Director - Financial Crime Office (Deputy AML Officer); Head of Regulatory Relations and Testing

Accountabilities:

• Lead the AML/ATF and sanctions compliance program in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements, including ownership of enterprise-wide money laundering, terrorist financing, and sanctions risk assessments.
• Oversee transaction monitoring, alert and case management, enhanced due diligence, sanctions screening, suspicious transaction reporting, and the quality and timeliness of regulatory submissions to FINTRAC.
• Establish and maintain KYC and customer risk-rating standards, while partnering with Financial Intelligence teams to address gaps between fraud detection and financial crime detection.
• Lead the two-year AML effectiveness review, oversee resulting remediation, and manage financial crime training initiatives.
• Serve as the central coordination point for regulatory relationships, ensuring regulatory correspondence, submissions, and engagement are timely, consistent, and high quality.
• Lead end-to-end regulatory examinations, reviews, and information requests, including planning, evidence collection, response quality control, and issue tracking.
• Maintain the regulatory findings and commitments register and drive remediation through to validated closure.
• Maintain inventories of regulatory filings and regulatory interactions, and prepare executives and subject matter experts for regulatory meetings.
• Own the enterprise complaints management program, including policies, procedures, escalation pathways, and service standards.
• Oversee escalated and designated complaints, ensuring outcomes are fair, timely, well reasoned, and communicated clearly to customers.
• Manage cases involving external complaints bodies and oversee applicable reporting to FCAC and other relevant authorities.
• Deliver complaints reporting and root-cause analysis, translating recurring themes into improvements across products, processes, and customer disclosures.
• Design and deliver the independent second-line Compliance Testing Program, including methodology, quality standards, reporting, and governance.
• Develop the annual risk-based testing plan using regulatory obligations, known risk concentrations, and compliance control priorities, while collaborating with Operational Risk Management.
• Maintain quality assurance over testing outputs, including work performed by co-sourced or outsourced partners, and report results and thematic findings to senior management and applicable Board-level committees.
• Lead, coach, and develop a multidisciplinary team spanning financial crime, compliance testing, and complaints, building capability and clear career paths.
• Partner with Compliance Advisory, Privacy, Operational Risk, Internal Audit, Legal, and Financial Intelligence teams to provide integrated risk oversight.
• Represent the organization in industry associations, peer forums, and financial crime intelligence networks, staying current on emerging typologies, fraud trends, and regulatory developments.
• Prepare and deliver decision-ready reporting for senior management and applicable Board-level committees.
• Apply AI, machine learning, RPA, and advanced analytics to areas such as transaction monitoring, alert triage, complaints classification, and compliance testing.
• Lead automated testing scripts, intelligent workflows, advanced reporting, and the evaluation of emerging RegTech and financial crime technologies, while maintaining appropriate model governance and tuning documentation.

Requirements:

• 10+ years of experience across AML and financial crime, compliance testing or audit, regulatory relations, complaints, or related functions within financial services.
• Deep working knowledge of Canadian consumer protection, AML/ATF, retail banking or payments, and privacy legislation.
• Direct experience managing regulatory examinations, reviews, or information requests, with the composure and judgment to operate effectively under regulatory scrutiny.
• Strong understanding of financial crime controls, regulatory expectations, risk management, testing methodologies, and evidence-based compliance.
• Exceptional attention to documentation quality and control effectiveness, with the ability to identify and communicate unfavorable findings constructively.
• Experience working within a regulated fintech, neobank, direct-to-consumer financial institution, or comparable regulated financial services environment.
• Strong executive presence and communication skills, with the ability to engage regulators, senior leaders, Board-level stakeholders, and cross-functional teams.
• Proven people leadership experience, including coaching multidisciplinary teams and developing senior talent.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities, with the ability to use data and emerging technologies to improve compliance effectiveness.
• Comfortable operating in complex, rapidly evolving environments and balancing regulatory rigor with customer experience and business priorities.
• Experience with AI, machine learning, automation, advanced analytics, or RegTech applied to compliance or financial crime is highly relevant.
• A relevant designation such as CAMS, CFE, CIA, CPA, CRCM, or equivalent is an asset.
• A strong commitment to financial wellness, customer protection, ethical decision-making, and effective risk management.

Benefits:

• Competitive annual salary of CAD $190,000–$230,000.
• Remote-first work environment with a strong emphasis on autonomy and trust.
• Flexible hours and asynchronous collaboration.
• Opportunity to lead four strategically important compliance functions with broad organizational impact.
• Direct exposure to senior leadership, regulatory relationships, and Board-level reporting.
• Opportunity to shape financial crime, regulatory, complaints, and compliance testing practices within a growing financial services environment.
• Ability to drive innovation through AI, automation, analytics, and emerging RegTech solutions.
• Opportunity to lead and develop a multidisciplinary compliance team.