Model Validation & Model Management Lead- Remote

FDM is a global business and technology consultancy seeking a Model Validation & Model Management Lead to work for our client within the Financial Services sector. This is initially a 3-month contract with the potential to extend and will be a fully remote role based in London.

Our client is seeking an experienced professional to lead the governance, oversight and continuous improvement of Transaction Monitoring models within their Financial Crime function. The successful candidate will be responsible for managing the end-to-end model lifecycle, ensuring compliance with regulatory expectations, overseeing validation activities, and driving the prioritisation and remediation of model risks. This role will work closely with Financial Crime, Model Risk Management, Technology and Operations stakeholders to ensure Transaction Monitoring models remain effective, compliant and aligned to business objectives.

• Own and maintain the Transaction Monitoring model management roadmap, ensuring alignment with financial crime strategy, business priorities and regulatory requirements.
• Drive model prioritisation activities, balancing model risk, validation findings, regulatory commitments and resource constraints.
• Coordinate and oversee model validation activities, ensuring findings, recommendations and model risks are documented, tracked and remediated.
• Partner with Model Risk Management, Financial Crime and Technology stakeholders to deliver robust model governance and validation outcomes.
• Define and communicate governance priorities, validation outcomes and remediation plans to key stakeholders and governance forums.
• Maintain oversight of the end-to-end model lifecycle, including development, implementation, validation, monitoring, change management and retirement.
• Track and manage remediation of audit findings, regulatory commitments, risk acceptance actions and validation observations.
• Represent Transaction Monitoring models within governance and prioritisation forums, ensuring focus on the highest-risk areas.
• Monitor model performance metrics and leverage risk insights, regulatory feedback and stakeholder input to drive continuous improvement.
• Manage dependencies across Transaction Monitoring, Financial Crime Operations, Data and Technology teams to ensure model compliance and effectiveness.

• Strong experience in Transaction Monitoring, Financial Crime, AML, KYC or broader Financial Crime Compliance programmes.
• Proven background in model governance, model validation, model risk management or model lifecycle management within a regulated financial services environment.
• Experience working with Transaction Monitoring systems such as Quantexa
• Strong understanding of regulatory expectations relating to model governance, model validation and financial crime controls.
• Experience managing regulatory commitments, audit findings, remediation programmes and risk mitigation activities.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills with experience engaging senior leaders across Risk, Compliance, Technology and Operations functions.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities with the ability to assess model performance and identify improvement opportunities.
• Experience leading governance forums, prioritisation activities and cross-functional delivery initiatives.
• Ability to translate complex technical and regulatory requirements into actionable business outcomes.
• Strong communication and presentation skills with experience influencing decision-making at senior levels.
• Minimum of 7+ years' experience in Financial Crime, Model Risk Management, Transaction Monitoring, Analytics Governance or a related discipline within Financial Services.

Desirable

• Experience managing Transaction Monitoring model validation programmes within a large banking environment.
• Familiarity with UK, EU and international AML/CTF regulatory frameworks.
• Experience working with data analytics, SQL, Python, SAS or other model-related analytical tools.
• Relevant professional qualifications within Financial Crime, Risk Management or Compliance