Lead Risk Adviser

Salary: National ranging from £57,600, to £72,000 and London from £63,300 to £80,000 per annum – salary offered will be based on skills and experience

Do you want to support the FCA in its risk management objectives?

The team/ department 

At the FCA, we’re creating a fair and more resilient financial system. We’re establishing more transparent relationships between financial services and their customers, building trust in financial markets and protecting vulnerable consumers.

The Risk and Compliance Oversight Division (R&CO) is the FCA’s second line of defence. The division works in partnership with senior management, members of the Board and colleagues across the organisation to mitigate the external and internal risks to the FCA’s statutory objectives. This is done by:

• Supporting and driving effective risk management and decision making

• Improving and embedding FCA wide risk awareness and understanding

• Promoting continuous improvement through quality assurance and lessons learned reviews

The successful candidate will be responsible for working with the first line to promote a strong risk culture and draw on their experience of working in a second line risk function to provide insight and objective challenge to support the business in the achievement of its objectives. We are looking for an individual who can learn quickly in role and develop excellent relationships across the organisation.

What you will be doing (the role)

• Working across the business to provide second line review to the management of risk focusing on a number of business areas such as Payments and Digital Assets (in Supervision, Policy, and Competition) and International Division; and leading the risk advisory relationship on a number of Strategic Commitments    

• Building relationships and working collaboratively with senior stakeholders across the FCA while maintaining independence

• Being the primary face of Risk representing the division on key change initiatives within the project change portfolio and key policy initiatives. You will review and comment on business strategy, providing clear oversight opinion of key risks

• Working with the business to develop an innovative, strong and effective control framework, driving robustness and efficiency

• Driving the implementation and embedding of the revised FCA Risk Management Framework and supporting on the design and delivery of a range of initiatives such as developing a risk and control library

• Assisting with desk-based reviews; gathering information from a wide range of sources; reviewing processes and documents including executive level and project board papers; interviewing stakeholders across the FCA; and formulating recommendations

What you will get from the role?

• Working in the Risk and Compliance Oversight function you will have exposure to some of the most important and exciting programmes of work across the organisation. You will be an impartial voice in the FCA, providing independent oversight of the organisation’s activities and approach, through advice and challenge

• You will gain exposure to a wide variety of business areas and to some of the most important programmes of work across the organisation, including Business Plan priorities, Strategic Commitments and key projects

• As an Academy business, we place great value on your learning and we offer world-class development opportunities which will assist you in achieving your career aspirations. Our Academy offers you a range of opportunities for personal and professional development

Our competitive flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifestyle. You can use this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work or you have the option top up your base salary by taking this as cash.  

Core benefits that you will receive as standard are:  

• 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays

• Private healthcare with Bupa  

• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach age 35)  

• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary  

• Income protection  

We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in one of our three office locations.  

The skills and experience you will have 

Minimum   

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, who best meet the minimum criteria for a role.  

• Prior experience working in a regulatory and/or financial services sector

• Experience of working with Risk Management processes and frameworks

Essential 

• Excellent written and oral communications skills, including the ability to communicate credibly with colleagues, senior management and subject matter experts

• Excellent analytical skills, with a curious attitude (i.e., a person who does not take statements at face value but who investigates the factual position in order to make informed and well-reasoned judgements)

• Ability to manage complex information and are able to ‘join the dots’ to form views and propose pragmatic solutions to problems

• Strong interpersonal, influencing and stakeholder management skills: able to build and maintain relationships with senior management at all levels within the FCA

• Work effectively and inclusively as part of a team, contributing to an environment where all opinions are listened to and respected

• Adopt a flexible and proactive approach with the ability to apply initiative and work in a changing environment including meeting tight deadlines

• A team player, with a positive approach and outlook to their work and the ability to motivate others, mentor and coach less experienced members of the Division

• Good understanding of the FCA, and its approach to regulation, including good knowledge of the financial services industry with particular emphasis on Payments and Digital Assets

About the FCA

The FCA regulates the conduct of 50,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found here.  

The FCA's Values & Diversity

Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.  

The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisations. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled and minority ethnic candidates for our Lead Associate role.   

Flexible working

We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements. Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking. 

Multi-location

As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices.  This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.   

Useful information

• Applications for this role close at 23.59 on 26th September 2024

• This role is graded as Lead Associate - Regulatory

Got a question?    

If you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact:  

For internal applicants, please contact Louise Nash at [email protected]​

For external applicants, please contact Chhavi Bartaria at [email protected]

What to expect from our interview process

If your application is successful, you will be invited to complete a competency based interview with possible case study, followed by a final round interview.

Application support

We want to remove any possible barriers and are committed to providing a wide range of reasonable adjustments so that you can keep the focus on your conversations and be at your best.

If you have an accessibility requirement, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter to discuss this further. Our aim is to make your application as easy and comfortable as possible, and your recruiter will be happy to work with you to make any necessary arrangements where possible.

Please note that all applications must be submitted through our online portal, applications sent via email will not be accepted.