Salary: National ranging from £57,600 to £75,000 and London £63,300 to £80,000 depending on skills and experience.

Are you interested in joining a diverse and dynamic team at the heart of developing policy on protecting client assets and reducing harm in firm failures?​

The team/department

We have an exciting opportunity for a skilled, ambitious and proactive individual with project management and policy-making experience to join the CASS & Resolution Policy and Strategy team as a Lead Associate.

You will be responsible for leading high-profile projects on designing and implementing strategic initiatives to strengthen legislative and regulatory frameworks on client assets and resolution matters. Examples of the team’s work include producing guidance for insolvency practitioners appointed to FCA regulated firms (FG 21/4) and working closely with colleagues across the FCA on developing cryptoassets policy, regulation of payments firms and post EU-withdrawal initiatives.

Our team is made up of colleagues with varied backgrounds and experiences, and we are proud of the collaborative work we do with stakeholders across the FCA and industry to continually improve the protection of client assets and reduce harm in firm failures.

What you will be doing

The role will include the following responsibilities:

• Helping to establish, scope, and where appropriate, lead policy and strategy projects on client assets and resolution matters, including assessing causes of harm to consumers and markets, planning responses, working with policymakers, supervisors and other specialists across the FCA
• Providing line management and career coaching for junior members of the team
• Delivering at pace on our policy agenda in the team
• Working with colleagues across the FCA to ensure the FCA’s priorities achieve their intended outcomes
• Directing and supporting on engagement with external stakeholders, including influencing and communicating with the Government, trade associations, other regulators, consumer organisations and financial services firms
• Delivering through others by using influencing, and negotiating skills with a range of internal and external stakeholders

What you will get from the role

This is an exciting time to join the FCA’s CASS & Resolution Policy and Strategy team. You will get the opportunity to:

• Experience stimulating, impactful work, through delivery of an exciting policy agenda
• Guide colleagues through significant, high-profile, projects while also delivering on business-as-usual objectives
• Gain a unique exposure to emerging and cutting-edge developments in financial services such as future regulation of cryptoassets
• Work with and influence stakeholders across the FCA and externally
• Exposure to strategic issues and key players in the world of finance and regulation, both nationally and internationally

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 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, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.

• Proven experience in managing large-scale policy or strategy projects, including planning, leading, and coordinating complex programmes of work to demanding timescales, with a focus on measuring success and delivering key outputs in challenging stakeholder environments
• Excellent written communication skills, including experience to distil complex issues into succinct messages and present confidently and concisely to a variety of internal and external stakeholders
• Experience in policy writing, e.g., papers, briefing notes, memos, including the development and drafting of comprehensive policies

Essential criteria

• Significant experience of managing and influencing key stakeholders, including senior choice makers internally and externally
• Some understanding of client assets, safeguarding and/or resolution
• Strong reasoning skills, including ability to understand complex issues, and communicate their consequences clearly
• Strong team player who works inclusively and shares knowledge
• Experience of delivering a variety of competing high profile tasks with challenging targets under pressure, prioritising appropriately and escalating where necessary
• An ability to make a strong personal impact, to take a collaborative and flexible approach, to persuade with well-reasoned arguments, and question where appropriate
• Being able to demonstrate self-awareness, adjusting approach to achieve desired goals from team members as the situation demands
• Understanding of the financial services market in the UK and how firms operate within it

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 13th October 2024
• This role is graded as Lead Associate - Regulatory
• Interviews will commence from w/c 21st October 2024

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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 invited to a 1-hour competency based interview and case study.

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.