Senior Risk Portfolio Associate

We regulate financial services firms in the UK, to keep financial markets fair, thriving and effective. By joining us, you’ll play a key part in protecting consumers, driving economic growth, and shaping the future of UK finance services.

SPC oversees firms and individuals (supervision), creates and reviews the rules by which they operate (policy) and identifies and remedies ineffective competition in markets (competition). Sitting within the Payments & Digital Assets directorate (PDA), the Cross-Cutting Delivery Department supports payments and digital finance to develop sector wide strategies and support supervision and policy making through effective risk management, governance, operational efficiency and collaborative partnership with stakeholders.

The Risk team within the Cross Cutting Delivery department is responsible for delivering the first line of defence of risk management for payments firms, digital assets and payment systems. We have an exciting opportunity for an expert in risk management of payments firms (electronic money institutions/payments institutions) and/or cryptocurrency, tokenised assets, stablecoin or other digital assets to join our team.

As the new Department is taking shape, we expect the successful applicant will be working with and supporting other teams within the department as we establish the various functions and ways of working. The ideal candidate will have expertise in at least one of these sectors, and will take responsibility for risk identification, monitoring and reporting activities in these areas. They will ensure risks are managed appropriately, have documented actions and controls in place, and are reported in accordance with existing governance.

Work with a wide range of stakeholders, often in situations without direct authority. Skilled at guiding others and finding mutually acceptable solutions. The postholder will be one of the main points of contact with the risk team. It’s therefore critical that the candidate can establish good working relations with others quickly and can help teams across the two directorates understand how best to engage with the risk function.

You will be responsible for reporting into relevant committees and will be expected to liaise closely with subject matter experts across the business to obtain information. Working with minimal supervision and presenting work in persuasive ways to senior audiences, conducting analysis on a wide set of risks affecting the payments and digital assets portfolios. Comfortable commissioning information, conducting your own research, synthesising large amounts of data, and presenting these in concise, compelling ways to a range of audiences.

Analysing data, possessing solid data analysis skills and an ability to analyse payments and digital assets sector risks and design ways to measure the progress of our activities and controls against risk targets.

Benefits:

• Hybrid working (work from home up to 60% of your time)
• 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays
• Private healthcare with Bupa
• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8%
• Life assurance
• Income protection

This role is graded as: Senior Associate - Regulatory.

Requirements:

• Demonstrable knowledge of UK financial services regulation.
• Demonstrable experience of effective stakeholder management and building and sustaining strong, collaborative relationships, using clear and effective communication across multiple engagement channels.
• Demonstrable expertise in risk analysis and management of payments firms and/or digital assets (such as cryptocurrencies, tokenisation, stablecoins etc).
• Solid analytical skills to analyse large volumes of data and information and draw pertinent conclusions. Experience of using data analysis tools and AI capability would be advantageous.
• Experience of developing and improving how risk is managed, including how progress and success is measured against target risk scores.
• Sound judgement underpinned by data, evidence and insight to inform decisions and actions.
• Robust report writing skills.
• Demonstrable experience managing and engaging senior stakeholders, including at SLT and Executive level, both internally and externally, including by tailoring written messages to the audience for maximum impact.
• Ability to present advice in a clear, timely and focused way.
• Ability to work in a collaborative and inclusive ways that build support, balance priorities and contribute to wider organisational goals, while challenging appropriately.
• A growth mindset, with curiosity to learn, ability to handle unexpected changes and readiness to take on new responsibilities and adjust to shifting priorities.
• Experience working across teams and disciplines to deliver shared outcomes. This includes working with and supporting risk governance functions.