Salary: National ranging from £51,200 to £78,700 and London ranging from £56,400 to £86,600

Would you like to play a critical role helping the financial services industry become more operationally resilient? Would you relish the opportunity to work on technology and cyber resilience related matters across regulated firms within financial services?

The team/department

We are pleased to be offering an exciting opportunity for a talented, self-starter to join the Technology, Resilience and Cyber department (TRC). At a time of rapid technology change, new regulation to improve operational resilience, and increasing cyber threats, you will have the unique opportunity to influence the FCA’s and industry's agenda. You will work in the public interest and be focused on increasing the sector's operational resilience.

What you will be doing:

• Acting as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Cyber and / or Operational Resilience across the department, the FCA, and externally
• Ensuring delivery of firm assessments for prioritised high impact firms to provide supervisors with a forward-looking evidence and judgement-based assessment, supported by the facts, on whether a firm's technology, resilience and/or cyber capabilities are sufficient or require further mitigating action
• Heading up the strategic analysis of incidents in your allocation of prioritised firms arising from cyber-attack or technology disruption.
• Taking part in technical engagement with external stakeholders including other Authorities and Senior firm representatives
• Undertaking peer comparison and analysis of the maturity of firms’ technology and cyber environment in relation to other firms in the sector and the wider market
• Supporting industry engagement by chairing sector specific Cyber Coordination Groups

What you will get from the role

This role will offer a unique insight into cyber, technology and operational resilience risks in the Financial Services sector. You will have the opportunity to:

• Work on high profile regulatory initiatives
• Work across a number of high impact firms on cross-sector issues
• Gain insight into current thinking on cyber, technology and operational resilience matters
• Build upon your existing skills and knowledge and develop your career
• Work with and influence a wide range of internal and external stakeholders and in doing so, build your network of contacts

Our competitive flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifecycle. 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
• 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.

• Experience analysing complex information and identifying and presenting recommendations in relation to technology and/or cyber resilience capabilities
• Substantial experience in Operational Resilience, Cyber or Technology Risk and Governance role within Financial Services
• The successful candidate will hold or will be required to obtain Security Clearance (SC) level vetting.

Essential

• Understanding of FCA’s approach to operational resilience, including an appreciation for the FCA’s new operational resilience policy
• Understanding of the key cyber risks facing financial services, and the steps firms can take to strengthen their cyber resilience
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent stakeholder management skills
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities with appropriate application of judgement and diligence
• Good interpersonal skills with evidence of team working, and delivery through others
• Knowledge or experience of Financial Services markets
• Relevant industry qualifications e.g., CRISC (Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control), CISM (Certified Information Security Manager), CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional), IS027001 / 2, Lead Auditor / Implementer, or alternatives, NCSP NIST Cybersecurity framework practitioner

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 Senior 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 27th October 2024
• This role is graded as Senior Associate - Regulatory 
• Interviews will commence W/C 11th November 2024

Got a question?   

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

For internal applicants, please contact Linda Bradley 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 asked to complete a case study then a 1 hour competency based 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. 

Security Clearance/Vetting

 The successful candidate will hold or will be required to obtain Security Clearance (SC) level vetting.

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