Salary: National up to £48,766 and London up to £53,633

Do you want to join a dynamic team responsible for short, sharp multi-firm projects, discovery work and thematic reviews that examine the key risks of consumer investments?

We are recruiting a Supervisor to join the Proactive Team in the Investment Platforms and SIPP Operators (IPSO) Department.

The IPSO department is part of the Consumer Investments (CI) Directorate at the Financial Conduct Authority. The Proactive Team sits within IPSO and undertakes cross cutting projects and reviews to identify emerging risks and take early mitigation action to prevent consumer harm across the CI portfolios of:

• Financial advisers and intermediaries
• Wealth managers
• Platforms
• Self-invested personal pension operators
• Crowd funders
• Peer to peer lenders

The team focuses on high priority issues across groups of firms within the above portfolios to identify poor practice in the market and mitigate harm to consumers. Work may be discovery in nature to identify the scale and nature of harms or targeted to address specific harms. An example of a recent project the team led includes the FCA’s thematic review of retirement income advice. The team works flexibly and at pace, in collaboration with internal and external stakeholders. It plays a key role in forming a centre of excellence for proactive supervision of firms across the CI portfolios. 

What you will be doing

We are looking for someone with a good level of regulatory or supervisory knowledge and experience who has sound judgement and is a strong team player. The team is involved in piloting new approaches to tackling consumer harm as part of its proactive supervision approach. So, creative thinking, adaptability and flexibility are important to refocusing priorities where appropriate and help use resources efficiently.

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Taking on smaller and less complex workstreams and cases, or supporting key workstreams on larger and more complex projects to ensure work is delivered at pace to challenging deadlines
• Conducting proactive reviews and analysis into the most significant areas of harm across the CI portfolios
• Participating in team discussions and collective problem solving to help make appropriate supervisory decisions
• Collaborating on the development of assessment and mitigation strategies
• Supporting firm and stakeholder discussions and undertaking follow up actions
• Drafting and maintaining accurate and prompt records

What will you get from the role?

• Opportunity to develop project management, stakeholder management and problem-solving skills
• Opportunity to work on high profile, complex and challenging reviews with potential to make a positive impact on millions of retail consumers and play a leading role in developing new approaches to tackling consumer harm
• Gain a unique insight into the workings of all CI portfolios and build technical expertise by engaging with a range of firms, business models, issues and risks
• Opportunity to work in a stimulating and dynamic environment across teams and with a variety of stakeholders
• Opportunity to broaden your contacts and raise your profile internally and externally

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 

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

• Experience of working in a supervisory or investigative capacity
• Experience of working on regulatory cases, projects or reviews
• Experience of drafting documents for different audiences

Essential

• Good analytical skills with ability to digest large amounts of information and identify relevant issues
• Ability to make sound judgement, be pragmatic and proportionate in approach
• Good written and verbal communication skills with ability to give clear and succinct messages
• Strong team player who has an inclusive and collaborative approach with ability to work effectively with others to achieve shared goals and desired outcomes
• Good organisational skills with ability to work independently, prioritise work, report on progress and escalate issues as appropriate
• Experience of engaging with internal and external stakeholders
• Awareness of FCA supervisory tools and powers with ability to consider how we use our tools and powers to support mitigation action
• Knowledge of one or more of the CI portfolios, including some awareness of the wider external environment firms operate in and how this may influence their behaviour

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 Associate – Regulatory (Level 8) 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 Wednesday 28th August 2024

This role is graded as Associate – Regulatory (Level 8)

What to expect from our interview process  

All applications will be reviewed once the advert has closed.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to complete a case study and interview.

Got a question?    

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

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.