Compliance Officer Jobs: Where UK Regulated Firms Are Hiring

Compliance has rarely been a quiet market, but the shape of demand has changed. A few years ago most compliance officer jobs were full-time roles at established firms in the City. Today a large share of the work sits with smaller firms, newly authorised businesses and fast-growing fintechs, and much of it is part-time, interim or fractional. For an experienced compliance professional, that means more routes to a senior role than ever before, and more choice about how to work.

This article looks at why FCA-regulated firms are hiring compliance officers, which roles are in demand, what firms look for and how to find the opportunities worth pursuing. If you want to go straight to the vacancies, SMF Capital keeps an up-to-date list of compliance officer jobs and SMF16 roles at regulated firms across the UK.

Why Demand for Compliance Officers Keeps Growing

Several forces are pushing firms to hire, and most of them are not going away.

Personal accountability under the SMCR

Since the Senior Managers and Certification Regime was extended to solo-regulated firms, every FCA-regulated firm in scope has had to name the individuals responsible for its key functions. At most firms the person responsible for compliance oversight holds the SMF16 function. They need FCA approval before they start, they carry a Statement of Responsibilities, and they can be held personally accountable. Boards take the appointment seriously, and firms are more willing to pay for experience than they once were.

Consumer Duty

The FCA’s Consumer Duty raised the bar for every firm dealing with retail customers. Outcomes testing, fair value assessments and the annual board report all need someone to design and run them. Many firms discovered they had a compliance function built for a rules-based world and needed people who could work with outcomes and data. That has created steady demand for compliance officers and compliance managers with practical Consumer Duty experience.

Firms becoming directly authorised

Insurance brokers, mortgage and protection advisers and smaller investment firms are increasingly leaving networks to become directly authorised. Each one needs its own compliance framework and someone to hold SMF16, often combined with the MLRO role. These firms are some of the most consistent sources of new compliance officer jobs, and they tend to suit candidates who have worked inside a network or principal firm and understand how appointed representatives are supervised.

New authorisations and growth

Payments firms, e-money institutions, cryptoasset businesses and consumer credit lenders all need a credible compliance lead before the FCA will grant authorisation, and they need to keep one as they scale. Overseas groups setting up UK branches or subsidiaries need the same. These roles involve building rather than inheriting a framework, which many compliance professionals find the most rewarding work of their careers.

Supervisory pressure and remediation

When a firm receives a difficult letter from its supervisor, faces a skilled person review or finds a gap in its own monitoring, it often needs experienced compliance support quickly. That drives a large share of interim demand, and interim roles regularly turn into permanent ones.

The Compliance Jobs Most in Demand

The specialist team at SMF Capital sees the same role types come up again and again.

SMF16 compliance officer. The core senior compliance role at a firm within the SMCR. At smaller firms this is often a hands-on job covering advice, monitoring, training and regulatory reporting. At larger firms it leads a team. Many of these roles suit a first-time SMF16 stepping up from compliance manager or deputy head of compliance. The SMF Capital guide to SMF16 and SMF17 explains what the function involves.

Combined compliance officer and MLRO. Smaller firms often combine SMF16 with the SMF17 money laundering reporting function. Joint roles are among the most common enquiries the market sees, especially from brokers, advice firms and smaller investment firms. Candidates with credible financial crime experience alongside conduct compliance are in particularly strong demand, and can also look at the MLRO and financial crime jobs list.

Head of compliance and chief compliance officer. Mid-size and larger firms want leaders who can manage a team across advisory, monitoring and regulatory change, and who report confidently to the board and its risk or audit committee. These searches are often confidential.

Compliance managers and officers below SMF level. Firms continue to hire specialists in compliance monitoring, financial promotions, complaints oversight, client assets and SMCR administration. These are often the roles that lead to an SMF16 appointment within a few years.

Fractional and part-time SMF16. Smaller firms frequently need a senior compliance officer for one to four days a month rather than a full-time hire. Experienced, approved compliance officers can hold the role at more than one firm, provided each is satisfied they have the time to do it properly. The SMF Capital page on part-time compliance officers for small firms shows how these engagements typically work.

Which Sectors Are Hiring

Compliance experience does not transfer evenly between sectors, so it helps to know where your background counts most.

