Financial Crime Risk (“FCR”) Director, First Line of Defence

PayPal; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial technology company in London is looking for a seasoned Financial Crime Manager. This role demands strategic oversight of financial crime risk management, collaboration across teams, and strong communication skills. Candidates should have substantial experience in the Financial Crime sector and a proven record in team leadership. The company offers a flexible work environment and values diversity and inclusion.

Benefits

Flexible work environment

Employee share options

Health and life insurance

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in Fraud or Financial Crime in the UK.
• Ability to present to regulators and stakeholders.
• Experience managing teams and supervising staff.

Responsibilities

• Lead Financial Crime Programme implementation.
• Monitor financial crime controls and effectiveness.
• Conduct risk assessments for new products.

Skills

Leadership experience

Fraud risk management

Exceptional communication skills

Collaboration skills

Fast-paced execution

Job description

Description

You will embed Financial Crime risk management within the PPUK first line of defence and ensure compliance with all applicable legal, regulatory, and Policy / Procedural obligations including UK Money Laundering Regulations, Sanctions compliance, Fraud and FCA Consumer Duty requirements.

As a senior member of PPUK, your experience, passion for addressing financial crime for the individual customers and at scale as well as playing our part for the wider payments industry will be key in meeting the needs of the business. You will work with other lines of defence FCR functions and wider Group Financial Crime (GFC) departments and leaders.

In your role, you will work very closely with the PPUK UK Money Laundering Officer in the second line of defence as well as the Global Financial Crime (GFC) organisation.

Your role will involve

Strategic Oversight of the Operational Financial Crime Framework: Lead the implementation and continuous improvement of the UK Financial Crime Programme, ensuring alignment with applicable policies and procedures, and adherence to UK legal and regulatory requirements.

Lead the design and execution of the UK first line of defence. Fraud Risk Management strategy: across the customer lifecycle, including the prevention and detection of Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud, account takeover and internal threats, leveraging data‑driven controls, analytics and cross‑functional collaboration to protect the PPUK business and customers.

Ongoing collaboration with PayPal Product, GFC and wider UK and Group stakeholder teams to manage financial crime risk and change management for PPUK needs.

Attending financial crime and other relevant risk committees, forums and PPUK Board where appropriate to report on key risks, trends and any remediation efforts.

Attend relevant industry forums to ensure PPUK both learns from and has an industry voice in relation to financial crime, with a particular focus on Fraud.

Develop Financial Crime Procedures from policy and requirements defined by the MLRO (2LOD) and ensure that these are implemented effectively including FIU, Transaction Monitoring (TM), Payments etc.

Own and manage day‑to‑day PPUK Financial Crime Service Level Agreements, acting as the PPUK Financial Crime “UK Entity Service Owner (ESO)” which includes:

• Responsibility for FLOD monitoring and assurance activities to evaluate the effectiveness of financial crime controls and response to emerging threats, reducing exposure to financial crime.

• Monitor and manage Service Level agreements (SLAs) with outsourced group entities to ensure adherence to agreed performance and risk management standards.

• Regularly assess how FLOD financial crime controls impact customer outcomes, identifying and addressing gaps in customer fairness, transparency, and support.

• Ensure the collection of and use of FLOD MI to monitor control performance and escalation via PPUK governance committees as appropriate.

• Partnering with local, regional and global teams to conduct detailed analysis of system configurations for transaction monitoring and filtering.

• Provide input on investigative procedures and processes, including making recommendations as to specific outcomes including refunds to customers.

• Help to refine investigative decision‑making criteria that optimize for both effectiveness and efficiency.

• Root cause analysis for financial crime incidents or control failures and oversee the implementation of corrective actions, including improvements to outsourced processes.

• Develop strategies to execute against UK Policy and Procedure requirements.

• Ensures relevant training is given to UK and Group operational teams to reinforce culture of compliance.

• Conducts FLOD Financial Crime risk assessments for new products and advises on control requirements.

Ideally you would have

• 10+ years of professional and leadership experience, at least 7 of which are in Fraud or the broader Financial Crime area with the UK financial services industry
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills with prior experience delivering or presenting to regulators / external stakeholders
• Proven ability to execute in a fast‑paced and deadline‑driven environment
• Exceptional collaboration skills, within function and across peer stakeholders.
• Previous Supervisory and Management experience. This role currently has one Full Time Staff member reporting to them and will be required to work proactively and collaboratively with other PPUK, GFC and group colleagues across the 3 lines of defence.

Preferred Qualification

Subsidiary: PayPal

Our Benefits

At PayPal, we’re committed to building an equitable and inclusive global economy. And we can’t do this without our most important asset—you. That’s why we offer benefits to help you thrive in every stage of life. We champion your financial, physical, and mental health by offering valuable benefits and resources to care for the whole you.

We have great benefits including a flexible work environment, employee share options, health and life insurance and more. To learn more about our benefits please visit.

For the majority of employees, PayPal's balanced hybrid work model offers 3 days in the office for effective in‑person collaboration and 2 days at your choice of either the PayPal office or your home workspace, ensuring that you equally have the benefits and conveniences of both locations.

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

PayPal provides equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. In addition, PayPal will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. If you are unable to submit an application because of incompatible assistive technology or a disability, please contact us at.

Belonging at PayPal

Our employees are central to advancing our mission, and we strive to create an environment where everyone can do their best work with a sense of purpose and belonging. Belonging at PayPal means creating a workplace with a sense of acceptance and security where all employees feel included and valued. We are proud to have a diverse workforce reflective of the merchants, consumers, and communities that we serve, and we continue to take tangible actions to cultivate inclusivity and belonging at PayPal.

About You

Any general requests for consideration of your skills, please. We know the confidence gap and imposter syndrome can get in the way of meeting spectacular candidates. Please don’t hesitate to apply.