Head of Financial Crime
Accounting & Finance · Full-time
London, UK
GBP 63k-83k / year + Equity
SpaceXAI’s mission is to create AI systems that can accurately understand the universe and aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge. Our team is small, highly motivated, and focused on engineering excellence. This organization is for individuals who appreciate challenging themselves and thrive on curiosity. We operate with a flat organizational structure. All employees are expected to be hands-on and to contribute directly to the company’s mission. Leadership is given to those who show initiative and consistently deliver excellence. Work ethic and strong prioritization skills are important. All employees are expected to have strong communication skills. They should be able to concisely and accurately share knowledge with their teammates.
Head of Financial Crime
SpaceXAI · X Money
Soho, London · Full-time · On-site 5 days · Competitive base + equity
X Money is live in the US. The UK financial crime programme is being built now, and it has to stand up to the FCA. This role sits in Compliance, reports to the US BSA/AML Officer, and owns the UK framework end to end — AML/CTF, sanctions, fraud, ABC, KYC/CDD/EDD, transaction monitoring, SARs, and the operating rhythm. You will still work the hard cases. It is a builder seat with accountability, not a queue job with “strategy” in the title.
If you have eight or more years inside an FCA-regulated bank, EMI, PI, or payments firm, have owned or rebuilt a financial crime control framework, and can still open a file, this is the seat.
Why this seat is interesting
- You write the UK programme while it is still being built. The standards you put in place are the ones the team — and the FCA — will actually use.
- Payments financial crime at consumer scale, not a private-banking book of 400 names. You sit with Product and Engineering, not three layers from the customer journey.
- Small team. Direct line to the US BSA/AML Officer. Scope is large; process theatre is not.
- The measure of the job is a programme that still works a year later. The role sits next to MLRO / SMF17-adjacent duties for the UK entity. If you want to be the named specialist in the room, this is how you get there.
What you will own
- Design and run the UK financial crime programme: policy, procedures, CDD/EDD, risk rating, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, SAR handling, escalation, QA, and training.
- Turn MLR 2017, POCA, the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act, JMLSG, the FCA Financial Crime Guide, SYSC 6.3, and payments/EMI expectations into something operations and product can run.
- Own the UK business-wide risk assessment and keep it honest as the product, customer mix, and channels change.
- Handle complex cases — PEPs, adverse media, sanctions hits, high-risk onboarding, fraud typologies, escalations — then use the queue to fix the framework.
- Stand up first- and second-line controls: documentation, workflows, vendor oversight, quality sampling, MI, and issue management.
- Put UK requirements into the customer journey with Legal, Operations, Product, and Engineering. Be the UK voice in global design decisions.
- Report on quality, residual risk, throughput, and control health. Prepare the programme for internal audit, skilled-person reviews, and FCA scrutiny.
- Build the operating model as the team grows. Hire, coach, and set the standard. Support MLRO / SMF17-adjacent duties as the UK permissions model requires.
Who this is for
- 8+ years of hands-on financial crime in a regulated UK firm (bank, EMI, PI, payments, or e-money), including substantial KYC/CDD/EDD.
- You know the UK regime well enough to argue a point — MLR 2017, JMLSG, POCA, UK sanctions, FCA expectations — and how it lands in a payments product.
- You have designed or rebuilt a framework, procedure, or control, not only cleared files or written a policy nobody ran.
- You have led people or a workstream. You can defend a risk decision and explain it to the Product without jargon.
- You will still do the cases. You close gaps in a small team and do not wait for a 30-page RACI.
Nice to have
- EU financial crime experience — a genuine bonus. Time with the EU AML package, 6AMLD, EBA guidelines, national transposition, or an EU FIU/regulator, especially on cross-border payments, wallets, or EMI/PI products. Useful because X Money will not stay inside one perimeter.
How we work, pay and benefits
Soho, London W1, two minutes from Piccadilly Circus. In-office five days a week; occasional work-from-home when needed. Hours 10:00–19:00. Small Compliance team, global programme. If you need a 30-page RACI before you draft a procedure, this will feel thin. If you want to put a real UK financial crime programme on the page and then run it, it will not.
- Competitive base + equity
- UK private medical covering GPs and specialists; pension; life insurance
- 25 days’ paid time off; lunch and dinner allowance
SpaceXAI is an equal opportunity employer. For details on data processing, view our Recruitment Privacy Notice.