Director, Senior AML Compliance

Director Senior AML Compliance Sydney Australia

Role Responsibilities

The Senior level Director AML Compliance responsible for overseeing regulatory and antimoney laundering compliance programs in Australia New Zealand and several additional countries within the AsiaPacific region.

This role provides strategic leadership and subject matter expertise in managing regulatory relationships with AUSTRAC in Australia and DIA in New Zealand and responsible for the development implementation and continual enhancement of country-specific compliance programs as well as remediation uplifts. It will also play a key role in business expansion of Western Union products and services and provide support in M&A and obtaining new licenses where necessary.

The Senior level Director leads a geographically dispersed team of compliance professionals to ensure effective execution of risk based regulatory requirements alignment with enterprise compliance expectations and consistent adherence to global policies and standards.

This position plays a key role in regional regulatory engagement supports enterprise initiatives and partners closely with cross functional leaders to proactively identify assess and mitigate financial crime risks.

• Regional AML / Regulatory Compliance Oversight: Oversee execution of AML and regulatory compliance programs in Australia & New Zealand as well as select APAC markets.
  • Provide strategic oversight of AML/CTF and regulatory compliance across APAC ensuring alignment with global risk frameworks while acting as the primary escalation authority for complex highrisk matters and regulatory challenges.
  • Lead regional risk assessments and shape APACwide AML strategies driving control effectiveness identifying emerging threats in highrisk markets and tailoring compliance approaches to jurisdictionspecific regulatory expectations.

• Leadership & People Management: Lead and develop a regionally dispersed compliance team.
  • Provide strategic leadership to a geographically dispersed compliance team ensuring strong people development succession planning and consistent performance across APAC markets.
  • Set the strategic direction for the APAC AML function establishing priorities driving alignment and embedding a strong culture of compliance transparency and operational consistency across countries and crossfunctional partners.

• Regulatory Engagement & Issue Management: Manage relationships with regulators FIUs and law enforcement.
  • Serve as the senior regional representative with APAC regulators overseeing examinations reviews and inquiries while ensuring highquality coordinated responses and effective remediation to maintain strong regulatory standing.
  • Navigate evolving regulatory landscapes and lead crossmarket issue management advising enterprise leadership on emerging impacts and ensuring timely resolution of regulatory findings audits and compliance escalations.
  • Drive remediation programs and deliver uplift initiatives across APAC and partner with global controls and operation process owners to ensure adherence to country specific regulatory requirements and close oversight of outsources functions.

• Governance Reporting & Stakeholder Management: Provide risk reporting and insights into senior leadership.
  • Deliver highquality reporting and strategic insights to senior leadership local boards and governance committees ensuring AML risk trends regulatory developments and program performance are clearly articulated challenged and appropriately escalated through regional governance forums.
  • Serve as a trusted strategic advisor across the organization guiding business leaders on compliance implications of products and initiatives while strengthening crossregional alignment through close partnership with global AML Legal Risk and Operations teams.

• Policy Process & Program Enhancement: Enhance AML policies and ensure alignment across markets.
  • Drive continuous enhancement of AML/CTF programs by identifying control gaps improving processes and leveraging technology data and analytics to modernize capabilities and increase program effectiveness.
  • Lead APACwide harmonization and policy development ensuring consistent compliance frameworks riskbased procedures and strategic initiativessuch as automation monitoring upgrades and regulatory change effortsthat elevate the maturity of the regional AML function.

Western Union Competencies:

• Customer Focus
  • Engage regularly with internal stakeholders and APAC regulators to strengthen compliance delivery and protect customer trust by anticipating regulatory risks and ensuring a resilient operating environment.
• Management & Planning
  • Designs and oversees complex regional compliance processes executes APAC priorities and leads transformation initiatives that improve efficiency automation and regulatory alignment.
• Business Expertise
  • Brings advanced understanding of APAC regulatory environments global AML/CTF trends and financial crime risks; advises senior leaders on regulatory impacts business expansion and enterprise risk strategy.
• Leadership
  • Leads multicountry compliance teams and influences senior crossfunctional stakeholders; sets vision drives performance and builds future compliance leadership across the region.

