Senior Manager, Change Lead – Affiliates (Fixed Term) – Sydney, Australia
The Senior Manager – Change Lead is responsible for leading the end-to-end uplift of AML/CTF capabilities across affiliate entities, with a particular focus on aligning affiliate practices to enterprise standards and regulatory expectations.
The role acts as the primary subject matter expert in driving the design, delivery and embedment of key financial crime initiatives impacting Western Union’s retail affiliate network, to ensure the AML/CTF frameworks are regulatory aligned, operationally effective, defensible to AUSTRAC and sustainable overtime. Key responsibilities include AML/CTF policy roll-out, training, risk assessment, and associated uplifts relating to ongoing and enhanced due diligence processes and procedures.
The role will also oversee the establishment and operationalization of appropriate governance, documentation, and stakeholder engagement across affiliate-related AML/CTF initiatives, ensuring effective integration of enhanced AML/CTF controls into day-to-day operations, risk management practices, and decision-making as they relate to Western Union’s retail and affiliate network.
An opportunity to join Western Union’s Compliance Team on a full-time basis for a 12-month period.
Role Responsibilities:
Affiliate AML/CTF Program Rollout
- Lead the rollout and implementation of the AML/CTF program across the retail affiliate network, translating policy updates into operational procedures, controls, and business processes.
- Ensure consistent adoption and embedding of program requirements across all affiliates and internal teams.
- Redesign and optimize ongoing and enhanced due diligence processes; identify and address inefficiencies, control gaps and compliance risks.
- Develop and implement due diligence frameworks for affiliate personnel and establish screening, onboarding and ongoing monitoring requirements.
- Support the design and implementation of affiliate risk assessment frameworks.
Change Leadership & Delivery
- Act as the accountable change lead for the affiliate AML/CTF Program, owning scope, roadmap, milestones, dependencies and delivery artefacts.
- Translate regulatory and risk requirements into clear, executable changes across people, process, governance and technology.
- Support cross‑functional delivery across local, regional and global compliance, risk, operations, technology, data and business teams.
Regulatory & Audit Readiness
- Lead the rollout and embedding of AML/CTF Program across the retail affiliate network.
- Ensure alignment between Group policy and affiliate-level execution, identifying and managing any deviations or risks.
- Ensure the uplifted affiliate ML/TF risk assessment is fully documented, auditable and defensible in regulatory reviews and independent evaluations.
- Support the local, regional and global compliance teams in their response to findings, issues or recommendations relating to Affiliate ML/TF risk assessment design and implementation.
Governance & Reporting
- Establish and maintain robust governance structures for change initiatives.
- Prepare high-quality reporting for executive stakeholders and risk committees.
- Track progress, risks, issues, and dependencies across affiliate programs and ensure adherence to internal risk frameworks, audit requirements, and regulatory expectations.
Capability & Embedment
- Develop and deliver AML/CTF training programs tailored to affiliate teams, including frontline, operations, and compliance staff.
- Support capability uplifts through coaching, workshops, and knowledge transfer.
- Embed sustainable training frameworks for ongoing compliance.
Role Requirements:
- Bachelor’s or master’s Degree preferred. Professional certifications in AML/CTF or risk management (e.g. CAMS or equivalent) highly desirable.
- At least 7+ years of experience in AML/CTF compliance. Experience working in a regulatory setting will be highly desirable.
Additional Skills:
- Leadership experience delivering complex regulatory or financial crime change programs within a financial institution.
- Deep practical knowledge of AML/CTF processes, particularly CDD/OCDD/ECDD, personnel diligence and risk assessment methodologies. Practical experience in a similar industry would be highly desirable.
- Strong governance, stakeholder management and executive communication capability.
- Experience delivering ML/TF risk assessment uplifts in response to regulatory reform, enforcement action or supervisory remediation.
Work Shift
Western Union values in-person collaboration, problem solving, and ideation whenever possible. We believe this fosters common ways of working and supports how we execute initiatives for our customers. The expectation is to work from the office a minimum of three days a week.
BENEFITS AND OTHER DETAILS
Benefits
You will also have access to short-term incentives, accident and life insurance, and access to best-in-class development platforms, to name a few (https://careers.westernunion.com/global-benefits/). Please see the location-specific benefits below and note that your Recruiter may share additional role-specific benefits during your interview process or in an offer of employment.
Your Australia specific benefits include:
- Life / Accident Coverage
- Superannuation Plan
- Paid Time Offs
- Employee Wellness
- Global Recognition and Rewards Programs
Other Details
We are passionate about honoring our employee's identity and fostering a feeling of belonging. Our commitment is to provide an inclusive culture that celebrates the unique backgrounds and perspectives of our global teams while reflecting the communities we serve. We do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, religion, political affiliation, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, marital status, or veteran status. The company will provide accommodation to applicants, including those with disabilities, during the recruitment process, following applicable laws.
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Estimated Job Posting End Date:
06-30-2026
This application window is a good-faith estimate of the time that this posting will remain open. This posting will be promptly updated if the deadline is extended or the role is filled.
