About the role
A specialist FCC advisory firm is hiring a Director to lead and scale its Financial Crime Advisory practice in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with secondary reach across the wider GCC. This is a senior, client-facing, revenue-generating position at the intersection of regulatory expertise, hands-on delivery, and entrepreneurial business development.
You will be an independent, commercially astute practitioner with a proven track record of winning and delivering significant FCC mandates for banks and financial institutions in the GCC. The role is a 50/50 split between business development and project delivery, with full ownership of practice growth, client outcomes, and team building.
What You'll Do
Business Development & Practice Growth (50%)
- Own the end-to-end BD lifecycle for FCC advisory services across KSA, with visibility across the wider GCC. - Build and expand relationships with C-suite, CCOs, MLROs, and senior compliance leaders at local and international banks, payment firms, and financial institutions. - Originate, pursue, and close new advisory mandates across the full FCC spectrum: gap assessments, AML/CFT programme reviews, sanctions and transaction monitoring (TM) model validation, KYC/CDD/EDD remediation, financial crime risk assessments, monitorships/Skilled Persons Reviews, and technology selection and implementation. - Develop compelling proposals, presentations, and thought leadership aligned to SAMA, CBUAE, and FATF priorities. - Build and commercialise differentiated FCC advisory solutions, including digital and technology-enabled propositions. - Achieve and exceed annual revenue targets of USD 1m+ from managed accounts. - Represent the firm at industry forums, conferences, and regulatory engagement events.
Project Delivery & Quality Assurance (50%)
- Lead delivery of complex, multi-workstream FCC engagements across KSA and the GCC — on time, on budget, on quality. - Serve as senior engagement lead and SME across core FCC domains (see below). - Provide hands-on expert guidance on selection, implementation, and tuning of leading sanctions screening and TM platforms (Fircosoft/Accuity, SAS AML, Actimize, Oracle FCCM, and similar). - Review and quality-assure all deliverables prior to client submission. - Mentor and develop junior and mid-level team members.
Core FCC Domains (Senior Engagement Lead)
- Gap assessments against SAMA, CBUAE, FATF, and internal standards - AML/CFT programme design, remediation, and framework transformation - Sanctions and TM model validation (methodology, parameters, thresholds, output quality) - Sanctions and TM system tuning and optimisation - KYC/CDD/EDD remediation and look-back programmes - Monitorship / Skilled Persons Review (SPR) support - Enterprise-wide, product, channel, and customer-segment financial crime risk assessments - Regulatory examination readiness and response
Team Building & Leadership
- Recruit, build, and manage a high-performing FCC advisory team in KSA. - Set clear performance expectations and development pathways. - Foster an inclusive, accountable, high-energy culture aligned to the firm's values and ethical standards.
Requirements
What You'll Bring
Experience (all mandatory unless stated)
Requirement
Minimum Threshold
Total professional experience
15+ years
FCC advisory / consulting experience
10+ years
FCC advisory sales / BD (selling to banks)
5+ years
FCC project execution
10+ years
GCC market experience
Must have worked with local GCC banks
Team building and management
Must have built and managed a team
Client account management
USD 1m+ revenue per annum from managed accounts
Firm background
Big 4 / Tier 1 consulting / specialist advisory (preferred)
Technical & Domain Expertise
Deep, hands-on expertise required across:
- Gap assessments — AML/CFT, sanctions, anti-bribery, against SAMA, CBUAE, FATF, and global standards - Sanctions and TM model validation — methodology design, parameter testing, threshold calibration, output quality review, model risk governance - Sanctions and TM system tuning and optimisation — alert reduction, false-positive management, scenario coverage - KYC/CDD/EDD remediation — remediation frameworks, look-back design, file review, risk-based segmentation - Monitorship / Skilled Persons Review delivery - Financial Crime Risk Assessments — enterprise-wide, product, channel, customer, and geographic - AML/CFT programme design and implementation — governance, policy, procedures, controls architecture - Regulatory examination readiness and response
Technology & Systems (hands-on experience required)
- Sanctions screening: Fircosoft (Accuity), Oracle Financial Services, and similar — selection, implementation, configuration, tuning - Transaction monitoring: SAS AML, NICE Actimize, Oracle FCCM, Temenos FCM, FIS MANTAS, and similar - Mandatory: hands-on involvement in at least one full system selection and one implementation/configuration engagement
Regulatory Knowledge (deep working knowledge)
- KSA: SAMA AML/CFT Framework, Rules Governing AML/CFT, Sanctions Rules, CDD Requirements - UAE: CBUAE AML/CFT Regulations, SCA Requirements, UAE Cabinet Decisions on AML/CFT - Wider GCC: CBB (Bahrain), CBK (Kuwait), CBO (Oman), QCB (Qatar) — working familiarity - FATF: 40 Recommendations, Mutual Evaluation Reports (KSA, UAE), Guidance Papers - Global: EU AML Directives, OFAC, UK Sanctions, Wolfsberg Principles
Digital, Innovation & Data Science
- Must have built and taken to market at least one differentiated digital or technology-enabled FCC advisory solution. - Strong understanding of how RegTech, AI/ML, and automation are reshaping financial crime risk management. - Familiarity with data science concepts and tools (Python preferred) applied to FCC analytics: network analysis, transaction analytics, model performance testing, alert optimisation. - Able to articulate, demo, and sell data-driven FCC solutions to C-suite and technical buyers.
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