Senior Financial Crime Operations Specialist (AFC) (f/m/x)

As our Senior Financial Crime Operations Specialist (AFC), you will be the sole dedicated AFC Operations specialist in the first line of defence. This is a high-ownership role: you will shape the AFC operating model from the ground up, owning hands-on operations while building the processes, controls, workflows and documentation needed to support a growing regulated business.

You will work closely with the MLRO and Second Line of Defence on oversight, escalation and regulatory matters, and with Customer Lifecycle, Product, Engineering and Operations to make AFC controls effective, scalable and audit-ready.

During your first 6–12 months, you will establish and improve processes covering transaction monitoring, customer screening, Source of Wealth reviews, investigations and regulatory information requests, while identifying opportunities to improve efficiency through better workflows, tooling and automation.

This role is for someone who enjoys autonomy, brings structure to evolving environments and can influence stakeholders across teams. You will not be joining a AFC operations team; you will be the main hands-on AFC Operations owner and will have the opportunity to shape how the function develops.

In this role you will:

• Own hands-on AFC operations across transaction monitoring, customer screening, Source of Wealth reviews, investigations and regulatory information requests. You will make risk-based decisions and collaborate with the MLRO and Second Line of Defence on escalations and suspicious activity reporting.
• Build and maintain the AFC operating model by translating regulatory requirements and risk assessments into clear controls, workflows, work instructions, ownership and audit-ready documentation across the customer lifecycle.
• Improve and optimise AFC processes and workflows, identifying opportunities to reduce manual effort, strengthen control effectiveness and increase operational efficiency through automation and better tooling.
• Partner with Product and Engineering to define operational requirements and implement practical workflow, tooling and automation improvements. You do not need to be a software engineer, but you should be comfortable working with technical teams to turn AFC needs into effective solutions.
• Manage stakeholders across Customer Lifecycle, Product, Engineering, Operations, Banking and Investing, as well as external partners, acting as the main AFC subject-matter expert and building alignment across teams with different priorities.

You’ll be successful in this role if you:

• Bring substantial hands-on experience in financial crime or AFC operations within a regulated financial-services, fintech, banking, payments or investment environment.
• Have professional fluency in written and spoken German, enabling you to work independently with German-speaking stakeholders, and communicate confidently in English. German and English communication skills are required for this role.
• Have a proven track record of building, documenting, standardising and optimising AFC or financial-crime processes, controls and workflows, including identifying automation opportunities and partnering with Product, Engineering or other technical teams to implement effective improvements.
• Have practical experience handling suspicious activity cases, preparing or contributing to suspicious activity or transaction reports, and using goAML or a comparable reporting system.
• Can translate regulatory requirements, risk assessments and control expectations into clear, consistently applied, documented and audit-ready operational procedures, with a solid understanding of relevant German and European financial-crime requirements.
• Have strong stakeholder-management skills and the confidence to act as the main AFC subject-matter expert across regulatory, operational, business and technical teams.
• Are comfortable working independently, taking ownership and bringing structure to ambiguity while building AFC Operations without an established team around you.

How we take care of you

• 🚀 Compensation package: We offer you a competitive salary, based on your experience and the value-add you bring to lemon.markets.
• 🕑 Flexible working hours: We trust people to choose when they work best and avoid a rigid 9 to 5 mindset. You decide on the rhythm that helps you do your best work, with only shared core hours from 12:00 to 16:00 to support collaboration.
• 🏢 Hybrid work setup: You can work from anywhere in Germany within a hybrid model. At the same time, in-person collaboration is a key part of our culture. That being said, individual contributer lemoneers work 4 days or more per month on-site in our Berlin office, spending quality time together with the team at events, onsites/offsites or over team dinners.
• 📈 Grow with us: We take your personal development seriously! You’ll get regular mentorship and stretch opportunities, a clear career development framework with frequent feedback conversations as well as an annual learning budget.
• 🌱 People & culture: You’ll feel our culture in the small things, like Polaroids from our lemoneers’ first day and our monthly new-joiner breakfasts. But also in the bigger things, like celebrating the onboarding of new partners or our annual offsites, where the whole company comes together to connect, reflect, and celebrate.
• 💛 Perks & benefits: We choose benefits that add actual value. We sponsor a Deutschlandticket for employees on unlimited contracts, plus 50% off on Beatvest - our partner for financial education and investing.
• 🏝 Workation: Get out of here! At lemon.markets you can work remotely from anywhere in the EU for up to 10 consecutive days at a time, and up to 60 days per year in total.

As an equal opportunity employer, lemon.markets is committed to building an inclusive workplace. The company welcomes people from all different backgrounds, including age, citizenship, ethnic and racial origins, gender identities, individuals with disabilities, marital status, religions and ideologies, and sexual orientations to apply.

If you feel this role could be a great match for you even if you don’t tick every box, we’d still love to hear from you, please apply.

You have any questions? Feel free to contact us via

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Quelle: Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis), Tabelle; dl-de/by-2-0; eigene Berechnung