Assistant Vice President, Procurement Operations

About CLS: CLS is the trusted party at the centre of the global FX ecosystem. Utilised by thousands of counterparties, CLS makes FX safer, smoother and more cost effective. Trillions of dollars' worth of currency flows through our systems each day. Created by the market for the market, our unrivalled global settlement infrastructure reduces systemic risk and provides standardisation for participants in many of the world's most actively traded currencies. We deliver huge efficiencies and savings for our clients: in fact, our approach to multilateral netting shrinks funding requirements by over 96% on average, so clients can put their capital and resources to better use. CLS products are designed to enable clients to manage risk most effectively across the full FX lifecycle - whether through more efficient processing tools or market intelligence derived from the largest single source of FX executed data available to the market. Our ambition to make a positive difference starts with our people. Our values underpin everything that we do at CLS and define our working environment:

• Pivotal purpose
• Trusted guardian
• Targeted innovation
• Facilitate connections
• Delivering excellence
• Inclusive culture

Job information:

• Functional title - Procurement Operations - Risk, Governance & Process Specialist
• Department - Procurement
• Corporate level - Assistant Vice President (AVP)
• Report to - Vice President - Procurement Operations
• Location - London

What you will be doing: CLS recognises Procurement capability has a growing potential to contribute to cost management as well as improving the value from our vendors. Over the last 12 months, a number of changes have been implemented to help enhance the maturity of the Procurement function (from a greenfield environment). This role is to support the team from a risk, governance and process perspective, and help CLS's Procurement team during their transformation journey. CLS has established their new operating model for Procurement, resulting in an opening for an AVP role in the Procurement Operations team to help increase the adherence and awareness around Risk & Controls across the Procurement team. This new role is required to cover the following:

• Help support the Procurement risk agenda by leveraging a risk, compliance, governance, audit management and process improvement experience.
• Support the development of the risk and compliance agenda for Procurement (including but not limited to audit activities, testing activities and compliance tracking).
• Liaise with 2LOD and 3LOD teams to deliver the risk and compliance activities.
• Support the response to, and adherence to, new and existing policy, procedures, controls, and regulatory guidelines and initiatives, enabling CLS to effectively assess and manage the risk introduced by engaging with Third Parties during the course of executing business activities.
• Support in writing and updating policy, procedures, controls and Procurement guidelines documents.
• Enable and educate the team around risk and controls, as well as increasing awareness and compliance.
• Effectively provide direction to the team and the business, around the process, procedures and controls, in order to ensure adoption and adherence to the Third Party Management (TPM) Procedure.
• Liaise with various risk teams internally to ensure alignment and compliance with their requirements (including the drafting of Procurement response to 2nd line challenges).
• Carry out regular reviews and mini-audits to track and test adherence to the TPM Procedure.
• Support the Performance Management process and work with the Business to ensure that the associated activities are carried out in accordance with the TPM Procedure.
• Support the team in their adherence to the KPIs and KRIs.

The role will report to the Risk, Governance & Process Lead, within the Procurement Operations team. Responsibilities include the following:

• Be a trusted advisor to the team and ensure the Procurement process is conducted in line with the Third Party Management Policy and Procedure.
• Work alongside the Risk, Governance & Process Lead to support any Internal Audit, Operational Risk Management (ORM), Business Risk & Control (BRC) team or Compliance related requirements.
• Work alongside the Risk, Governance & Process Lead to support any Risk, Governance & Process improvement requirements.
• Act as a support point of contact for Risk and Control Self-Assessment (RCSA) and audit activities.
• Efficiently collaborate with the Procurement Data Lead to obtain data and develop reports to support the risk and control activities.
• Effectively support on cross‑functional activities to ensure various key stakeholders are engaged and are working collaboratively at all levels of the organisation to embed Procurement processes and procedures.
• Support the development and improvement of processes to ensure the adherence to TPM processes and Controls within the Procurement team.
• Support the Continuous Operational Effectiveness Testing of the processes.
• Perform quality assurance over Procurement activities to ensure the integrity of the process and governance, including performing sample testing of the Procurement Controls as well as end‑to‑end processes (internal mini‑audit exercises).
• Provide support and guidance to the Procurement team on Risk and Controls to ensure that the Controls are clearly understood and adhered to within the team.
• Manage and maintain the Procurement mailbox centrally. Cascade information accordingly.
• Custodian of the Procurement SharePoint site.
• Help process Purchase Requisitions as and when required.
• Carry out market research / attendance to industry events to gather insight and benchmarking information.

What we're looking for:

• You love working on processes and risk management.
• You have a previous experience in a Third Party Risk Management or Procurement Operations function.
• A highly organised and methodical individual.
• Shares ideas for enhancing processes or standardise methodologies.
• Subject Matter Expert on Risk Management.
• Proven experience of risk and controls, either from a 1LOD ownership perspective or 2LOD validation.
• Ability to elevate the quality and clarity of guidance materials across the Procurement team.
• Ability to take initiative, come up with new ideas and implement them.
• Expertise in PowerPoint.
• Proactively and confidently questions and challenges the status quo, to identify and implement process improvement.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy.
• Strong knowledge of Procurement best practices (not just at CLS but Industry wide).
• Ability to multitask and support the team across a number of projects.
• Very Strong interpersonal skills to engage with large number of stakeholders, effectively.
• Ability to approach problems analytically and confidently to drive tasks through to completion.
• Minimum 3 years' experience, preferably in a Risk & Control, or Procurement Operations role.

Professional qualifications / certifications:

• Degree educated preferred but not essential.
• Ability to demonstrate tangible experience from previous role.
• Ability to create high quality presentations using Microsoft Power Point.
• Experience in Procurement is preferred but not essential.
• Suitable for someone wishing to develop their career in a financial services organization.

Our commitment to employees:

• Holiday - UK/Asia: 25 holiday days and 3 'life days' (in addition to bank holidays). US: 23 holiday days.
• 2 paid volunteer days so that you can actively support causes within your community that are important to you.
• Generous parental leave policies to ensure you can enjoy valuable time with your family.
• Parental transition coaching programmes and support services.
• Wellbeing and mental health support resources to ensure you are looking after yourself, and able to support others.
• Employee Networks (including our Women's Forum, Black Employee Network and Pride Network) in support of our organisational commitment to embrace and always be learning more about inclusivity.
• Hybrid working to promote a healthy work/life balance, enabling employees to work collaboratively in the office when needed and work from home when they don't.
• Active support of flexible working for all employees where possible.
• Monthly 'Heads Down Days' with no meetings across the whole company.
• Generous non‑contributory pension provision for UK/Asia employees, and 401K match from CLS for US employees.
• Private medical insurance and dental coverage.
• Social events that give you opportunities to meet new people and broaden your network across the organisation.
• Annual flu vaccinations.
• Discounts and savings and cashback across a wide range of categories including health and retail for UK employees.
• Discounted Gym membership - Complete Body Gym Discount/Sweat equity program for US employees.
• All employees have access to Discover - our comprehensive learning platform with 1000+ courses from LinkedIn Learning.
• Access to frequent development sessions on a number of topics to help you be successful and develop your career at CLS.