Senior Specialist - Financial Crime Compliance

The Role

We are seeking a highly capable and strategically minded Senior Specialist - Financial Crime Compliance to play a pivotal role in safeguarding our European businesses against financial crime risks. This role sits within the Anti-Financial Crime function and carries significant responsibility for oversight, framework development, and cross-functional influence.

You will be responsible for supporting the development, implementation, and continuous enhancement of the organisation's Financial Crime framework. This includes oversight of governance, policy management, regulatory and internal reporting, enterprise-wide risk assessments, testing, and monitoring activities. The role ensures the effective identification, assessment, and mitigation of financial crime risks across all business lines, while maintaining alignment with regulatory expectations and industry best practices.

• Help evolve and strengthen our AFC Framework, keeping it aligned with global standards and regulatory expectations
• Shape and refine our AFC policies, standards, procedures, and guidance materials
• Keep our governance engine running smoothly - from committee packs to escalation pathways and decision-making records
• Provide analytical muscle for enterprise and product-level financial crime risk assessments, including BWRA and thematic reviews
• Support oversight of ABAC and Anti-Tax-Evasion initiatives as we roll out a refreshed operating model
• Play a key role in AFC testing and assurance work: executing tests, spotting control gaps, and driving follow-up actions

• Be a go-to specialist for AML/CTF, Sanctions, ABAC, and Anti-Tax-Evasion across our European footprint
• Help translate regulatory changes into practical, business-ready processes
• Deliver clear, actionable guidance to stakeholders navigating Financial Crime requirements
• Build strong partnerships with 1LoD and 2LoD teams, fostering transparency, risk awareness, and effective issue management

• Support ongoing AFC testing and monitoring to identify gaps, emerging risks, and opportunities for uplift
• Maintain accurate, well-governed documentation across all AFC activities and reports
• Track remediation actions and validate completion to ensure long-term control improvement
• Work with precision and pace, championing consistency, quality, and continuous improvement

• Contribute to AFC change programmes, ensuring deliverables meet regulatory and business expectations
• Join cross-functional working groups to embed Financial Crime considerations into new products, systems, and processes
• Prepare materials for AFC forums, board sessions, audits, and regulatory touchpoints
• Coordinate project milestones, documentation, and reporting to keep initiatives on track

• Strong understanding of AML/CTF, Sanctions, ABAC, Anti-Tax-Evasion and wider financial crime frameworks
• Experience in governance, policy, risk assessments, testing, or monitoring within Financial Crime or Compliance
• Ability to interpret regulation and translate it into practical business processes
• Sharp analytical skills with the ability to turn complexity into clear insights
• Confident communicator with proven stakeholder management experience across teams and geographies
• Highly organised, detail-focused, and comfortable juggling priorities in a fast-moving environment

• Experience working across multiple European jurisdictions or global AFC structures
• Exposure to cross-border regulatory frameworks
• Familiarity with assurance, audit, or thematic review approaches
• Professional certifications (ICA, ACAMS, Int. Dip AML or similar)
• Experience supporting AFC-related transformation, technology, or data initiatives

• Vanguard is not offering sponsorship for this position
• This is a hybrid position and would require you to work in the office 3 days per week (Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday)