Financial Crime Transaction Monitoring and Screening Lead

Job Description

At Aberdeen, our ambition is to be the UK’s leading Wealth & Investments group.

Strengthening talent and culture is one of our strategic priorities. We strive to make Aberdeen a great place to work so that we can attract and retain the industry’s best talent.

Our people put our stakeholders at the heart of everything they do by helping us to make a positive difference to the lives of our clients, customers, colleagues, shareholders, and society.

We are focused on growing our direct and advised wealth platforms and repositioning our specialist asset management business to meet client demand. We are committed to providing excellent client service, supported by leading technology and talent.

Aberdeen comprises three businesses, interactive investor (ii), Investments, and Adviser, each of which focuses on meeting and adapting to our clients’ evolving needs:

• interactive investor, the UK’s second largest direct-to-consumer investment platform, enables individuals in the UK to plan, save, and invest in the way that works for them.
• Our Adviser business provides financial planning solutions and technology for UK financial advisers, enabling them to create value for their customers.
• Our Investments business is a specialist asset manager that focuses on areas where we have both strength and scale to capitalise on the key themes shaping the market, through either public markets or alternative asset classes.

About the Role

The Transaction Monitoring and Screening Lead will act as the Business Owner for Aberdeen’s screening and transaction monitoring capability, with full accountability for the strategic direction, functional ownership, and business governance of Aberdeen’s screening tools and supporting systems across the firm’s Anti-Financial Crime (AFC) control environment.

The role is responsible for ensuring that all tools operate in line with regulatory expectations across AML, sanctions, and fraud, while effectively supporting business operations and remaining aligned to Aberdeen’s technical, governance, and commercial frameworks.

As the single point of accountability for functionality and performance, the role will lead the delivery of regulatory-driven enhancements, optimisation initiatives, and evolving business use cases. This includes close partnership with first-line teams, second-line AFC, technology functions, and external vendors to ensure the ongoing effectiveness, resilience, and continuous improvement of screening and transaction monitoring services across the Group.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Ownership & Direction

Define and maintain the strategic vision for Aberdeen’s screening tool and associated systems within the first-line AFC control environment. Ensure the platform remains aligned with AML, sanctions, fraud, and wider financial crime requirements, leading enhancements driven by regulatory change. Contribute to key strategic technology decisions, including technical upgrades, target architecture, and future-state assessments (retain vs replace).

Governance, Oversight & Stakeholder Management

Establish and lead robust governance over performance, risk management, operational resilience, and data quality to support effective AML and screening and monitoring outcomes. Chair, coordinate and contribute to service review forums with Technology, Supplier Management, and vendors (such as NICE Actimize, Dow Jones, Factiva and World Check), ensuring service quality and performance expectations are met. As owner for the tool and associated systems, coordinate cross-functional decisions on operating model design (1LoD/2LoD/Technology roles) and cost allocation structures.

Requirements, Change & Product Lifecycle Management

Own the definition and prioritisation of business requirements across enhancements, configuration and tuning, data ingestion, and new functionality for both screening and transaction monitoring. Ensure appropriate governance and sign-off of configuration updates, releases, and system changes. Partner with Technology (CETO/Engineering), first-line business units, and second-line AFC to plan and deliver structured change cycles (QBRs/ABRs), including upgrades.

Financial & Commercial Ownership

Maintain ownership of licence management and the Group-wide cost allocation model for screening tools and systems, working with Finance Business Partners across Investments, Adviser and Group to ensure transparency and equitable allocation. Lead commercial decision-making relating to vendor contracts, cost sharing arrangements, and operating model choices (e.g., Adviser vs. Investments ownership models).

Operational Alignment & Performance

Ensure coordinated, end-to-end operation of the screening and transaction monitoring tools across first-line operations, AFC oversight, and Technology support. Drive the effectiveness of alert management, including first-line/second-line investigations, escalation to MLROs, and quality assurance. Oversee control testing (including above/below the-line testing and benchmarking) to ensure data completeness and integrity, and maintain robust governance documentation (e.g. configurations, procedures, process artefacts) to support audit readiness and regulatory compliance.

Vendor & Supplier Management

Act as the senior escalation point for service issues, performance incidents, and vendor relationship management across screening tools and key data providers (e.g. Nice Actimize Dow Jones, Factiva). Support supplier governance processes, including service reviews and contract oversight, ensuring adherence with third-party risk management standards. Engage directly with vendors on tuning, optimisation, and performance matters to enhance effectiveness and transparency of change.

About the Candidate

The ideal candidate will possess the following:

• Relevant professional qualification and practical experience at senior/strategic level of screening and monitoring tools and processes (essential)
• Strong understanding of anti-financial crime requirements (AML, sanctions, fraud) and associated screening and transaction monitoring processes, gained within a financial services or similarly regulated environment (essential)
• Highly effective governance and stakeholder management capability, with a proven ability to engage and influence across first line, second line, and Technology functions. (essential)
• Ability to translate regulatory and business requirements into practical system solutions, including providing clear direction on system configuration, optimisation, and usage. (essential)
• Demonstrated experience in vendor and supplier management, including oversight of service performance and familiarity with contractual and commercial considerations. (desirable)
• Experience using screening and transaction monitoring tools such as Nice Actimize, Dow Jones, Factiva (or industry equivalents) (desirable)

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer. If you have a disability and would like to apply to one of our UK roles under the Disability Confident Scheme, please notify us by completing the relevant section in our candidate questionnaire. One of our team will reach out to support you through your application process.

Our benefits

There's more to working life than coming home with a good salary. We have an environment where you can learn, get involved and be supported.

When you join us, your reward will be one of the best around. This includes 40 days’ annual leave, a 16% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance-based bonus (where applicable), private healthcare and a range of flexible benefits – including gym discounts, season ticket loans and access to an employee discount portal. You can read more about our benefits here.

Our business

Enabling our clients to be better investors drives everything we do. Our business is structured around three distinct areas – our vectors of growth – focused on our clients’ changing needs. You can find out more about what we do here.

An inclusive way of working

Whatever way you like to work, if you have the talent and commitment to join our team, we’d like to hear from you.

At Aberdeen we’ve adopted a ‘blended working’ approach. This approach combines the benefits of face-to-face collaboration, coaching and connecting in our offices with the flexibility of working from home. It enables colleagues to find a balance that works for their roles, their teams, our clients and our business.

An inclusive culture, where diverse perspectives drive our actions, is at the core of who we are and what we do. If you need assistance with your application, or a reasonable adjustment to your interview arrangements – for example, because you are neurodivergent, or have a physical, sensory, cognitive, mental, visible or invisible disability – please let us know and we’ll be happy to help.

We’re committed to providing an inclusive workplace where all forms of difference are valued and which is free from any form of unfair or unlawful treatment. We define diversity in its broadest sense – this includes but is not limited to our diversity of educational and professional backgrounds, experience, cognitive and neurodiversity, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief and ethnicity and geographical provenance. We support a culture that values meritocracy, fairness and transparency and welcomes enquiries from everyone.

If you need assistance or an adjustment due to a disability please let us know as part of your application and we will assist.