Financial Crime Assurance Manager

Location: Milton Keynes or Glasgow
Salary: £competitive+ £6,000 car allowance + up to 12.5% pension contribution
Permanent, Hybrid 3 days/week (12 office days/month flexi)

Are you an experienced Financial Crime Assurance professional ready to lead impactful reviews and shape the future of financial crime risk management for a large retail bank? Lorien is proud to be recruiting on behalf of a major UK banking group for two Financial Crime Assurance Managers to join a high-performing second-line defense team.

About the Role

You\'ll play a key role in delivering the Financial Crime Assurance agenda, leading end-to-end reviews across a wide range of financial crime areas (excluding fraud). You\'ll assess the design and effectiveness of controls, validate issue remediation, and provide clear, evidence-based insights to senior stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and deliver assurance reviews from planning through to reporting.
• Evaluate financial crime controls across AML, Sanctions, ABC, CTF, and FoTE.
• Design bespoke test scripts based on risk and control understanding.
• Validate issue remediation and provide assurance on closure.
• Produce high-quality reports and present findings to senior stakeholders (Director level and above).
• Provide leadership and guidance to a team of consultants (no direct line management).

What We\'re Looking For

• 3-5 years\' experience in a Financial Crime Assurance role (2nd line).
• Strong understanding of financial crime risks, controls, and UK regulations (e.g. MLR, POCA, JMLSG, FCA Handbook).
• Experience designing and executing risk-based test scripts.
• Proven ability to lead reviews independently and manage stakeholder relationships.
• Experience with issue validations is essential.
• Ideally holds or is working towards ICA or ACAMS qualifications (support available to achieve this if don\'t already hold).

Desirable

• Exposure to sanctions is a plus.
• Background in banking or financial services preferred.
• Experience mentoring or guiding junior team members.

Why Join?

• Work in a team known for internal progression and development.
• Access to an internal Economic Crime Academy with ICA-endorsed training.
• Support to gain professional qualifications (e.g. ICA, ACAMS).
• Competitive benefits including:
  • £6,000 car allowance
  • Up to 12.5% pension contribution
  • 30 days\' holiday + bank holidays
  • Private medical insurance
  • Bonus potential

Interview Process

• Informal 30-minute coffee chat
• Competency interview with a short task (1.5 hours)
• Final informal coffee chat