Head of Compliance / MLRO

Neara; Dubai; On-site; AED 400,000 - 600,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible vacation policy

Private Healthcare

Share Options

Wellness days

Opportunity to travel

Job summary

Neara is seeking a Head of Compliance / MLRO to lead its compliance and financial crime framework in Dubai. The ideal candidate will have significant experience in regulated financial services and a strong track record in compliance leadership roles.

You will work closely with the Group Chief Legal, Risk and Compliance Officer to ensure compliance standards are met while advising local management on risk and regulatory obligations.

This role offers a unique opportunity to shape a compliance framework within a reputable organization in a dynamic environment.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in senior compliance and AML roles within a regulated financial services business.
• Strong knowledge of regulatory expectations applicable to regulated firms in Dubai.
• Experience operating within a wider group structure with local compliance arrangements.

Responsibilities

• Lead and oversee the compliance and financial crime framework for the Dubai entity.
• Advise local management on regulatory obligations and compliance risks.
• Serve as the principal point of contact with the regulator on compliance matters.

Skills

Compliance leadership

AML knowledge

Regulatory engagement

Risk management

Communication skills

Education

Relevant qualifications in compliance, AML, legal, risk or audit

Job description

Head of Compliance / MLRO

Job type: Full Time · Department: Legal & Compliance · Work type: On‑Site

Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

About Lorum

Global payments are not broken. Incentives are. Clearing has been deprioritised inside balance sheet driven institutions whose models rely on lending and interest. When liquidity takes priority over settlement, payments slow and certainty drops. The same financial institutions that distort clearing as providers are disadvantaged as users. They are forced into fragmented setups, inconsistent rails, duplicated compliance, and unpredictable timelines. Stablecoin shortcuts and treasury pooling treat symptoms at the surface, but almost no one is rebuilding the underlying infrastructure in each market.

Rebuilding clearing from the ground up

We are rebuilding clearing as its own specialist function. We act as a clearing and transaction banking partner for regulated institutions, with treasury built into the core so liquidity, settlement, and reconciliation sit in one controlled system.

Why Lorum

Joining Lorum means contributing to one of the most ambitious clearing infrastructure projects in global finance. You will help shape settlement systems that perform under real regulatory standards and institutional volumes. You will build for regulated institutions that rely on precision, predictable timelines, and regulatory integrity. It is about working across currencies, markets, and supervisory frameworks to deliver reliable, final settlement.

About the role

Lorum is seeking to appoint a senior Head of Compliance & MLRO for its Dubai-based regulated entity. This is a senior control role with responsibility for leading the entity’s compliance and financial crime framework and ensuring that it remains effective, proportionate and aligned with applicable regulatory requirements.

At the same time, the role is an important part of the wider Lorum Group governance model and will play a central role in embedding the Dubai entity’s compliance framework within the broader group framework, policies, standards and control environment.

The role is based in Dubai and serves as the senior compliance and financial crime lead for the Dubai entity. The role will work in close partnership with the Group Chief Legal, Risk and Compliance Officer and within the broader Lorum Group governance framework, while maintaining direct access to local senior management and governance bodies on all material compliance and financial crime matters.

This role therefore requires a candidate who can operate effectively in a group‑led governance environment, contribute to the consistent implementation of group standards and frameworks, and at the same time ensure that the Dubai entity maintains a strong, credible and effective local compliance function.

The successful candidate will work closely with the Group Chief Legal, Risk and Compliance Officer and relevant group stakeholders to ensure strong alignment with the group’s overall governance, risk and compliance architecture, while maintaining clear responsibility for the effectiveness of the local compliance and AML framework. The role requires a senior professional who combines sound regulatory judgement, practical execution and the credibility to operate effectively across both local entity and group structures.

