Associate Director, Transaction Monitoring

The role

You will own the global second-line Transaction Monitoring strategy, governance framework, and policy standards. You will drive oversight of Transaction Monitoring teams and lead the evolution towards AI-driven detection.

What you will do

• Own global second-line Transaction Monitoring strategy, governance framework and policy standards.
• Drive independent 2LOD challenge and oversight of 1LOD Transaction Monitoring teams.
• Oversee second line regional SAR/STR/SMR reporting teams.
• Oversee the second line global Financial Intelligence Unit.
• Collaborate with the FCC Global Models lead on Transaction Monitoring rule lifecycle.
• Lead the evolution towards AI-driven anomaly detection and automated alert triage.
• Partner with Product, Data Science and Engineering to embed logic into core systems.
• Resolve complex financial crime escalations.
• Improve model effectiveness by partnering with Model Risk Management, Quantitative teams and Audit.
• Represent the Transaction Monitoring programme in regulatory examinations.

Required qualifications

• 10+ years of dedicated AML and financial crime experience.
• 3+ years of experience leading, managing or mentoring compliance professionals in a global or multi-regional setting.
• Proven experience establishing 2LOD oversight frameworks and rule-governance processes.
• Demonstrated ability to work with large datasets, SQL, data analytics and modern Transaction Monitoring models.
• Practical experience evaluating, testing or deploying AI/ML tools, graph analytics or automated dispositioning models.
• Strong understanding of global AML rules, typology standards and reporting expectations across FCA, FinCEN, MAS, HKMA and AUSTRAC.
• Proven track record of managing regulatory examinations, internal or external audits and banking-partner inquiries.
• Exceptional stakeholder-management and communication skills.
• Based in the UK, ideally within reach of Birmingham.
• CAMS, CFCS, CFE or equivalent industry certification.
• A bachelor’s degree.

Nice to have

• A quantitative, technical, data or legal degree.
• Experience working across high-volume cross-border payments, corporate banking, FX or fintech platforms.
• Experience partnering with Model Risk Management, Quantitative teams, Product, Data Science, Engineering and Audit.

About the company

Airwallex is an AI-native financial operating system for a real-time, intelligent economy. It provides financial infrastructure for over 675,000 businesses globally.