Senior Compliance Officer Trade & Economic Sanctions

As the Trade & Economic Sanctions Senior Compliance Officer you will oversee and maintain the Trade & Economic Sanctions Framework. You will: Monitor, interpret, and translate global sanctions developments (EU, US/OFAC, UN, UK, Swiss) into actionable guidance for business units, including executive summaries and impact assessments. Act as a central subject matter expert providing risk-based advice on complex, high-risk sanctions cases across jurisdictions, influencing go/no-go business decisions. Review and provide assessment on referred sanctions cases (e.g. pre-bind, renewal, claims) involving sanctioned countries, persons, ownership structures, or indirect exposure such as transit routes and reinsurance arrangements. Lead the assessment of new regulations and executive orders, including extraterritorial impacts, and coordinate group-wide response actions such as exposure mapping and business instructions. Define and maintain global sanctions screening standards, including screening lists, baseline rules, keywords, and calibration of tools to ensure effectiveness and risk-based targeting. Oversee and challenge sanctions screening effectiveness, including testing, periodic reviews, and ensuring alignment between screening outputs and policy administration systems. Provide second-line oversight and guidance across the full lifecycle (onboarding, ongoing monitoring, claims), ensuring that high-risk cases are appropriately escalated and assessed. Advise on and coordinate responses to sanctions breaches, regulatory inquiries, and licensing matters, including interaction with regulators and authorities where required. Collaborate closely with Group Legal and external counsel on complex or conflicting legal scenarios (e.g. cross-border conflicts of law, sanctions clause wording, or legal uncertainty). Deliver training, communication, and ongoing support to business units and local compliance teams, ensuring consistent understanding and implementation of the Group TES Framework globally.

Zurich is a leading multi-line insurer, serving over 82 million customers in more than 200 countries and territories with more than 65,000 employees. For over 150 years, Zurich has been transforming insurance – offering not just protection, but also prevention services that promote well-being and climate resilience. Guided by our purpose to ‘create a brighter future together,’ we aim to be one of the most responsible and impactful businesses in the world.

• At least 10 years of relevant professional experiences in Compliance with a focus on Financial Crime and Sanctions, including demonstrable hands-on responsibility for the design, implementation and oversight of Sanctions frameworks and controls.

• Strong background in relevant laws & regulations (US, UK, UN, EU and Swiss) as well as industry standards, with proven experience in applying multi-jurisdictional sanctions regimes in practice, ideally in the insurance sector.

• Proven track record in managing complex sanctions topics, including screening, investigations, escalations, licensing/authorities engagement, and advisory support to the business across multiple jurisdictions, ideally within an international insurance group.

• Demonstrated learning agility, intellectual curiosity and openness to new technologies, ways of working and evolving regulatory expectations

• Strong collaboration, communication and influencing skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships and work effectively across functions, cultures and levels of seniority

• Ability to prioritize effectively, navigate complexity and use digital collaboration tools confidently in a dynamic international environment

• Strong analytical skills with economics/finance/business administration/law and background, preferably with a Master’s degree in one of these fields

• Ability to deliver effective management information and reporting

• Strong interpersonal skills to deal with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, in particular credibility and capability to work closely with senior management as well as regulators and external authorities where required.

• Ability to cope efficiently with multi-task situations and to work independently including in a fast-evolving geopolitical and regulatory environment.

• Strong presentation and communication skills

• Good command of MS applications (Power Point, Excel, Word, Outlook) and sharing platforms (SharePoint, MS 365)

• Knowledge of sanctions screening and case management systems (e.g. World-Check, Fircosoft, Actimize or equivalent)

• Fluent written and spoken English is essential