Zopa9mo ago

Senior Fraud and Financial Crime Lead

London · (london)Employee - Permanentsenior

OtherFraud And Financial Crime

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Quick Summary

Overview

Our Story Hello there. We’re Zopa. We started our journey back in 2005, building the first ever peer-to-peer lending company. Fast forward to 2020 and we launched Zopa Bank.

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OtherFraud And Financial Crime

Our Story

Hello there. We’re Zopa.

We started our journey back in 2005, building the first ever peer-to-peer lending company. Fast forward to 2020 and we launched Zopa Bank. A bank that listens to what our customers don’t like about finance and does the opposite. We’re redefining what it feels like to work in finance. Our vision for a new era of banking puts people front and centre — we’ve built a business that empowers everyone to aim high, every day, to move finance forward. Find out more about our fantastic offerings at Zopa.com!

We’re incredibly proud of our achievements and none of it would be possible without the amazing team here. It’s not just industry awards we’re winning, we’ve also been named in the top three UK’s Most Loved Workplaces.

If you embrace unconventional challenges, are unafraid to think differently and are driven to make an outsized impact, you’ll thrive here at Zopa, so join us, and make it count. Want to see us in action? Follow us on Instagram @zopalife

We’re looking for a Fraud & Financial Crime Lead to join our mission to make money work better for millions of customers.

In this pivotal role, you will establish and lead Zopa’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), building a centre of excellence for complex financial crime investigations across our entire product ecosystem — current accounts, loans, savings, credit cards, and car finance. You will play a critical role in protecting our customers and the bank, while enabling sustainable, well-controlled growth.

This role can be based in either our London or Manchester office.

As Fraud & Financial Crime Lead, you will design and operationalise the FIU, define its mandate and investigative standards, and lead high-impact investigations into complex, organised and emerging financial crime threats. You will work closely with cross-functional stakeholders to strengthen our control environment and ensure we remain ahead of evolving risks in a digital-first banking landscape.

Strategic Leadership

Establish and scale Zopa’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), defining its operating model, governance, case acceptance criteria, and investigative standards.

Design and implement a robust triage and prioritisation framework for complex investigations, including escalations from operational teams and high-risk referrals.

Act as the bank’s subject matter expert on financial crime and fraud typologies, conducting deep-dive thematic investigations into emerging threats and systemic risks.

Develop and evolve Zopa’s complex investigations strategy, ensuring alignment with regulatory expectations, enterprise risk appetite, and industry best practice.

Maintain up-to-date awareness of emerging financial crime typologies, organised criminal methodologies, and regulatory developments impacting UK banking and FinTech.

Complex Investigations & Intelligence-Led Delivery

Lead end-to-end complex financial crime investigations, using internal data, external intelligence, and analytical insight to identify root causes, quantify exposure, and recommend control enhancements.

Produce high-quality intelligence reports, including clear articulation of typologies, impact assessments, and remediation recommendations.

Identify systemic weaknesses and control gaps through investigative findings, and drive targeted enhancements across detection, prevention, and monitoring frameworks.

Develop thematic reporting to inform senior stakeholders of emerging risks, trends, and strategic priorities.

Cross-Functional & External Impact

Partner with Product, Technology, Operations, Risk, and Compliance teams across the First and Second Lines of Defence to embed proportionate, risk-based controls into product design and customer journeys.

Act as a senior escalation point for complex or high-risk cases requiring expert judgement.

Represent Zopa at industry forums and, where appropriate, law enforcement engagements, contributing to intelligence-sharing and collaborative disruption efforts.

Build and maintain strong industry networks to ensure Zopa remains at the forefront of financial crime prevention and investigative best practice.

You are an experienced financial crime professional who thrives on solving complex, ambiguous problems. You combine strategic thinking with hands-on investigative capability and are comfortable operating at both operational and executive levels. You are intellectually curious, analytically rigorous, and motivated by building capability from the ground up.

Essential Experience

Extensive experience in financial crime and fraud typologies, including organised crime methodologies, with deep knowledge of relevant UK regulatory and compliance frameworks.

Demonstrable experience establishing or significantly enhancing a Financial Intelligence Unit or complex investigations function within a banking or FinTech environment.

Proven track record of leading complex, intelligence-led investigations, including scoping, hypothesis development, evidence gathering, analysis, and production of conclusions and recommendations.

Strong understanding of how to assess materiality and sufficiency of evidence — knowing when further investigation adds value versus when conclusions are robust and actionable.

Experience engaging with law enforcement, regulatory bodies, or industry intelligence groups.

You’ll Thrive If You

Enjoy building and leading high-performing investigative functions from first principles.

Translate complex investigative findings into structured reports, executive briefings, and actionable remediation plans.

Are comfortable analysing large and complex datasets to extract meaningful insights.

Communicate technical and investigative concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders, influencing decision-making through structured argumentation and evidence.