Financial Crime Systems Analyst

Role Overview

You will be part of the financial crime technology team at Safaricom, reporting to the Lead for Transaction Monitoring and Systems. Your focus will be on keeping our AML, transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, customer risk rating, fraud detection, and case management platforms running smoothly and effectively. On a typical day, you will configure system rules, verify data feeds, investigate alerts and system issues, run performance analyses, and collaborate with data science, technology, and product teams to improve detection capabilities. Your work matters because it directly enables the company to identify, prevent, and report suspicious financial activity in a way that meets regulatory expectations and protects both the business and its customers from evolving financial crime threats.

Key Responsibilities

• Administer and maintain financial crime detection platforms, including monitoring system health, managing configurations, and coordinating upgrades or patches with technology teams.
• Validate the accuracy and completeness of data flowing into these systems, troubleshooting data quality problems and working with data engineers to resolve feed errors or missing information.
• Tune detection scenarios, thresholds, and risk scoring models to improve alert accuracy, reduce false positives, and ensure that genuine suspicious activity is not missed.
• Analyse alert, case, and typology trends to identify gaps in detection coverage and recommend adjustments to rules or system logic.
• Support the rollout of intelligent automation, AI, and machine learning capabilities, including testing models, performing validations, and documenting outcomes.
• Collaborate with financial crime compliance, investigations, KYC, and sanctions teams to ensure system outputs meet their operational needs and provide useful management information.
• Prepare dashboards and management reports that track key risk indicators, system performance, alert volumes, and detection effectiveness for senior leadership.
• Participate in system development projects, gathering requirements from business users, coordinating user acceptance testing, and ensuring changes are implemented with proper governance.

Requirements & Qualifications

• A bachelor's degree in business, engineering, information technology, or a related field, with relevant professional certifications being an added advantage.
• At least two years of experience as a software engineer, developer, data scientist, or in a similar technical role, ideally within financial crime systems, risk analytics, or regulatory technology.
• Strong proficiency in data extraction and system configuration using languages such as C#, Java, JavaScript, or React.
• Hands-on experience with data analysis and visualisation tools including Power BI, Qlik Sense, or equivalent platforms.
• Familiarity with Agile ways of working, machine learning concepts, bot development, penetration testing, QA practices, project management, microservices architecture, and technical documentation.
• Understanding of financial crime compliance processes such as transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, and customer due diligence is preferred but not mandatory if you can demonstrate relevant technical aptitude.
• Ability to translate between business and technical stakeholders, clearly explaining system limitations, data issues, and proposed enhancements in a way that both sides can understand.