Core Factors:

Functional Knowledge

• Demonstrates deep expertise in AML/CTF regulations financial crime typologies and APAC regulatory environments.
• Interprets complex regulatory developments and translates emerging risks into actionable compliance strategies.
• Applies advanced understanding of crossjurisdictional supervisory expectations and regulatory change impacts.
• Recognized subjectmatter expert who advises senior leadership and guides enterprisewide compliance initiatives.

Area of Impact

• Influences multiple country compliance teams and shapes regional risk outcomes across APAC.
• It impacts the organizations regulatory posture licensing obligations and operational resilience.
• Drives consistent scalable and riskaligned implementation of AML/CTF frameworks across diverse markets.
• Partners with business units risk teams and global compliance functions to strengthen execution across countries.

Nature of Impact

• Ensures the effectiveness and continuous improvement of AML controls and regulatory compliance programs.
• Shapes longterm compliance strategies and leads the organization through regulatory change.
• Reinforces a strong culture of risk awareness accountability and regulatory compliance.
• Acts as an escalation point for highrisk issues requiring advanced judgment and enterpriselevel perspective.

Problem Solving

• Apply advanced analytical and conceptual thinking to resolve complex multijurisdictional compliance challenges.
• Addresses ambiguous regulatory expectations emerging risks and crossregional inconsistencies.
• Designs longterm forwardlooking compliance solutions and remediation plans.
• Provides expert guidance on escalated issues and influences senior leaders to adopt effective riskmitigation strategies.

Role Requirements

• 1215 years of AML/financial crime or regulatory risk experience in global or multinational financial services including 7 years leading crosscountry or crossfunctional teams and working directly with regulators across multiple APAC jurisdictions.
• Demonstrated success managing enterpriselevel AML/CTF programs major remediation initiatives regulatory exams and crossregional projects with proven experience providing strategic advice to senior executives and shaping complex compliance frameworks.
• Bachelors degree required (Business Finance Law Criminal Justice Risk Economics or related field); advanced degree preferred (JD MBA or Masters in Compliance/Financial Crime).
• Industry certifications strongly preferred such as ACAMS (CAMS CGSS CCAS CAMSFCI) ICA Diplomas in AML/Financial Crime/GRC or relevant risk/audit certifications (e.g. CRCM CRMA).

Additional Skills:

• Advanced expertise in AML/CTF frameworks including FATF standards typologies and regulatory expectations across multiple APAC jurisdictions with strong capability in leading complex regulatory engagements and multicountry examinations.

• Advanced skills in risk assessment control design and crossmarket program alignment supported by strong project/program management experience and the ability to interpret data trends oversee analytics and leverage AML technologies (TM sanctions KYC/CDD automation AI/ML).

• Advanced leadership and strategic capabilities including leading multicountry teams shaping longterm compliance strategy and influencing senior stakeholders across complex matrixed environments.

• Advanced judgment communication and crosscultural collaboration skills with the ability to make highimpact decisions communicate effectively at the executive level and drive innovation problemsolving and consistent compliance outcomes across diverse APAC markets.

Work Shift

Western Union values in-person collaboration problem solving and ideation whenever possible. We believe this fosters common ways of working and supports how we execute initiatives for our customers. The expectation is to work from the office a minimum of three days a week.

BENEFITS AND OTHER DETAILS

Benefits

You will also have access to short-term incentives accident and life insurance and access to best-in-class development platforms to name a few ( Please see the location-specific benefits below and note that your Recruiter may share additional role-specific benefits during your interview process or in an offer of employment.

Your Australia specific benefits include:

• Life / Accident Coverage
• Superannuation Plan
• Paid Time Offs
• Employee Wellness
• Global Recognition and Rewards Programs

Other Details

We are passionate about honoring our employees identity and fostering a feeling of belonging. Our commitment is to provide an inclusive culture that celebrates the unique backgrounds and perspectives of our global teams while reflecting the communities we serve. We do not discriminate based on race color national origin religion political affiliation sex (including pregnancy) sexual orientation gender identity age disability marital status or veteran status. The company will provide accommodation to applicants including those with disabilities during the recruitment process following applicable laws.

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Estimated Job Posting End Date:

This application window is a good-faith estimate of the time that this posting will remain open. This posting will be promptly updated if the deadline is extended or the role is filled.