FinCrime Data Analyst Lead

Job Description

Purpose of the role

To enable data-driven strategic and operational decision making through extracting actionable insights from large datasets, performing statistical and advanced analytics to uncover trends and patterns, and presenting findings through clear visualisations and reports.

Accountabilities

• Investigation and analysis of data issues related to quality, lineage, controls, and authoritative source identification, documenting data sources, methodologies, and quality findings with recommendations for improvement
• Designing and building data pipelines to automate data movement and processing.
• Apply advanced analytical techniques to large datasets to uncover trends and correlations, develop validated logical data models, and translate insights into actionable business recommendations that drive operational and process improvements, leveraging machine learning/AI.
• Through data-driven analysis, translate analytical findings into actionable business recommendations, identifying opportunities for operational and process improvements.
• Design and create interactive dashboards and visual reports using applicable tools and automate reporting processes for regular and ad-hoc stakeholder needs.

Vice President Expectations

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.

Join us as a FinCrime Agile Data Analyst - VP at Barclays, where you will act as the Data Analytics Lead for Financial Crime Agile Testing. You will oversee data analytics work performed within the Agile Testing team and define the analytical testing approach for individual reviews. Working in partnership with Agile Testing colleagues, you will translate review triggers into executable objectives, hypotheses and data analytics testing plans, provide input to review scope, and determine data requirements and analytical design. You will quality-control analytical scripts and outputs, communicate data-led findings and observations to stakeholders, and act as the escalation route for Data Analytics Specialists and Analysts. Through independent judgement, technical assurance and constructive challenge, you will help deliver timely, risk-based and hypothesis-led testing of Financial Crime processes and controls.

Purpose of the Role

To oversee and lead the data analytics work supporting Financial Crime Agile Testing reviews. The role determines the overall data analytics approach, defines executable analytical objectives, hypotheses and testing plans for individual reviews, provides quality control over analytical scripts and outputs, and translates data into testable insight that supports assessment of the operational effectiveness of Financial Crime controls.

Key Accountabilities

·       Oversee data analytics work performed within the Financial Crime Agile Testing team, including defining the data analytics testing strategy required for individual reviews.

·       Translate review triggers into executable objectives, hypotheses and data analytics testing plans, providing data-led input to scoping decisions in collaboration with non-Data Analytics review colleagues.

·       Provide leadership and technical oversight for the development of analytical test objectives, methodologies and scripts using SQL, Python and SAS; review and approve analytical work to support robust and reproducible testing outcomes.

·       Identify and agree data needs and analytical design with the Agile Testing Lead during review planning and test-plan development.

·       Coordinate delivery of analytics with the Agile Testing Lead during testing execution, while Data Analytics Specialists and Analysts design scripts, source data and perform analysis.

·       Perform quality-control reviews of analytical scripts, including SQL, SAS and Python, designed by Data Analytics Specialists and/or Data Analytics Analysts, challenging logic, assumptions, data quality, caveats and the sufficiency of analytical evidence.

·       Review analytical outputs and workpaper content to support clear, accurate and reproducible documentation of the testing performed, evidence obtained and conclusions supported by the analysis.

·       Interpret and communicate findings and observations arising from data analytics testing to external stakeholders and provide analytical insight and draft input to review conclusions and reporting.

·       Act as the escalation route for Data Analytics Specialists and Analysts, addressing analytical judgement matters within authority and escalating material risk, scope, timeline or stakeholder issues where appropriate.

·       Work alongside the Agile Testing Lead as part of stage-gate oversight and peer cross-review, preserving independent challenge and clear accountability between Testing and Data Analytics roles.

·       Support the ongoing review and improvement of data analytics requirements within the Agile Testing methodology and contribute to efficient, risk-based and hypothesis-led review delivery.

·       Maintain independence and objectivity, ensure timely escalation, secure evidence retention, data-privacy compliance and high-quality documentation across data analytics work.

Stakeholder Management and Leadership

The role requires strong engagement across business teams and larger FinCrime Agile testing team. The VP determines the overall data analytics approach and analytical scoping decisions for individual reviews. The role exercises independent judgement when setting analytical hypotheses and approaches, reviews work completed by Data Analytics Specialists and Analysts, and acts as their escalation route. The role also contributes to the strategic development of the Financial Crime Agile Testing analytics capability and adoption of improved tools and techniques

Basic / Essential Qualifications

·       Strong experience leading data analytics work in Financial Crime, Compliance, Risk, Audit, Assurance or another control-testing environment.

·       Strong SQL and Python capability, including the ability to review and challenge analytical scripts, logic, assumptions and outputs developed by others.

·       Experience translating risk or review triggers into analytical objectives, hypotheses, testing plans, data requirements and executable analytical approaches.

·       Strong understanding of Financial Crime processes, risks and controls across relevant domains such as AML, Sanctions, Customer Due Diligence/KYC, Fraud or Transaction Monitoring.

·       Experience applying data analytics to assess control effectiveness using full-population or targeted testing approaches.

·       Strong technical assurance, critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, including the ability to identify data-quality issues, anomalies, control weaknesses, caveats and limitations.

·       Experience reviewing analytical evidence and workpapers to determine whether testing outputs sufficiently support observations and conclusions.

·       Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain analytical findings clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

·       Strong stakeholder engagement, collaboration and constructive-challenge skills, with the ability to exercise independent judgement and escalate appropriately.

·       Ability to coordinate analytical delivery, provide technical guidance and act as an escalation point for Data Analytics Specialists and Analysts.

Desirable Skillsets

·       Experience contributing to Financial Crime assurance or Agile Testing methodology and improving analytical testing standards or ways of working.

·       Experience with SAS, data visualisation tools such as Tableau, statistical analysis, data mining or AI-enabled analytics.

·       Experience developing reusable analytical assets or automated testing approaches that improve testing efficiency, consistency or coverage.

·       Knowledge of advanced statistical or machine-learning techniques used to identify patterns, trends and relationships in data.

·       Working knowledge of AWS cloud services, LLM architectures, including responsible AI principles and appropriate solution validation.

You may be assessed on key critical skills relevant for success in the role, including technical assurance, critical thinking, Financial Crime risk and control analysis, root-cause analysis, systems proficiency, stakeholder engagement, collaboration and data analytics using SQL and Python, as well as job-specific skillsets.

Role is based out of Pune.