Lead Associate Financial Crime Department

**We are currently recruiting for a Lead Associate for one of our Supervision teams in the Financial Crime Department.**

**About Us**
At the FCA, we’re creating a fair and more resilient financial system. We’re establishing more transparent relationships between financial services and their customers, building trust in financial markets and protecting vulnerable consumers.

The Financial Crime Department provides the dedicated specialist resource and expertise to help the FCA meet its financial crime responsibilities, as contained in the FCA’s wider objective on integrity and in its specific freestanding duty on financial crime.

The department is comprised of three Financial Crime Supervision teams, the Advisory team, and the Financial Crime Risk, Data & Strategy Team (RDS). Working together with others inside and outside the FCA, we deal with issues involving money laundering, financial sanctions, bribery and corruption, and fraud or dishonesty. The Financial Crime Department does not cover market abuse.

**What does this job involve?**
This role sits in one of the Financial Crime Department’s three supervision teams. The team focuses on the effectiveness of firms’ financial crime systems and controls. This is done through a range of supervisory work including assessments, visits, and interventions of regulated firms. We work closely with front line supervision to assess firms’ compliance with relevant rules, laws and guidance.

As a Lead Associate, you will be responsible for overseeing the casework of around four staff, ensuring that the objectives of the department are delivered through their activities. You will also be responsible for ensuring the delivery of high-profile work assigned to them. You will work with a variety of internal and external stakeholders to ensure that they are kept informed and engaged as appropriate.

In addition, you will manage your own personal caseload and relationship-manage major firms. You will report to a Financial Crime Department Manager.

Lead Associates are expected to oversee, coordinate and monitor caseloads, and provide advice, guidance, coaching, and feedback to team members.

**What will I get from the role?**:

- An interesting and varied workload, with responsibility for delivering the work assigned to you and your team.
- The opportunity to lead projects and high profile or complex casework.
- The chance to join a friendly, collaborative and informal environment committed to thinking creatively about achieving good anti-financial crime outcomes for the FCA.
- The opportunity to use your judgement to make decisions at pace, stand by them, and learn from experience.
- A chance to understand the changing ways in which firms and the industry operate, and the implications for how we carry out our work on financial crime.
- The opportunity to help shape the Financial Crime Department’s future activities and ways of working.

**Minimum, Essential & Desirable skills**:
**Minimum**:

- Some financial crime experience (for example; a relevant supervision, compliance or money laundering role within a regulatory body, law enforcement, financial services or consultancy firm).
- Direct experience of supervision work; leading more complex visits and supervisory actions, such as early interventions.
- Experience of managing and delivering projects, to plan and forecast workloads and monitor progress.

**Essential**:

- In depth knowledge of the FCA’s regulatory and wider legal framework, and a good understanding of the wider business, economic, and market environment and how this affects firms’ vulnerability to financial crime.
- The ability to translate departmental strategy into clear goals and expectations for their work.
- The ability to identify strategic trends in work and adapt individual/team working practices to take account of these and other changes in priorities.
- The ability to quickly analyse and interpret a variety of data and information to execute effective action to mitigate risk.
- A team player, with a positive approach and outlook to their work and the ability to motivate others, mentor and coach less experienced team members and give high-quality feedback and deliver honest messages when necessary.
- The ability to work effectively with a variety of stakeholders, both internal and external to FC Specialist Supervision and the FCA, provide effective challenge and seek mutually beneficial solutions to problems.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills, particularly in report writing and communications to firms.
- Proven ability to lead challenging meetings with senior-level individuals with confidence and credibility.
- The ability to deal with conflicting priorities, to prioritise effectively and deliver results on time with mínimal supervision.
- Confidence to make considered judgements and timely decisions, to stand by their decisions and learn from experience.
- Good knowledge of the structure of the financial services