Assurance Associate
About Griffin
Hi, we’re Griffin! We’re the bank for companies who want to build and launch financial products.
Our context
We're rapidly heading towards a future where most of us access financial services through technology companies rather than high street banks. All sorts of companies are now embedding financial products into their apps and user journeys so that their customers can seamlessly make payments, manage expenses, take out loans, save, invest, and do more.
The problem is that companies are still dependent on legacy banking infrastructure if they want to offer regulated financial products. They need to either partner directly with an incumbent bank and/or stitch together middleware from various Banking as a Service (BaaS) providers. This process is slow, expensive, and complex and makes it very hard for companies to get new financial products off the ground.
At Griffin, we want to change this.
Our purpose
We want to make it easy for companies to bring finance to their customers at the point of greatest relevance. So, we built a bank.
But not just any bank! Griffin is a technology platform and a bank: fully regulated, API-first, developer-centric, and purpose-built to serve innovative fintechs and brands who want to build and embed financial products.
Our culture
Our culture is our most important asset, and one of the ways we safeguard it is by being extremely intentional about hiring the right people. We won't hire people who don’t seem like a strong fit for our core values, even if they're otherwise extremely qualified.
We also believe that smart, motivated, conscientious people thrive in high-trust, high-autonomy environments. That’s why we’re transparent by default, and we encourage open discussion and challenge across all levels of the organisation. We’re also remote-first, asynchronous, and fully flexible - because you're the expert on how and when you do your best work.
The Team
We Service keep things moving: runs the processes that underpin our products, supports our customers when they need us, and connects the dots across the business so nothing falls through the cracks. We spot friction early, fix it quickly, and make sure Griffin delivers on what it promises: consistently and reliably.
This role sits within Griffin's first line operations, managing how well our Direct Customers (DCs) meet their financial crime obligations. You'll report directly to our Financial Crime Oversight Manager as part of a small team focused on keeping our oversight function rigorous, proportionate, and trusted.
The Opportunity
With a growing number of DC assurance reviews scheduled for 2026 and beyond, we need someone who can take real ownership of the process end to end. You'll be running your own caseload: scoping reviews, conducting them, and producing findings reports that directly inform risk decisions. You'll engage with a wide range of external stakeholders and have the opportunity to shape how the function develops, including getting involved in projects such as automation.
What Success Looks Like
In your first 6 months, you'll have taken ownership of your review caseload, with reports consistently produced to a high standard and recommendations tracked through to closure. The assurance schedule will be on track — no bottlenecks, no overdue reviews. By 12 months, you'll have built genuine, trusted relationships with DCs and internal stakeholders, becoming a credible point of contact that people feel comfortable raising issues with. And you'll be contributing ideas on how to improve and streamline the process, not just running it.
To Do This You’ll Own
The assurance review schedule as the DC book grows, keeping risk ratings accurate and ensuring each customer receives the right level of scrutiny.
The review and closing out post-live conditions for newly onboarded DCs where applicable.
Issuing assurance review requests, including scoping the right questions and sample requests based on entity type, operating model, and risk rating.
In-depth reviews of DC responses, identifying gaps and weaknesses in their financial crime controls.
The production of formal review reports with clear findings and a recommendation on whether a DC's risk rating should be maintained, increased, or decreased.
Drafting and issuing recommendations to DCs, then tracking and following up until full closure is confirmed.
The engagement with external stakeholders, including CEOs, MLROs, Compliance Managers, especially when sharing difficult findings or recommendations.
We expect you to shape this role
This description reflects what we need today. How you achieve these outcomes, where you focus your energy, how this role evolves—that's for you to define as you learn what our customers need and where our technical gaps are.
Your background
To ensure this, we're looking for people who have:
Experience working in financial crime compliance — ideally in an assurance, oversight, or monitoring capacity, with hands-on review experience rather than purely advisory or policy work.
Hands-on experience conducting financial crime reviews or assessments, including reviewing control frameworks and identifying gaps.
A solid understanding of financial crime controls: AML, KYC, transaction monitoring, and end-to-end onboarding and ongoing customer journeys.
Confidence managing external relationships and having direct, sometimes difficult conversations with customers.
Strong organisational skills and an analytical mindset — you'll be juggling reviews at different stages and spotting issues that aren't always obvious.
A love of writing - we have a major amount of written documentation that you will be contributing to, and we place a high degree of importance on clarity and readability (you can find out more here about how we write )
Ideally, you would also:
Have familiarity with the different onboarding models within embedded finance a DC can use (managed, reliance, or outsourced) and how they affect the scope and depth of review.
Hold a relevant financial crime qualification such as an ICA diploma, or have experience presenting findings to senior stakeholders.
What can we offer you?
We are an early stage startup and we're working hard to expand our benefits package. We're planning to add to this list in the future.
Remote-first flexibility: Work from anywhere in the UK
Work from abroad: Up to 20 days a year
Time off: 25 days’ holiday, bank holidays and a winter break (we shut down between Christmas and New Year)
Share options: Own a part of what we’re building together
Pension: Auto-enrolment into our Penfold scheme
Insurance: Private medical with Bupa (including family cover) and life insurance with AIG
Wellbeing: 1:1 coaching and therapy session available through Oliva
Family leave: Enhanced parental leave with up to 6 months on full pay after two years’ service
AI tools: Everyone has a Claude subscription on us and access to other premium tools
Your setup: We’ll support you in creating a comfortable and effective WFH environment.
As a bank, we’re committed to maintaining the highest standards of security. This means that the successful candidate will need to complete background screening, and our offer will be conditional upon satisfactory review of these checks. This would include verification of right to work, criminal record, credit history, social media and professional reference checks
How do I apply?
Are we your next move? Apply via the link below, if there's a match our Talent team will reach out to schedule an initial conversation and talk you through what happens next.
We’re remote-first
We have a small London office in Moorgate, but we are comfortable hiring people to work from anywhere in the UK. About a third of the company is based within occasional commuting distance of London, the rest are full-time remote.
Under representation
Our goal is for Griffin to proportionally represent the diversity of the working population in society. We’re working to ensure that Griffin is a supportive, empowering and inclusive environment for every member of our team — whatever your combination of race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, physical ability, nationality, neurodiversity, and religious beliefs. If you’re part of a group that is under-represented in fintech, we’d love to hear from you.