Senior Associate - Market Insights in Leeds

Department - Consumer Investments Market Analysis and Policy

Team - Market Insights
Salary - National (Edinburgh and Leeds) ranging from £52,400 to £65,500 and London £57,700 to £72,000 per annum (Salary offered will be based on skills and experience)

About the FCA

The FCA regulates the conduct of 45,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. Follow this link to find out more About the FCA .

The Consumer Investments Market Analysis and Policy (MAP) Department is responsible for strategic policymaking and providing market insights for the consumer investments sector. This covers over 5,000 firms and 50,000 individuals, providing a range of crucial investment services to consumers.

The Market Insights Team leads on the cross-cutting vision for consumer investments by identifying, assessing, monitoring and prioritising market-wide emerging harms and future trends to enable the Directorate to take assertive action to support a well-functioning consumer investments sector that delivers the FCA Strategy. The core functions of the team include:

• Leading on market analysis across consumer investments to provide the cross-cutting view of the sector to support Supervision and Policy to take regulatory action, including producing a six-monthly Financial Markets Report for consumer investments
  

• Leading horizon scanning to uncover emerging trends and harms across the sector, covering topics including AI & technology, innovative business models and the economic & political environment
  

• Carrying out harm assessments; deeper research into specific issues where our horizon scanning identifies an emerging trend that could lead to consumer harm. Recent harm assessments include high risk investing and developments in AI
  

• Facilitating the prioritisation of proactive cross-cutting workstreams across the Consumer Investments Directorate
  

• Internal and external communication and engagement to gather insights, provide technical cross-cutting support and proactively communicate our priorities

What will you be doing?

• Horizon scanning across the sector; working proactively with key internal and external stakeholders to maintain effective relationships, assessing quantitative and qualitative intelligence and escalating emerging and evolving harms to relevant internal stakeholders
  

• Delivery of harm assessments and market research. This involves: analysis of consumer harm and drivers of harm, evaluating intelligence and applying judgement to recommend suitable mitigation activities and presenting reports & recommendations to divisional management to enable effective decision-making and prioritisation
  

• Supporting the directorate through wider technical support, including co-ordinating and drafting briefings and speeches for senior management, drafting external publications, training and sharing insights from horizon scanning, research and harm assessments

What will you get from the role?

Your work will be varied and you will have the opportunity to be curious and proactive in carrying out research and leading projects exploring emerging trends and harms, be innovative in the approach we take to tackling them and influence strategic regulatory developments in the consumer investments sector.

• You will have ownership of research and project work, supporting future career development
  

• You will develop a unique and deep understanding of the consumer investments market
  

• You will broaden your contacts and raise your profile internally and externally

Which skills are required?

We are a Disability Confident Employer; therefore, disabled people or individuals with long-term conditions who best meet the minimum criteria for a role will go through to the next stage of the recruitment process. (To learn more about the Disability Confident Scheme Click Here)

Minimum

• Proven experience working in an analytical or research role, being able to quickly draw out key implications from a broad range of information and applying judgement to assess risks to consumers and markets

• Proven experience building and maintaining relationships with both internal and external stakeholders at all levels

• Experience presenting key issues and recommendations to stakeholders

Essential

• Comfortable working proactively with the ability to lead research, prioritise own workload and drive work forward

• Comfortable with ambiguity, defining a problem statement and driving forward pragmatic action-based solutions

• An inquisitive thinker able to assess, challenge and validate information, making sound and timely decisions with a clear rationale

• A great team player who works effectively with others to achieve positive outcomes and Ability to communicate in a clear and concise manner verbally, visually and in writing

• Strong organisational skills with the proven ability to manage project work, work at pace and manage priorities

• Ability to influence and negotiate, especially when gathering intelligence and understand how to deliver challenging messages

• A strategic thinker with the ability to think about the “bigger picture” to make connections and develop innovative solutions and recommendations which convey the “so what”

• Understanding of Microsoft Office e.g. Excel, Word and PowerPoint

Our Values & Diversity

We are proud to be an inclusive employer and our ambition is to cultivate a culture 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.

Within the workplace you will have access to various employee resource groups which aim to promote and achieve a healthy work / life balance and support our diversity ambitions.

Did you know? 50% of our Executive Committee were the first in their family to attend university.

The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisation. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, minority ethnic, disabled, and neurodivergent candidates for this role.

Benefits of working at the FCA

• 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays

• Hybrid working (work from home up to 60% of your time)

• 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 also have a competitive flexible benefits scheme which gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifestyle.

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 can explore what might work best for both sides.

Follow this link to see what life is like at the FCA - Life at the FCA

Application Support

We are dedicated to removing barriers and ensuring our application process is accessible to everyone. We offer a range of adjustments to make your application experience as comfortable and straightforward as possible.

If you have an accessibility need, disability, or condition requiring changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter using the details below and they will be happy to discuss this further with you.

Useful Information and Timeline

• This role is graded as Senior Associate - Regulatory
• Advert Closing Date:Sunday 6th July
• CV Review/Shortlist: Tuesday 8th July
• Case Study: Friday 11th July
• First Round Interview: Week commencing 14th July

Your Recruiter will discuss the process in detail with you during screening for the role, therefore, please make them aware if you are going to be unavailable for any date during this time.

Got a question?

If you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact Cameron Nunn at cameron.nunn@fca.org.uk

Applications must be submitted through our online portal. Applications sent via email will not be accepted.