Compliance Manager - Sanctions

Role Overview

Compliance Manager - Sanctions at Mashreq, a leading financial institution in MENA. The Senior Manager, Trade Sanctions Compliance holds responsibility for the Bank's trade sanctions risk posture, providing authoritative subject matter expertise, senior stakeholder management, and people leadership across the trade sanctions function.

Company Overview

Mashreq is a leading financial institution in MENA with more than half a century of history. The organization thinks like a challenger, startup, and innovator in banking and finance, powered by a diverse and dynamic team focused on customers first. The mandate is to help customers Rise Every Day by partnering with them through challenges to help reach their goals and unlock their unique vision of success. The organization delivers superior service to clients by leading with innovation, treating colleagues with dignity and fairness while pursuing opportunities that grow shareholder value, and actively contributes to the community through responsible banking to inspire more people to Rise.

Role Purpose

The role acts as the principal escalation point for high-complexity trade sanctions matters, shapes the Group's control framework for trade and correspondent banking exposure, and represents the department in regulatory, audit, and executive-level forums. The incumbent operates with a high degree of autonomy, sound commercial judgment, and the gravitas to influence senior business and control-function stakeholders, while supporting senior management in meeting regulatory obligations and ensuring consistent and effective application of sanctions-related global standards, policies and procedures across the Bank.

Key Responsibilities

Sanctions Risk Leadership

• Own the trade sanctions risk framework, setting direction on screening methodology, risk appetite application, and control design for trade finance instruments and cross-border payments.
• Serve as escalation point on the most complex sanctions determinations, including dual-use goods, ownership-and-control structures, evasion typologies, and high-risk jurisdiction exposure.
• Set and continuously evolve red-flag typologies, escalation thresholds, and adjudication standards in line with OFAC, OFSI, EU, UN, and CBUAE regimes and their extraterritorial application.
• Advise the business and line management on sanctions risk implications of new trade products, correspondent relationships, market entry, and structured transactions, exercising independent and defensible judgment.

Regulatory & Executive Stakeholder Management

• Represent the trade sanctions function in regulatory engagement or with correspondent banks, on sanctions exposure and control effectiveness.
• Lead the department's input into regulatory examinations, thematic reviews, and audit engagements, taking personal accountability for the quality and defensibility of responses.
• Brief line management and update relevant governance committees on trade sanctions risk trends, control gaps, and remediation progress.

People Leadership

• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing team of sanctions professionals, setting performance standards, succession plans, and technical development pathways.
• Instill a culture of rigorous judgment, regulatory awareness, and accountability, acting as a role model for the department's standards of conduct.
• Manage capacity planning, quality assurance, and talent decisions across the trade sanctions team, including hiring and performance management.

Programme & Change Leadership

• Lead major trade sanctions initiatives — screening system enhancements, control uplift, regulatory change implementation — owning scope, governance, and delivery against executive-level commitments.
• Partner with Technology, Operations, and other control functions to drive automation, process re-engineering, and control efficiency across trade sanctions screening.
• Manage budgets, resourcing, and cross-functional stakeholder alignment for initiatives within remit.

Governance, Reporting & Anti-Financial Crime Alignment

• Own policy and procedure development for trade sanctions controls, ensuring consistent application across UAE and international branches and subsidiaries.
• Ensure trade sanctions controls operate as an integrated part of the Group's broader financial crime compliance framework, working closely with AML/CFT, transaction monitoring, and financial crime investigations teams on cross-typology risks such as trade-based money laundering and proliferation financing.
• Contribute sanctions and trade-risk perspective to Group-wide financial crime risk assessments, typology reviews, and enterprise-wide risk assessment (EWRA) updates.
• Support a coordinated approach to suspicious activity identification and reporting where trade sanctions concerns intersect with money laundering or terrorist financing indicators.
• Prepare senior management information on trade sanctions and related financial crime risk indicators, ensuring accurate, timely, and decision-useful reporting.

Record Keeping

• Maintain all records of the unit in a confidential and secure state.
• Adhere to record retention policy and the SOP guidelines.
• Support the collation of potential breaches from across the Bank and work with contacts in Business and Compliance to ensure consistent and effective application and implementation of, and controls to evidence adherence to, relevant sanctions-related global standards, policies and procedures.

Qualifications & Experience

• Graduate with 10+ years of banking or financial services experience, with extensive experience in Sanctions or AML or Financial Crime Compliance functions in a senior capacity.
• Sound understanding of trade finance and payments products and their sanctions and financial crime risk touchpoints.
• Sound knowledge of global sanctions frameworks (OFAC, EU, UK, UN, UAE) with deep understanding of UAE and broader Middle East regulatory landscape, market practices, and trade corridors.
• Demonstrated people leadership experience, with a track record of building and developing high-performing teams.
• ACAMS Certified or other recognized certification (desirable).

Skills & Competencies

• Strong analytical and reporting skills with ability to derive insights from complex data.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence senior business and regulatory stakeholders.
• Sound commercial and risk judgment capabilities on ambiguous, high-stakes cases.
• Ability to operate in a global, matrixed organization.
• Advanced computer literacy with good knowledge of MS Office tools.