Financial Crime Consulting Director - Riyadh

About the role

A specialist financial crime consulting firm is hiring a Director to lead and scale its Financial Crime Advisory practice in Saudi Arabia, with secondary reach across the wider GCC. This is a senior, client-facing, revenue-generating role split 50/50 between business development and project delivery, with full ownership of practice growth, client outcomes and team building.

Key responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end business development lifecycle for FCC advisory services in KSA, with visibility across the GCC, and build relationships with C-suite, CCOs, MLROs and senior compliance leaders at banks, payment firms and financial institutions.
• Originate, pursue and close mandates covering gap assessments, AML/CFT programme reviews, sanctions and transaction monitoring model validation, KYC/CDD/EDD remediation, risk assessments, monitorships, Skilled Persons Reviews and technology selection.
• Develop proposals, presentations and thought leadership aligned to SAMA, CBUAE and FATF priorities, and build and commercialise differentiated FCC advisory solutions, including digital and technology-enabled ones.
• Achieve and exceed annual revenue targets of USD 1m+ from managed accounts, and represent the firm at industry forums, conferences and regulatory events.
• Lead delivery of complex, multi-workstream FCC engagements on time, on budget and on quality, acting as senior engagement lead and SME.
• Guide selection, implementation and tuning of sanctions screening and TM platforms, quality-assure deliverables before client submission, and mentor junior and mid-level team members.
• Recruit, build and manage a high-performing FCC advisory team in KSA, setting performance expectations and development pathways.

Required profile

• 15+ years of total professional experience, including 10+ years in FCC advisory, 5+ years in FCC advisory sales to banks, 10+ years in FCC project execution and 10+ years in the GCC market.
• Must have worked with local GCC banks and built and managed a team.
• Managed accounts generating USD 1m+ per year.
• Preferred: Big Four, Tier 1 consulting or specialist advisory background.
• Must have built and taken to market at least one differentiated digital or technology-enabled FCC advisory solution.

Required skills

• Hands-on expertise in gap assessments, sanctions and TM model validation, KYC/CDD/EDD remediation, monitorships, financial crime risk assessments and AML/CFT programme design.
• Hands-on experience selecting, implementing and configuring sanctions screening systems (Fircosoft/Accuity, Oracle Financial Services) and transaction monitoring platforms (SAS AML, NICE Actimize, Oracle FCCM, Temenos FCM, FIS MANTAS).
• Working knowledge of SAMA, CBUAE and FATF regulations, and familiarity with CBB, CBK, CBO and QCB rules.
• Ability to demo and sell data-driven FCC solutions, with familiarity with Python and data science tools such as network analysis and transaction analytics.