Manager, Compliance Operations

Commercial Bank of Dubai; Dubai; On-site; AED 400,000 - 700,000; Full time

Job summary

Commercial Bank of Dubai is seeking a seasoned governance lead to oversee offshore Compliance Operations managed by WNS in India, covering about 70 FTE across Name Screening, Payment Screening and Transaction Monitoring Level 1 activities.

You will ensure timely, accurate, risk-based outcomes aligned with bank policies, SLAs and the approved operating model, while driving MI dashboards and continuous improvement across the process landscape.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in finance, Business Administration, Accounting, Risk Management, Law, or a related discipline.
• Professional certifications in AML/Financial Crime Compliance or Risk Management (e.g., CAMS, ICA, CFE, CRCM) are preferred.
• Minimum 5–7 years of experience within Banking Operations, Financial Crime Compliance, AML, Sanctions Screening, Transaction Monitoring, or Operational Risk functions.

Responsibilities

• Provide day-to-day governance and oversight of outsourced Compliance Operations.
• Ensure adherence to SLAs, turnaround times, productivity standards, and quality benchmarks.
• Oversee disposition of alerts and escalation to onshore teams in accordance with procedures.
• Review WNS performance via governance forums, operational reviews, backlog management and root cause analysis.
• Establish and maintain MI dashboards covering volumes, capacity, quality, breaches and risk indicators.
• Maintain SOPs, desk procedures, training materials and governance artefacts for outsourced ops.
• Coordinate with Compliance, Operations, Technology, Internal Audit and Procurement to resolve issues.
• Lead process walkthroughs, quality calibration sessions and control testing to ensure compliance.
• Identify opportunities for automation, workflow digitisation and data standardization across screening processes.
• Collaborate with Technology and Compliance SMEs to evaluate use cases like AI-assisted review and improved MI.
• Maintain current documentation and governance artifacts for outsourced operations.

Skills

Governance oversight

Vendor management

AML/Financial Crime

MI dashboards

Process improvement

SOPs documentation

Regulatory compliance

Team leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Finance/Business/A&R

AML certification (CAMS/ICA/CRCM) preferred

Job description

JOB PURPOSE

Describing the overall objective of the job and, essentially, why the job exists. What needs to be done to achieve results.

The purpose of this job is to provide end-to-end governance, oversight and performance management of outsourced Compliance Operations activities performed by WNS in India, covering approximately 70 FTE across Name Screening, Payment Screening and Transaction Monitoring Level 1 alert disposition processes.

This entails ensuring that WNS delivers timely, accurate, risk-based and auditable alert review outcomes in line with Bank policies, procedures, SLAs, regulatory expectations and agreed operating model.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Provide day-to-day governance and oversight of the WNS-managed Compliance Operations offshore team in India, covering approximately 70 FTE across Name Screening, Payment Screening and Transaction Monitoring Level 1 alert disposition activities.
• Ensure adherence to agreed SLAs, turnaround times, productivity standards, quality benchmarks, escalation protocols and contractual obligations under the outsourced operating model.
• Oversee timely and accurate disposition of alerts, including false match / false positive closures, RFI management, escalation of unresolved or higher-risk cases, and handoff to onshore Compliance teams in accordance with documented procedures.
• Review and challenge WNS performance through structured governance forums, daily / weekly operational reviews, ageing analysis, backlog management, exception tracking and root cause analysis.
• Establish and maintain robust MI dashboards covering volumes, capacity, productivity, ageing, quality, rework, escalations, breaches, incidents, complaints, training completion and thematic risk indicators.
• Ensure WNS activities remain fully traceable and audit‑ready, with clear rationale, supporting evidence, case notes, maker‑checker controls where applicable, and complete documentation in approved systems and repositories.
• Coordinate with Financial Crime Compliance, Sanctions, AML, MLRO / DMLRO teams, Operations, Technology, Operational Risk, Internal Audit, Procurement and WNS leadership to resolve issues and strengthen the outsourced control environment.
• Lead periodic process walkthroughs, quality calibration sessions, sample reviews and control testing to validate that WNS outputs comply with policy, procedure, regulatory expectations and agreed adjudication standards.
• Identify, priorities and deliver automation, workflow digitisation, data standardization, exception reduction and process re‑engineering opportunities across screening and monitoring processes
• Partner with Technology, Compliance SMEs and WNS operational excellence teams to evaluate use cases such as automated queue management, RFI workflow tracking, narrative standardization, quality analytics, robotics, AI‑assisted review support and enhanced MI.
• Maintain current and granular SOPs, desktop procedures, training materials, escalation matrices and governance artefacts for WNS-managed Compliance Operations activities.
• Support capacity planning and workforce alignment by validating volumes, productivity assumptions, leave coverage, training needs, span of control, cross‑skilling opportunities and contingency arrangements.
• Ensure incidents, SLA breaches, quality failures, control gaps and audit / assurance observations are promptly logged, escalated, remediated and tracked to closure through agreed governance channels.
• Drive a culture of continuous improvement, control ownership, operational discipline and risk awareness across the outsourced Compliance Operations service delivery model.

EXPERIENCE & ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum formal qualifications required as part of the job.
• Bachelor’s degree in finance, Business Administration, Accounting, Risk Management, Law, or a related discipline.
• Professional certifications in AML/Financial Crime Compliance or Risk Management (e.g., CAMS, ICA, CFE, CRCM) are preferred.
• Minimum 5–7 years of experience within Banking Operations, Financial Crime Compliance, AML, Sanctions Screening, Transaction Monitoring, or Operational Risk functions.
• Experience in managing or governing outsourced/shared service operations, including vendor performance management, service level monitoring, and operational governance.
• Strong knowledge of AML, Sanctions, Name Screening, Payment Screening, and Transaction Monitoring processes, including applicable regulatory and compliance requirements.
• Experience in managing operational risk, control testing, audit reviews, regulatory inspections, and remediation of control gaps.
• Demonstrated experience in developing management information (MI), performance dashboards, KPI/KRI reporting, capacity planning, and service performance optimization.
• Strong people and performance management experience, including overseeing large operational teams in onshore and offshore environments