Key responsibilities

Lead and oversee the compliance and financial crime framework for the Dubai entity, ensuring that policies, procedures, controls and governance arrangements remain effective and appropriate to the nature, scale and complexity of the business; act as the senior compliance lead and MLRO for the entity, subject to any required regulatory approvals; ensure that the Dubai entity’s compliance framework is fully embedded within the wider Lorum Group governance and control framework, with appropriate alignment to group policies, standards, methodologies and reporting.

• Work closely with the Group Chief Legal, Risk and Compliance Officer to support the implementation of group‑wide compliance, risk and governance initiatives within the Dubai entity
• Advise local management and relevant group stakeholders on regulatory obligations, compliance risks, conduct expectations and financial crime matters relevant to the entity
• Serve as the principal point of contact with the regulator on compliance, AML and related supervisory matters
• Maintain and enhance the compliance monitoring plan for the Dubai entity, including risk‑based reviews, thematic work, issue identification, remediation tracking and reporting
• Oversee the AML, CTF and sanctions framework, including risk assessments, escalations, suspicious activity considerations, governance, training and periodic review
• Review and challenge customer, transaction, product and business risk matters from a second‑line perspective, ensuring that decisions are well documented, risk‑based and consistent with both local requirements and group standards
• Ensure that regulatory breaches, control weaknesses and compliance incidents are identified promptly, escalated appropriately and addressed through effective action plans
• Provide compliance and financial crime input into new products, business initiatives, outsourcing arrangements, strategic change projects and jurisdictional expansion relevant to the Dubai entity
• Prepare clear and high‑quality reporting for local governance bodies and for relevant group committees and stakeholders
• Support the ongoing development of a strong compliance culture across the Dubai office, including through training, advice, constructive challenge and day‑to‑day engagement with the business
• Coordinate effectively with legal, risk, operations, internal audit and business teams locally and across the group to ensure joined‑up governance and control outcomes
• Support the maintenance of appropriate deputy cover, escalation capability and operational resilience within the local compliance and financial crime framework

Ideal candidate

We are looking for a senior compliance professional with strong experience in regulated financial services and a credible track record in compliance and AML leadership roles.

The ideal candidate will have:

• Significant experience in senior compliance and AML roles within a regulated financial services business
• Strong knowledge of regulatory expectations applicable to regulated firms in Dubai, particularly in relation to compliance arrangements, AML, sanctions, governance and regulatory engagement
• Demonstrable experience acting as, or working closely with, a Compliance Officer and/or MLRO in a regulated environment
• Experience operating within a wider group structure and embedding local compliance arrangements into group‑wide governance, policy and control frameworks
• The judgement and confidence to engage directly with regulators, senior management and group leadership on complex compliance and financial crime matters
• A practical and commercially balanced approach, with the ability to support business growth while maintaining independence, robust control standards and effective challenge
• Strong drafting, reporting and communication skills, including the ability to translate regulatory requirements into clear and workable business actions
• Experience in designing, implementing or strengthening compliance frameworks, monitoring programmes, governance reporting and remediation plans
• Strong knowledge of AML investigations, sanctions controls, suspicious activity escalation and financial crime governance
• High personal integrity, resilience and the confidence to escalate and challenge when required
• Relevant qualifications in compliance, AML, legal, risk or audit would be advantageous

Personal attributes

• Credible, calm and authoritative
• Practical and solutions‑oriented
• Comfortable operating across both local and group environments
• Detail‑focused, while retaining sound commercial judgement
• Confident dealing with regulators and senior stakeholders
• Independent in judgement and strong in escalation
• Collaborative and capable of building trust across functions and management levels

Benefits

• Opportunity to travel (if applicable)
• Flexible vacation policy
• Private Healthcare
• Share Options
• Flexible working and autonomy
• Pay it forward days – we offer 2 annual pay it forward days where you can take time to volunteer for a charitable cause that is important to you.
• Wellness days – we believe you can only work your best when you feel your best, and we know working at Lorum is intense, so we offer 3 wellness days every quarter where you can take time to re‑energise.

By submitting this application, I agree that my personal data will be collected, processed, and retained by the company solely for the purposes of managing and assessing my candidacy.