Senior Onboarding Officer, Belfast (Exclusive)

Abacus is exclusively managing a role for a major and growing law firm, and this client is keen to appoint a Senior Client Onboarding Officer. This is an important and highly technical role within the growing risk and compliance team.The role:Your focus is on the client acceptance process, anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions compliance. You will manage a steady volume of frequently complex onboarding matters, provide technical guidance to colleagues junior and senior, and act in a supervisory capacity over Client Onboarding Officers (via Quality Control). Main duties will include:Conduct AML screening and risk assessments (and conflicts screening post-training) at a high-quality level ensuring accuracy and sophisticated work product.Acting as a go-to person for onboarding queries across the business, providing support and feedback in Quality Control and development of junior staff.Getting involved in more complex global structures and higher-risk cases.Manage and navigate key stakeholder needs, queries and service-level issues at Partner and fee-earner team level. Other s/holders are Client Onboarding Managers, Head of Client Onboarding, MLRO, Compliance Officer for Legal Compliance (COLP).Delivering or supporting internal training sessions when needed.Escalate relevant team management issues to Client Onboarding Manager(s)The right person:The role requires strong regulatory knowledge in the field of AML/CFT/ABC, ideally with international experience. Ideally, you will offer c. 5-6 years’ experience or more, dealing with legal Conflict of Interest checks and AML/KYC experience. But if Conflicts of Interest training is required, this can be considered. You will offer sound judgement, proven experience in the screening and risk assessing of global company structures. A suitable candidate will be experienced in performing checks using applicable tools and software. You should demonstrate a capacity to operate confidently in a fast-paced, international environment with complex and nuanced local frameworks to cater to, to ensure efficient, stakeholder-friendly compliance assistance.Ideally, you will offer experience in a comparable commercial services firm or (large) law firm, in an AML compliance type role. Some flexibility may be available for the right skillset and person.Ideally, you will also offer a qualification in Law or relevant discipline, however flex will exist for the right blend of transferable expertise/skills. Next:Send your CV to Abacus and we will be in touch.Location Belfast, Northern Ireland Salary Competitive Job Type Permanent Date Posted 18 August, 2026