Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) / Nominated Officer - United Kingdom (United Kingdom)

Summary: The Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) will lead Shopify's UK Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF) initiatives as the company seeks its Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license. This role involves overseeing the licensing process, managing day-to-day AML/CTF operations, and ensuring compliance with regulatory expectations. The MLRO will also serve as a key liaison with regulatory authorities and maintain the effectiveness of the AML program. The position requires significant experience in AML/CTF leadership within a UK-regulated financial institution.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead effort to obtain EMI license in the UK, including designing our AML/CTF program to align with the UK's financial crimes regulations.
• Act as a key interface for the FCA and other relevant authorities on financial crime topics (information requests, meetings, supervisory engagement).
• Own and maintain the UK entity’s risk-based AML/CTF program (risk assessment, policies, procedures, controls, and governance cadence).
• Lead UK suspicious activity governance: receive internal escalations, make SAR filing decisions, submit SARs to the NCA, and manage post-filing confidentiality and follow-up.
• Oversee UK AML operations performance and effectiveness, including KYC/CDD/EDD standards, investigations, transaction monitoring and screening governance, and quality assurance/testing.
• Provide regular reporting to senior management and the entity’s board; escalate material issues promptly.
• Maintain audit/exam readiness and drive remediation of findings.

Key Skills:

• Significant AML/CTF leadership experience in a UK-regulated or UK-facing financial institution (payments/e-money strongly preferred), including ownership of a risk-based AML program.
• Direct MLRO / nominated officer experience (or demonstrably equivalent responsibility) including SAR decisioning and filing and management of SAR confidentiality constraints.
• Strong working knowledge of UK AML expectations for payments/e-money firms, including CDD/EDD, transaction monitoring, sanctions screening governance, investigations, and recordkeeping.
• Experience working collaboratively in building or scaling AML controls for new products, high-growth volumes, or distributed operations teams.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with a management board and to provide concise, defensible escalation and reporting.
• Experience engaging with regulators/supervisors and managing audit/exam activity and remediation.
• Ability to meet “fit and proper” expectations for a regulated key control role (including background screening).
• Ability to travel for in-person meetings, as needed (e.g., with regulators, financial partners).
• Nice to have: CAMS / ICA or comparable certification.

Salary (Rate): undetermined

City: undetermined

Country: United Kingdom

Working Arrangements: undetermined

IR35 Status: undetermined

Seniority Level: undetermined

Industry: Other