Senior Quality Assurance Manager

Walkers; City of London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading international law and professional services firm in London is seeking a Senior Manager for the Quality Assurance team. This role involves overseeing the QA strategy, managing a high-performing team, and ensuring compliance with AML and KYC regulations. The ideal candidate will possess expert knowledge of financial crime regulations and strong leadership skills. This position offers a hybrid working environment with 50% office presence.

Qualifications

• Expert-level knowledge of AML, KYC, and financial crime regulations.
• Experience of designing advanced QA frameworks and methodologies.
• Proven track record of developing and managing high-performing teams.

Responsibilities

• Drive high performance and accuracy in quality checks through effective leadership.
• Manage the delivery of the QA strategy across client onboarding.
• Oversee QA frameworks and ensure consistent application of policies.

Skills

Expert-level knowledge of AML, KYC, and financial crime regulations

Experience of designing advanced QA frameworks

Strong written and verbal communication skills

Excellent people management skills

Ability to influence and negotiate cross-functionally

Education

Relevant degree or equivalent experience

Job description

We are a leading international law and professional services firm providing legal, corporate and fiduciary services to global corporations, financial institutions, capital market participants and investment fund managers. With a global presence spanning the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, we advise on the laws of Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Ireland and Jersey.

We treat everyone as the intelligent professional they are. Our approach is to trust and empower our people to deliver consistently, and enable them to succeed. Diversity is our secret weapon – it’s the sheer breadth of Walkers people that makes us who we are – gathered from across the globe and fluent in languages, jurisdictions and cultures that help us to mirror our clients and keep our own thinking in tune with the world in which we operate.

Overview of role

Office : London (50% Hybrid applies)

The Quality Assurance (QA) team plays a critical oversight function within the Firm's Compliance department. Their role is to independently assess the client vetting processes in the Business Acceptance and Regulatory Monitoring & Investigations (RM&I) teams and identify individual and systemic trends. The team takes a partnership approach to the Compliance department and is responsible for coaching the Analysts, maintaining relationships with external vendors and enhancing overall quality scores through targeted training.

The Senior Manager ensures that the team is effective, consistent, and aligned with the Firm's risk management priorities. They are responsible for managing the end-to-end delivery of the QA strategy, overseeing QA frameworks, methodologies and communication standards, whilst leading cross‑functional activities with the Compliance, Risk and Operations teams. The post‑holder is expected to build and maintain strong working relationships with stakeholders across the business. An exceptional people leader, this role will also help build a team of highly competent trained Analysts that are subject matter experts, exceptional communicators and team players.

Please be advised this role requires you to be in the office for 50% of the time.

Duties, Responsibilities & Person Specification

• Leadership and team management: drive high performance, strong knowledge, accuracy and consistency in quality checks through effective team leadership and individual management.
• Own and manage the delivery of the QA strategy across client onboarding, periodic and trigger reviews.
• Oversee QA frameworks, methodologies, and communication standards, ensuring that the team applies policies consistently across all jurisdictions.
• Recommend improvements to internal policies, CDD/KYC procedures, QA frameworks and technology/systems.
• Produce regular reporting to senior management and governance committees, including trends, repeat issues, root cause analysis, jurisdictional performance, and quality improvement metrics.
• Act as the escalation point for complex or sensitive QA issues, making judgement calls where policies do not provide a clear answer.
• Recommend remediation steps for medium and high‑risk findings.
• Oversee training and development to enhance competence of internal and external teams.
• Champion a "quality culture" through commitment to the team's development to highly competent QA professionals; driving a best‑in‑class service, and providing regular and constructive feedback.
• Communicate quality standard, expectations and trends in regular communications such as bulletins and town halls to drive a quality culture.
• Deputise for the Head of Compliance Change and Delivery as and when required for QA matters.

Education, Skills & Experience

• Expert‑level knowledge of AML, KYC, and financial crime regulations.
• Experience of designing advanced QA frameworks and methodologies.
• Experience of regulatory reporting and preparing governance documentation.
• Knowledge of quality management information dashboards and experience of overseeing them.
• Plans for operational risk control and remediation.
• Proven track record of developing and managing high‑performing teams.
• Excellent people management skills, including giving feedback, coaching and improving performance.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to influence and negotiate cross‑functionally
• Excellent interpersonal skills with a proven track record of building collaborative working relationships across a business.
• Ability to simplify complex regulatory issues to a non‑technical audience.

Walkers global is an equal opportunity employer. Equality and diversity are key to our global identity and an integral part of our goal to continue being an employer of choice. We are committed to a work environment that supports all individuals irrespective of gender, ethnicity, nationality, race, religion, marital status, age, disability, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other applicable legally protected characteristics. We make every effort to ensure that employment opportunities are open and accessible to all purely on the basis of personal ability.