Operational Risk Framework Lead - 12 MONTH FTC in Glasgow

Location: Glasgow or Edinburgh

Salary: To circa £90,000 with some flexibility

Working pattern: Hybrid, initially around 60% office based while you get established, moving to around two days per week thereafter

Hours: Flexible working between the hours of 7am and 7pm

The Opportunity

This is NOT a role for someone who wants to inherit a mature risk framework and simply keep it ticking over. The framework exists. On paper, much of it works. The challenge is making it work properly within a large, busy, high volume operational environment. The business is looking for an experienced Operational Risk Framework professional who can take what already exists, understand where it is working, identify where it isn't, then make it more practical, proportionate and meaningful for the people actually using it. You do not need to be a specialist in the particular industry this business operates within. What matters far more is that you understand operational risk within a sizeable Financial Services environment, know what a good risk framework looks like, then have the confidence and credibility to adapt it to the realities of an operational business.

What Needs To Be Done?

There is a good framework sitting behind the business, but there is currently a disconnect between the theory and how easily it can be applied by operational teams. Someone working in a high volume environment needs to be able to understand:

• What is the risk?
• What control should prevent it?
• Is that control actually working?
• What happens when it isn't?

The Operational Risk Framework Lead will help make those answers much clearer. You will take ownership of developing the first line risk model, making sure risks, controls, events, actions and reporting genuinely connect rather than existing as separate pieces of information. A significant part of the role will involve turning risk management into something that helps people make better decisions rather than something they complete because the framework tells them to.

Key Responsibilities

• Take ownership of the first line Operational Risk approach across a significant operational business
• Review the current Risk Management Framework and identify where it needs to become more practical, accessible and proportionate
• Lead Risk and Control Self Assessments across the operation
• Create stronger links between identified risks, audited controls and control effectiveness
• Improve the quality of risk data, risk registers, risk ratings and action tracking
• Develop meaningful risk reporting that gives senior management a clear picture of the actual risk profile
• Ensure reporting highlights themes, deteriorating controls, emerging risks and areas requiring management attention
• Help establish clear risk appetite and tolerances so operational teams understand when something is acceptable, when it is approaching tolerance and when escalation is required
• Improve risk event identification, root cause analysis and lessons learned
• Ensure risk events result in sensible actions that address the underlying issue rather than simply closing an action
• Establish a clearer distinction between operational risk events and customer complaints so the two are treated appropriately
• Work closely across the first, second and third lines of defence while maintaining clear accountability for where risk ownership sits
• Challenge existing processes where they do not make sense, while proposing practical alternatives
• Build greater risk capability across the business through coaching, communication and targeted training
• Support senior leadership with clear, concise insight into the biggest risks facing the operation

The Person

The business is deliberately looking for someone senior enough to operate independently. You will not be handed a detailed list of tasks and told what order to complete them in. They want someone who can come into the organisation, understand the current position, work out what good should look like, then create and deliver the plan to get there. You are likely to have:

• Strong Operational Risk experience within Financial Services or another sizeable regulated operation
• Practical experience developing or embedding Risk Management Frameworks
• Strong understanding of RCSAs, risk events, controls, control effectiveness, risk appetite and risk reporting
• Experience working across different lines of defence
• The ability to distinguish between something that technically satisfies a framework and something that genuinely manages risk
• Experience producing risk reporting for senior management or governance committees
• Confidence challenging senior stakeholders when an approach does not make sense
• The ability to translate risk terminology into something operational colleagues can actually understand and use
• Strong judgement and the ability to balance risk management with commercial and operational reality
• Enough experience to work independently rather than waiting for detailed direction

What Will Make Someone Successful?

Probably a combination of experience, pragmatism and confidence. The business does not need someone who will arrive with a textbook and tell everybody they are doing risk incorrectly. Equally, it does not need someone who simply accepts the existing approach because that is how things have always been done. They need someone prepared to ask:

• Why are we doing this?
• What risk is this actually managing?
• Does this control work?
• Could we make this simpler?
• What information does management actually need to make a decision?

Then importantly, someone who can turn those questions into something better.

Why Consider It?

There is genuine scope to shape this role. You will have senior sponsorship plus the opportunity to influence how operational risk is managed across a substantial business. Some of the foundations are already there, so you are not starting with a blank sheet of paper. Equally, enough needs to change that you can make a visible difference. For someone who enjoys building rather than maintaining, who likes getting underneath how an operation really works, then improving the way risk supports it, there is a lot here to get your teeth into.

Package

The salary is expected to be up to/around £90,000 plus the organisation also offers a broad flexible benefits package including a 7.5% employer pension contribution, holiday entitlement plus birthday leave etc. The role can be based in Glasgow or Edinburgh, with Glasgow preferred. New joiners would normally spend around 60% of their time in the office initially while getting to know the business and stakeholders, reducing to approximately two days per week once established.