Chief Risk Officer / Head of Risk & Compliance

delaware is a fast-growing global professional services organization with more than 5 000 people across 20 countries, helping clients transform their business through technology. We’re entrepreneurs at heart: we embrace risk, move fast, and value ownership over bureaucracy. As we continue to scale, we’re strengthening how we manage enterprise risk and compliance across the group — not to slow things down, but to make smarter, more informed decisions.

As our first Chief Risk Officer / Head of Risk & Compliance, you’ll build a pragmatic, business-driven function from the ground up. Your role is to make risk management a value enabler, not an obstacle.

You’ll work closely with the CFO, CIO, CISO, Legal Counsel, and local leadership across our countries to embed a shared, lightweight approach to risk, regulation, and control. This is a group-level role, but far from an ivory tower, success will depend on close collaboration and trust with country management teams.

• Design and implement a group-wide Enterprise Risk & Compliance framework that adds value rather than paperwork.
• Establish governance and accountability for key domains such as enterprise risk, regulatory compliance, and emerging regulations (NIS2, AI Act, GDPR, etc.).
• Clarify and evolve the 1st/2nd line model, ensuring smooth collaboration with the CISO (ISO 27001 scope), Group Legal, and local Data Protection Officers.
• Enable the Management Committee and Board to make risk-informed strategic decisions through clear insight and forward-looking guidance.
• Advise leadership on risk appetite, control maturity, and compliance priorities in major initiatives and projects.
• Coordinate group policies and frameworks so countries benefit from shared standards and scale, without losing local relevance.
• Build credibility through delivery, demonstrating that risk and compliance can be practical, enabling, and directly valuable to the business.
• Act as a connector and coach, bringing risk thinking into daily business decisions rather than enforcing checklists.

• ±10 years of experience in Enterprise Risk Management, Compliance, or Governance, ideally from a Big 4 or advisory background, with exposure to complex, international organizations.
• The ability to translate frameworks (ISO 31000, COSO, NIS2, GDPR, AI Act & ISO 42001) into pragmatic business practices.
• Strong understanding of professional-services operations and the ability to bridge business, IT, and finance.
• Entrepreneurial mindset: you’re comfortable building structure where there is none, influencing without hierarchy, and moving fast.
• Excellent communication skills in English (additional European languages are a plus).
• Based in EMEA, with occasional travel to key countries.

You’ll have the rare opportunity to shape something from scratch, with full support from the Management Committee, but without legacy processes slowing you down. This role is about impact, not red tape: helping a fast-moving organization stay agile and responsible as it grows. If you’ve ever thought, “I could build a better version of risk management,” this is your chance!

We attract and retain only the best people who shareour values andthrive in our culture. We strive for the highest levels of excellence in all that we do – with our clients, our people, our business, our careers.We do the right thing to satisfy our clients, combining quiet confidence and a human touch. We are open, positive, enthusiastic and energetic. At Delaware we value and invest in personal competence as much as technical competence and we all want to help each other succeed. We value diversity for the breadth of perspectives and skills it brings us and the better results it produces.We enjoy each other’s company. We work hard together and we have fun together. We trust one another.Underpinning our culture are our core values. They are a living part of our daily interactions, influencing what we do and how we do it. They guide how we work with our colleagues, customers, and partners.

Care; we take responsibility.

Community; we are better together.

Respect; inclusive and diverse.

Entrepreneurship; we cherish creativity and drive

Come have a chat with us and tell us all about your skills, talents and previous experience.Talk to our recruiter Veronique today and she will be happy to tell you more about the position and the organization. She can be reached at dlw-nl-recruitment@delaware.pro or at 088-606 9100.