Salary:
National from £57,600 up to £71,900, depending on experience
London from £63,300 up to £79,100, depending on experience

This is a role where you can make a real difference for all users of financial products, to the 2 million people who work in the UK Financial Services industry, and to the stability of our economy!

The Retail Banking Directorate is responsible for the supervision and policy making for retail banking activities and mortgages in the UK, including those undertaken by the largest retail banking groups. We deliver the conduct agenda through a combination of firm-specific, sector-wide and event-driven activity to deliver better outcomes for UK customers.

This is a significant market, impacting a wide range of consumers, including consumers with characteristics of vulnerability. Our priority is to ensure that firms in this sector operate with consumers’ interests at the heart of their business. We act to reduce harm to consumers and want borrowers to be treated fairly and be able to get affordable products that meet their needs.

We are looking for a Project Lead to join the Retail Banking’s project function. Working with the incumbent two Mangers and Project Leads, you will have responsibility for developing and enhancing our project management framework and capabilities. You will provide ongoing support and challenge to the team to ensure effective use of those frameworks which in turn ensures the timely delivery of the projects we undertake. The role will also include delivering elements of the project work and the potential to line manage.

We're looking for someone with proven experience in managing and delivering projects, strong leadership and people skills, and the ability to engage effectively with a broad range of internal and external stakeholders. You should be capable of hitting the ground running, able to develop and foster relationships quickly and keen to be involved in forward-looking proactive supervision.

What you will be doing

• Making a material contribution to thematic, cross-firm and project work that is undertaken to address the highest priority risk to consumers relating to everyday banking
• Bringing your excellent project management disciplines to the role, you will be responsible for the overall project management framework that we use for the projects we undertake, ensuring we have effective plans, which are monitored and adhered to
• Opportunity to lead and deliver all aspects of our project work. This includes the scoping and design of projects, implementing agreed methodologies (which might include desk-based work and/or onsite assessments) and finally developing mitigation plans for firms and thematic reports for use by the industry and consumers

What will the candidate get from the role?  

• Working in a fast-paced, dynamic and supportive environment with a team of people who want to deliver the same excellence you do
• Interacting with senior management at firms to deliver better customer outcomes, including discussion regarding the culture within their firms; and to contribute towards the identification of sector-wide issues
• Opportunity to suggest changes to internal processes that lead to better outcomes and more efficient use of resources

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 cover 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’ll have 

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. 

Minimum

• Proven project management skills and experience of implementing project management disciplines, including a project management qualification
• Experience of assessing complex, often confidential information, and identifying and presenting relevant issues to senior stakeholders
• Excellent written communication skills

Essential

• Knowledge of the Retail Banking sector with experience of building and maintaining relationships with stakeholders at all levels
• Proven ability to manage complex projects from design through to delivery
• Ability to clearly articulate and present risks, issues, and analysis of data in order to share knowledge and insight as well as identify appropriate action and follow through
• Ability to make sound regulatory judgments quickly which can be justified in a concise manner as well as knowing when to escalate issues
• A thinker with a proactive mind-set and a risk-based approach to decision making
• Strong management ability to support the effective planning, prioritisation and allocation of work across the team
• Proven ability to coach, guide and motivate others and serve as a role model to positively promote and influence good behaviours within the team and wider department
• Strong verbal and presentation skills with a clear understanding of the FCA's role and objectives

About the FCA   

The FCA regulates the conduct of 45,000 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 - Regulatory 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 Lead Associate – Regulatory

What to expect from our interview process  

All applications will be reviewed once the advert has closed.

Successful candidates will be invited to a competency-based interview. There may be a second interview to be decided at a later stage.

Got a question?    

If you are interested in learning more about the role:

For Internal applicants, please contact Cheryl Cheung at [email protected]

For External applicants, please contact Aaron Ward at [email protected]

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 – Applications must be submitted through our online portal. Applications sent via email will not be accepted.