Sanctions Senior Investigator

About the job
About us:

BVNK is a next-generation payments platform for global businesses. We bridge the gap between traditional and digital finance to make payments borderless, instant, and secure. Using the BVNK platform, businesses can send and receive payments on all major schemes and blockchain networks, incorporate stablecoins into their payment flows, and settle funds in over 30 markets.

We are a diverse team spread across the UK, Europe, and South Africa, with a shared belief that in the next five years all payment flows will interact with crypto, and BVNK will be at the forefront of this shift. We recently raised 40m in series A funding, and we’re looking for smart, ambitious people to help us build the next generation of payments.

About this role in the team:

As the Sanctions Senior Investigator, you’ll be reporting to the Head of Financial Crime Intelligence, https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-chalk-365620213/. You’ll be responsible for conducting and overseeing BVNK’s sanction screening capabilities and support BVNK’s global regulatory compliance in this area.

We are looking for a sanctions subject matter expert with a minimum of 3 years experience operating within the UK, EU and US regulatory landscape. You have an analytical mindset with an eye for detail and experience working with both fiat and cryptocurrency sanctions based alerts. You have an in-depth understanding of sanctions screening and monitoring detection methods and be comfortable in using this knowledge to make informed decisions and recommendations to senior management.

You are result driven, with an ability to build strong working relationships with key senior stakeholders and excellent people management skills. You possess excellent communication and time management skills, to deliver clear messaging across all levels within the organisation. You possess performance management skills that empower the team regardless of seniority. You have the ability to work together collaboratively with cross functional, globally distributed teams.

We are looking for someone who is adaptable and enjoys solving complex problems in a constantly changing environment. You must be able to think strategically, prioritise appropriately, manage numerous concurring priorities, and work well under stress. Previous experience in managing teams is preferable and the successful candidate will be able to demonstrate experience in dealing with complex escalations.

Your key stakeholders are the Head of Financial Crime Intelligence, Head of FCC, Head of Anti-FC Architecture, Financial Crime Intelligence Senior Managers, the Product team, and the Commercial team.

Key Areas of Responsibilities:

This position will support the Head of Financial Crime Intelligence driving BVNK’s financial crime investigations strategy. The wide range of responsibilities include:

Review and investigation of automated sanctions screening alerts related to both fiat and cryptocurrency exposure.
Make informed decisions and recommendations to ensure identified risks are fully mitigated and regulatory obligations are met.
Facilitate requests for information (RFIs) from our merchants to assist with the risk mitigation process.
Act as a subject matter expert and escalation point for all sanctions and PEP related risks, acting in an advisory capacity to junior members of the team.
Carry out timely and accurate reporting to appropriate authorities globally on sanctions related matters.
Assist in developing industry leading sanctions and payment screening procedures and processes, ensuring the implementation of adequate and effective systems and controls, in compliance with local legislative and regulatory requirements in all jurisdictions the Group operates.
Support the enhancement of BVNK’s payment screening related systems.
Advising the relevant teams on risks which are identified or apparent from the investigations, including suggesting new rules and scenarios, automation initiatives, and fine tuning to increase monitoring efficiency.
Providing regular key risk indicators (KRIs) reporting.
Providing bespoke training to FCC-related staff and senior management to raise awareness on sanctions related risks across all of our products.
Performing ad-hoc investigative tasks assigned by senior management.
Supporting the Head of Financial Crime Intelligence managing the relationship with:
Banking Partner’s compliance teams, ensuring an open and transparent communication, and timely responses to RFIs.
Law Enforcement, Financial Intelligence Units and Public, Private Partnerships which BVNK participates in, ensuring BVNK is up to date with new financial crime intelligence, and regulatory changes.
Drafting suspicious activity reports for authorities globally.
Assisting with information and intelligence sharing to internal stakeholders and external partners and encouraging closer working relationships between the relevant parties.

What we need from you:
Must have a minimum of three years sanctions experience, gained within either a sanctions screening or sanctions advisory role,
previous experience working in a faced paced start-up environment and highly advanced ability to conduct high quality reviews and investigations independently.
Must demonstrate evidence of cryptoasset payment knowledge, with a cryptocurrency related qualifications advantageous.
Must demonstrate deep understanding of the global sanctions landscape with detailed knowledge of the US sanctions regime required.
Should be familiar with emerging sanction evasion trends, and demonstrate experience in enhancing control frameworks to mitigate emerging risks.
Relevant financial crime investigations’ qualifications, such as ICA or ACAMS accreditations are desired.
Should display a keen interest in technology across the financial crime space and support senior team members in driving developments and innovation to enhance the financial crime investigations and compliance practice.
Should be comfortable working with a high degree of autonomy and managing evolving priorities to deliver against the team’s strategy.
Should have experience working with data analysis platforms and large datasets.
Must have a proven track record of establishing credibility with customers and senior stakeholders quickly and successfully managing ongoing customer relationships.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, strong work ethic, attention to detail and an enquiring mind.

What you can expect from us:
Fair and competitive salary at every stage of your growth
Meaningful ownership in the business through our employee option scheme
Flexible working hours, with hybrid working at its heart
A culture built on passionate growth minded people
A flexible approach to holiday
Opportunities to travel to our offices around the world, in locations such as London and Cape Town, to collaborate with your colleagues
An open and creative environment where you can help us define the future of BVNK, it’s culture, and it’s opportunity sets

At BVNK, we are focused on building a diverse and inclusive team. While you may not meet all of our requirements, we’d encourage you to apply if you meet the majority of our expectations. You may be a great fit for this role or another role in our team.