Senior Business Control Specialist– Life Cycle Management

Job Description:

Job Title: Senior Business Control Specialist– Life Cycle Management  

Corporate Title: Vice President

Location:  Belfast, UK

Company Overview:

At Bank of America, we are guided by a common purpose to help make financial lives better through the power of every connection. We do this by driving Responsible Growth and delivering for our clients, teammates, communities and shareholders every day.

Being a Great Place to Work is core to how we drive Responsible Growth. This includes our commitment to being an inclusive workplace, attracting and developing exceptional talent, supporting our teammates’ physical, emotional, and financial wellness, recognizing and rewarding performance, and how we make an impact in the communities we serve.

Bank of America is committed to an in-office culture with specific requirements for office-based attendance and which allows for an appropriate level of flexibility for our teammates and businesses based on role-specific considerations.

At Bank of America, you can build a successful career with opportunities to learn, grow, and make an impact. Join us!

Join Us in Belfast – A City of Opportunity and Innovation

We’re thrilled to announce the opening of our new office in Belfast—a vibrant, fast-growing hub for financial services and technology, and a strategic addition to Bank of America’s global footprint. This expansion underscores our commitment to investing in talent and driving innovation across the UK and Ireland.

Our new offices at City Quays are in the heart of a city celebrated for its rich history, dynamic culture, and thriving business community. Whether you’re local or considering relocation, you’ll find a welcoming environment, an excellent quality of life, and the opportunity to help shape the future of banking.

About Bank of America in Belfast

Bank of America is one of the world’s leading financial institutions, powered by approximately 213,000 talented employees worldwide. Our new Belfast facility will strengthen our business continuity planning and risk management capabilities while reinforcing the expertise and value delivered across our global teams. We’re committed to creating up to 1,000 new roles, starting with positions in Global Anti-Money Laundering Operations and Global Financial Crimes Compliance. These teams will focus on critical areas such as client due diligence, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance support—key functions that safeguard the integrity of the international financial system.

Role Description:

The Global Anti-Money Laundering Operations (GAO) provides enterprise-wide governance and oversight of the AML framework across Consumer, Merrill Lynch, and Consumer Investment businesses. As a critical component of AML Operations, the Life Cycle Management Team is dedicated to protecting the organization from financial crime risks by conducting client screening, ongoing monitoring, and enhanced due diligence activities throughout the client lifecycle, ensuring regulatory compliance and effective risk management.

Responsibilities:

• Review client and party screening activities to determine adherence to applicable laws, rules, regulations, policies, and established procedures.
• Manage complex client types and conduct enhanced due diligence, analysis, and reviews for clients within the scope of Global AML Operations.
• Serve as an escalation point and subject matter resource for complex or higher-risk cases, providing guidance on research, documentation, and appropriate escalation.
• Provide day-to-day leadership and guidance to team members, including workflow coordination, prioritization, and support in meeting operational objectives and service expectations.
• Conduct quality reviews and provide timely, actionable coaching and feedback to promote accuracy, consistency, accountability, and adherence to established standards.
• Monitor case volumes, aging, quality results, and operational trends to identify emerging risks, capacity concerns, recurring errors, and opportunities for improvement.
• Support the onboarding, training, and ongoing development of team members through knowledge sharing, procedural guidance, and reinforcement of risk and quality expectations.
• Support Audit, Exam, Testing, and Quality Assurance activities by ensuring appropriate governance and protocols are followed, including preliminary research, documentation, response tracking, and remediation support.
• Identify and recommend process and control improvements that enhance operational efficiency, strengthen risk mitigation, and demonstrate sustainable control effectiveness.
• Promote a ample risk and control culture by identifying, escalating, and supporting the mitigation of risks through effective monitoring, sound judgment, and consistent execution of established controls.

What we are looking for:

• Demonstrated leadership experience, including the ability to coach, mentor, and provide day-to-day guidance to team members
• Ample critical thinking, analytical, and problem-solving skills
• Ability to identify operational and compliance risk trends
• Ample organizational and workload management skills, with the ability to balance competing priorities, monitor deliverables, and support the team
• Experience interacting with AML/KYC, compliance, risk partners, and senior management
• Bachelor’s degree in related field or equivalent experience
• Detail oriented with ability to analyze and consolidate multi-layered KYC and screening information. Understanding of evolving Laws, Rules and Regulations for AML is core and applying this to day-to-day-engagement with both operations and bankers is key to success
• Ability to work well under pressure, adapt to unexpected events, prioritize and multi-task in a fast-paced deadline driven environment

Skills that will help:

• Ample written and verbal communication skills
• Proficient in Microsoft Office applications, including Excel, Word, and SharePoint
• Working knowledge of Global Banking & Global Markets and applicable systems/tools
• ACAMS accreditation

Benefits of working at Bank of America:

Belfast

• At Bank of America, we strive to prioritise employees’ health and wellbeing – it’s what makes us a Great Place to Work.
• Private healthcare for you and your family.
• Competitive pension plan, life assurance and group income protection cover if you become unable to work as a result of a disability or health reasons
• We offer 26-weeks paid maternity leave, 16-weeks paid paternity leave and inclusive family leave arrangements for working parents and carers including 20 days of back-up childcare including access to school holiday clubs and 20 days of back-up adult care per annum
• The ability to change your core benefits as well as the option of selecting a variety of flexible benefits to suit your personal circumstances including access to a wellbeing account, travel insurance, critical illness, cycle to work etc.
• Use of a flex fund to use towards benefits
• Access to an emotional wellbeing helpline, and virtual GP services
• Access to the Peppy App which provides 1:1 support, consultations and resources relating to men’s health, women’s health, fertility, menopause and pregnancy & parenthood
• Access to a range of gyms, exercise classes and wellbeing Apps through Wellhub, including Headspace and Calm
• Opportunity to give back to your community, develop new skills and work with new groups of people by volunteering in your local area

Bank of America:

Good conduct and sound judgment is crucial to our long term success. It’s important that all employees in the organisation understand the expected standards of conduct and how we manage conduct risk. Individual accountability and an ownership mind-set are the cornerstones of our Code of Conduct and are at the heart of managing risk well.

We are an equal opportunities employer and ensure that no applicant is subject to less favourable treatment on the grounds of sex, gender identity or gender reassignment, marital or civil partner status, race, religious or similar philosophical belief, political opinion, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins, age, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, socio-economic background, responsibility for dependants or physical or mental disability. The Bank selects candidates for interview based on their skills, qualifications and experience.

We strive to ensure that our recruitment processes are accessible for all candidates and encourage any candidates to tell us about any adjustment requirements.