
• Option to buy or sell holiday days through our flexi-holiday scheme
• Discounts on gym membership nationwide
• Access to discounts on a range of high street and online brands
• Community support and charitable giving

Your Contribution - We’re focused on rewarding those that go the extra mile in helping us achieve our goals.

• Participation in our annual discretionary bonus scheme designed to reward your contribution to our success
• Proudly Shawbrook recognition scheme focused on recognising our role models and thanking our colleagues for a job well done