• Insurance brokers and MGAs: general insurance conduct rules, product governance and client money under CASS 5.
• Wealth management and financial advice: suitability, ongoing advice charges and RDR qualification expectations.
• Investment managers: market conduct, best execution and, for some, the investment firms prudential regime.
• Consumer credit: affordability, forbearance, complaints and heavy Consumer Duty scrutiny.
• Payments, e-money and fintech: safeguarding, financial promotions and rapid growth.
• Cryptoassets: financial promotions, the evolving FCA regime and strong overlap with financial crime.
• Banks and building societies: dual regulation with the PRA and larger compliance functions.

Firms will almost always prefer a candidate who already knows their permissions, products and customers. If you are trying to move sectors, be ready to explain how your experience translates, and consider an interim role as a way in.

What Compliance Officer Jobs Pay

Pay varies with firm size, sector and location. London roles pay more than regional ones, and the jump from a non-SMF compliance role to holding SMF16 is usually significant. Interim compliance officers and fractional SMF16 holders are typically paid a day rate or a monthly retainer. For current figures, the SMF and compliance salary guide sets out salary bands and day rates by role and firm size, and is worth reading before you discuss pay with any firm.

If you are weighing up interim or fractional work, check how the engagement will be treated under the off-payroll working rules. The same day rate can be worth noticeably less inside IR35.

What Firms Look For

Across hundreds of conversations with regulated firms, the same qualities come up repeatedly.

A monitoring programme you have run

Firms want to see a risk-based compliance monitoring plan you designed or owned, the findings it produced and how you made sure actions were completed. The SMF Capital guide to compliance monitoring is a good refresher on what good looks like.

Board reporting and challenge

A compliance officer has to tell the board things it may not want to hear. Expect interview questions about times you escalated an issue, pushed back on a product or promotion, or disagreed with a senior colleague, and how you handled it without losing the relationship.

Rule knowledge, applied

You will be expected to know the parts of the FCA Handbook that matter to the firm, starting with the compliance requirements in SYSC 6.1. More important is showing how you turn rules into workable processes the business actually follows.

Qualifications

Formal qualifications are not always required, but they help, particularly for a first SMF16 role. The International Compliance Association’s compliance diplomas are widely recognised, and CISI qualifications carry weight at wealth and investment firms.

A clean regulatory record

The firm must be satisfied that you are fit and proper, and the FCA will assess the same thing when it reviews an SMF16 application. Your regulatory references will cover six years. It is worth checking your entry on the FCA Financial Services Register and reading the SMF Capital guide to the fit and proper test before you apply.

Stepping Up to SMF16

Many compliance officer jobs are filled by people taking SMF16 for the first time. If you are a compliance manager, deputy head of compliance or senior compliance adviser, the key is evidence that you have already owned the work, even if someone else held the function. Draft the board reports, lead the monitoring plan, run the Consumer Duty assessment and handle the regulator’s information requests. When an opportunity arrives, those examples are what will get you over the line.

Once you have an offer, preparation for the FCA’s assessment matters. The guide to preparing for an FCA approval interview covers the usual ground, and the article on due diligence before you accept an SMF role explains what to ask a firm before you take on personal accountability for its compliance framework.

Finance and Regulated Roles Beyond Compliance

Regulated firms do not only hire compliance officers. They also need finance directors and CFOs who understand regulatory capital and reporting, non-executive directors to chair risk and audit committees, and experienced executives to fill other Senior Manager functions. Across FD Capital Group, FD Capital recruits finance leaders for regulated firms, NED Capital handles board and committee appointments, and SMF Capital focuses on the Senior Manager functions themselves. If your experience spans compliance and finance or governance, it may be worth speaking to more than one of them.

Why Many Compliance Jobs Never Reach a Job Board

A significant share of senior compliance roles are filled without a public advert. The incumbent may not yet have resigned, the firm may be under supervisory attention, or it may be preparing a confidential application for authorisation. In those cases the firm wants a shortlist from a trusted recruiter, not a flood of applications. The candidates who hear about these roles are the ones already registered with a specialist.

Registering is confidential. SMF Capital never shares a CV with a firm without the candidate’s agreement first, so you can make yourself known without any risk to your current role.

How to Find Your Next Compliance Role

1. Check the live compliance officer vacancies, which cover permanent, interim and fractional roles, with pay shown where the client has agreed to share it.
2. If you also have financial crime experience, look at the MLRO jobs too, since combined SMF16 and SMF17 roles appear on both lists.
3. Register through the candidate registration page so you hear about unadvertised searches.
4. Email your CV to recruitment@smfcapital.co.uk with a short note on the SMFs you have held, the sectors you know, the type of engagement you want and your notice period.