Key info:
- Title: Risk Partner (Support Functions)
- Salary: £85k + strong bonus
- Hybrid or remote working
- High growth Fintech scale up or Payments scale up experience highly regarded
Role Summary
We are seeking a commercially minded, Second Line Risk Partner to join our Group Risk function. This is a hands-on role responsible for providing expert advice, overseeing regulatory change, and embedding a robust risk and compliance culture across our central support lines.
You will act as the critical link between the central risk function and key business units, including Operations, HR (People), Finance, and Legal. A significant part of this role involves providing oversight for financial risk, including the scrutiny of business plans, stress testing, and the firm's safeguarding obligations.
Key Relationships
- Internal: CFO; Executive Leadership; GRC Team; Operations; Change Management; Legal; HR; Procurement; Finance.
- Direct Reports: None.
Key Accountabilities
Second Line Oversight & Advisory
- Provide independent review and challenge of the risk profile and control environment for all corporate support functions.
- Partner with functional leaders as a Subject Matter Expert (SME), providing guidance on risk identification and mitigation for new projects, vendor contracts, or organizational changes.
- Collaborate with control owners to bridge identified gaps and track remediation plans.
Financial Risk & Safeguarding Oversight
- Stress Testing & Wind-Down: Provide challenge and oversight regarding the production of the annual business plan, including the validity of assumptions in stress testing and wind-down scenario modelling.
- Safeguarding: Conduct independent assurance testing across the Source Account Safeguarding Reconciliation processes to ensure regulatory compliance.
- Operational Resilience: Ensure support functions are aligned with the firm's broader operational resilience and wind-down strategies.
Risk Framework & RCSA Management
- Lead the Risk & Control Self-Assessment (RCSA) process for support functions to ensure exposures remain within the Board’s defined risk appetite.
- Facilitate workshops to evaluate control design effectiveness within Finance, People, and Operations teams.
- Develop and maintain Key Risk Indicators (KRIs) and risk dashboards for senior leadership and the Board.
Incident & Issue Management
- Support the resolution of risk events and perform Root Cause Analysis (RCA).
- Ensure that audit findings and control gaps are remediated in a timely and effective manner.
- Track emerging trends via KRIs to provide proactive risk insights.
Skills & Experience:
Professional Background
- Experience: At least 5 years of risk management experience within an EMI (Electronic Money Institution), Payments, or Fintech environment.
- Regulatory Knowledge: Strong working knowledge of FCA regulation for EMIs and the broader UK regulatory landscape.
- Frameworks: Deep understanding of risk management principles such as ISO 31000 or COSO.
Core Competencies
- Financial Acumen: Ability to provide credible challenge to Finance teams regarding business planning, safeguarding reconciliations, and stress testing.
- Stakeholder Influence: Confident and credible in interactions with senior leaders in non-risk functions (HR, Legal, Finance).
- Commercial Mindset: Proven ability to integrate risk frameworks with commercial insight to enable scalable business growth.
- Analytical Problem-Solving: Excellent skills in translating complex risk data into actionable business insights.
Qualifications
- A professional qualification in Risk Management or a Finance-related discipline is highly desirable.