Risk and Compliance Officer in Birmingham

Freightliner is the UK's largest maritime intermodal logistics operator, transporting containers from all major deep-sea ports to our national network of inland terminals, as well as a leading operator in the UK Heavy Haul rail freight market. Freightliner has operations across Europe offering both Intermodal and Heavy Haul rail freight services seamlessly connecting European countries and the UK.

Role Purpose: Freightliner is creating its first dedicated Risk & Compliance Officer role to provide a coherent, enterprise wide approach to risk, compliance and assurance across a complex UK road and rail haulage business. The role is responsible for designing, embedding and overseeing Freightliner’s group wide risk and compliance framework, bringing together activities currently managed across multiple functions. Operating as a second line oversight function, the role provides consistent coordination, insight and constructive challenge, while supporting safe, ethical and resilient operations. The Risk & Compliance Officer does not replace or duplicate first line operational ownership of risk, safety or compliance. Instead, the role provides independent oversight, assurance and escalation, ensuring risks are appropriately identified, managed and reported. As a centre of expertise, advisor and critical friend, the postholder will support the business to meet its legal, regulatory and accreditation obligations, while maintaining a proportionate, pragmatic and commercially informed approach suited to an operational logistics environment. This is a hands on, build from scratch role, requiring strong stakeholder management and the ability to right size governance for practical application across the business.

Key Responsibilities

• Enterprise Risk Management
  • Design, implement and maintain a group wide Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework aligned to Freightliner’s strategy and risk appetite.
  • Coordinate the identification, assessment and prioritisation of strategic, operational, financial, regulatory and reputational risks.
  • Ensure clear risk ownership, mitigation plans and review cycles are in place across the business.
  • Ensure operational, safety and regulatory risks (including rail and site level risks) are appropriately escalated and reflected within the enterprise risk framework, with clear lines of defence.
  • Support Executive and Board level discussions on risk exposure, emerging risks and risk appetite.
• ISO Standards & Management Systems
  • Implement and maintain oversight of Freightliner’s ISO management systems, including (as applicable): ISO 9001 (Quality), ISO 14001 (Environmental), ISO 45001 (Health & Safety), ISO 22301 (Business Continuity).
  • Coordinate internal audits, external certification audits and surveillance visits.
  • Track audit findings and corrective actions through to closure.
  • Support the business in continually improving management system effectiveness and integration.
• Internal Audit, Controls & Assurance
  • Oversee the design and operation of proportionate internal controls across key risk areas.
  • Coordinate internal audit activity, including scoping, delivery and reporting, whether conducted internally or by third parties.
  • Develop and maintain an assurance map, identifying first, second and third line assurance activity, along with gaps and overlaps.
  • Monitor the effectiveness of controls and assurance mechanisms and recommend improvements where needed.
• Business Continuity & Organisational Resilience
  • Own and oversee the group business continuity framework.
  • Ensure business continuity plans are developed, maintained, tested and reviewed across sites and functions.
  • Coordinate scenario testing and exercises, including lessons learned.
  • Oversee post incident reviews from a risk and assurance perspective, ensuring learning is captured, shared and embedded across the organisation.
• Regulatory, Ethical & Third Party Compliance
  • Monitor and support compliance with applicable laws, regulations and standards, including corporate governance obligations, anti bribery and corruption, modern slavery legislation, whistleblowing requirements, data protection and financial governance and controls requirements.
  • Undertake structured regulatory horizon scanning and coordinate organisational responses to significant regulatory or standards based change.
  • Act as a central point of coordination during regulatory reviews or investigations, working closely with Legal and other relevant functions.
• Third Party & Supply Chain Risk
  • Provide oversight of third party and supplier risk management frameworks, including due diligence, risk classification and ongoing monitoring.
  • Support proportionate controls for critical suppliers and contractors, working with Legal, Commercial and Procurement teams.
  • Ensure significant supplier or contractor risks are visible at enterprise level.
• Policies, Training & Culture
  • Own and maintain the framework of group policies related to risk, compliance and ethical conduct.
  • Coordinate training and awareness activity to support understanding of risk management, compliance obligations and expected behaviours.
  • Promote a positive risk and compliance culture that encourages openness, learning and appropriate challenge.
  • Develop proportionate tools, systems and management information to support risk identification, incident tracking, audit actions and compliance reporting.
• Reporting, Governance & Escalation
  • Produce clear, decision focused reporting for Executive leadership and Board or Committee audiences.
  • Track and report on incidents, near misses, audit findings, policy breaches and emerging risks.
  • Develop and monitor key risk indicators (KRIs) and compliance KPIs to assess trends, control effectiveness and exposure.
  • Escalate material risks, control failures or compliance issues to senior leadership and, where appropriate, directly to the Board or relevant Committees.
• Authority & Independence
  • Challenge decisions and practices that expose the business to unacceptable risk.
  • Require appropriate mitigation, assurance or escalation of material issues.
  • Escalate concerns independently of operational reporting lines where necessary.

Key Stakeholders

• Executive Leadership Team
• Board and relevant Committees (Audit, Risk and/or Safety, as applicable)
• Safety, Operations and Engineering teams
• Legal, Finance, HR, IT and Procurement
• External auditors, regulators and assurance providers

Skills & Experience

• Proven experience in risk management, compliance or assurance roles within complex or regulated environments.
• Experience operating or supporting a second line oversight function, including effective challenge and assurance.
• Strong understanding of enterprise risk management frameworks.
• Experience coordinating audits, management systems or formal assurance processes.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication and influencing skills.
• Experience in transport, logistics, rail or heavy industry environments.
• Familiarity with ISO management systems.
• Experience with third party, supplier or contractor risk management frameworks.
• Exposure to Board or Committee level reporting.

Personal Attributes

• Pragmatic, proportionate and commercially aware.
• Confident, credible and able to challenge constructively.
• Highly organised with strong analytical capability.
• Trusted advisor with sound judgement and integrity.

Benefits

• Competitive pay, excellent benefits, a competitive pension scheme and a rewarding career in an award‑winning team.