Sanctions Advisor 12 Month FTC

Sanctions Advisor 12 Month Fixed Term Contract

Join our Global Financial Crime Team as a Sanctions Advisor within OGC (Office of the General Counsel). The Sanctions Advisor is a specialist member of the global Financial Crime Team. The role supports the effective operation of the sanctions and export controls framework by providing practical, risk-based advice, leading the review of higher-risk referrals and overseeing lower-risk work allocated to other colleagues.

The Advisor works globally with business, Legal, Compliance, Operations and technology colleagues and escalates novel, high-profile, challenged or governance-sensitive matters to the Sanctions Director.

The Role

Sanctions advisory and case management 

• Lead and manage sanctions referrals in SMART, including complex or higher-risk matters involving trade sanctions, ownership and control, licensing, controlled goods, high-risk territories and multi-jurisdictional considerations. 
• Approve or decline referrals within delegated authority, documenting the analysis, rationale, conditions and required follow-up. 
• Review complex claims matters, including potential sanctioned-party involvement, blocked or frozen funds, licensing or derogation considerations, and sensitive marine or cross-border issues. 
• Review escalated payment-screening matters, true matches and high-risk-territory scenarios, with clear escalation of novel, challenged or material cases. 
• Handle escalations arising from Passfort, KYC WFT, Maxsight and other relevant screening or due-diligence processes. 
• Support investigations into suspected, alleged or actual sanctions or export-control breaches, including preparation of technical analysis, evidence and recommendations for corrective or remedial action. 

Advice, guidance and horizon scanning 

• Provide clear, practical sanctions and export controls advice to business, Compliance, Legal and Operations colleagues. 
• Monitor sanctions and export-control developments, assess potential business impact, report material changes to the Sanctions Director and support the implementation of agreed changes to policies, procedures, systems, controls, guidance and training. 
• Draft and maintain guidance, decision tools, standard wording and communications for the Sanctions Hub and other approved channels. 
• Identify unusual themes, control weaknesses or recurring referral trends and escalate them with recommended actions. 

Policies, procedures, training and assurance 

• Support the development, annual review and enhancement of global sanctions policies, procedures, SOPs, process maps and decision trees. 
• Contribute to tailored and annual sanctions training, including preparation of materials and delivery to relevant business and control-function audiences. 
• Support internal audit, monitoring and remediation activity by preparing evidence, technical analysis and training materials. 
• Perform or support quality assurance of reassigned sanctions work and help maintain clear, proportionate escalation standards. 

Operations, systems and management information 

• Support effective triage of the sanctions mailbox, ensuring routine matters are handled through approved playbooks and technical matters are escalated appropriately. 
• Help maintain SMART workflows and business rules, validate sanctions logic, and support testing, defect management and system enhancements with Technology and project teams. 
• Contribute to sanctions management information, dashboards and reporting, including the definition and documentation of appropriate metrics and limitations. 
• Maintain complete and accurate case records, decision logs and audit trails. 

Projects and stakeholder engagement 

• Support the Sanctions Director on strategic and operational projects, including discrete analysis, documentation, testing, implementation and change-management activities. 
• Build effective relationships across the business and with Compliance, Legal, Operations and other Financial Crime colleagues. 
• Prepare technical input, fact packs and briefing materials for complex matters, investigations, audit activity, committees or external legal advice as directed. 
• Support the Sanctions Director and Legal, as directed, with export-control or sanctions licence applications, licence administration, record keeping and related reporting obligations. 
• Support the preparation of briefing materials for regulatory, industry and committee engagement and represent the sanctions team at internal or external forums where authorised by the Sanctions Director. 
• Promote proportionate, consistent and commercially practical application of sanctions controls while protecting the organisation from legal, regulatory and reputational risk. 

Decision-making and escalation 

• Exercise delegated judgement on sanctions referrals and provide a clear, evidence-based recommendation or decision. 
• Escalate matters that are novel, high-profile, challenged, outside delegated authority or likely to require a policy, governance, regulatory, licensing or external-counsel decision. 
• Distinguish between technical sanctions advice and matters that should be owned by Legal, local Compliance, Operations, the business or another specialist function. 
• Apply approved procedures consistently while recognising when a case requires enhanced review or a bespoke risk assessment.