Head of Complaints, Strategy & Controls - Vice President in Edinburgh

Are you looking for a new opportunity to lead a complaints, strategy and control execution function? As a Head of Global Complaints, Strategy and Controls - Vice President you will own the end‑to‑end complaints capability and lifecycle across all Financial Services products, functions, and customer journeys—including Fraud, Financial Crime, KYC, Lending, Payments, and New Product Development—while also leading the design and execution of first‑line operational controls across Banking Operations and Daily Banking. As a senior front‑line leader, global product owner, and regulatory liaison, you will embed strong conduct, control discipline, and customer‑centric outcomes across the enterprise.

Job Responsibilities

• Define and lead the global complaints strategy; own the capability roadmap, standards, tooling, and operating model.
• Own the end‑to‑end complaints lifecycle enterprise‑wide, ensuring fairness, timeliness, consistency, and quality.
• Personally resolve executive‑level, high‑risk, or reputationally significant complaints (e.g., Fraud, FinCrime, KYC, new products).
• Establish and maintain global policies, procedures, playbooks, and reporting frameworks aligned to conduct/regulatory standards.
• Drive automation, digitization, and simplification of complaints processes to improve outcomes and efficiency.
• Own complaints technology platforms and MI, ensuring accurate data capture, trend analysis, and regulatory reporting.
• Lead deep‑dive/thematic analysis to identify systemic issues; drive preventative actions and sustainable remediation.
• Design and oversee customer remediation programs arising from systemic or regulatory issues.
• Serve as liaison with regulators and ombudsman bodies; lead responses to audits, inspections, and thematic reviews.
• Own first‑line operational control execution across Banking Operations and Daily Banking; lead the shift from manual to automated controls; ensure MI for governance.
• Build and lead global teams; embed customer focus, accountability, regulatory excellence, and continuous improvement; oversee issue management and incident response.

Required Qualifications, Skills and Capabilities

• Extensive leadership experience in global complaints strategy and execution across multi‑jurisdiction Financial Services.
• Proven first‑line control execution and operational risk management across Banking Operations and Daily Banking.
• Strong conduct‑risk and Consumer Duty (or equivalent) expertise, including vulnerable customer outcomes.
• Demonstrated success engaging regulators/ombudsman and leading audits, thematic reviews, and regulatory responses.
• Track record managing executive‑level, high‑risk complaint escalations with fair, timely outcomes.
• Expertise in process and control automation; ownership of platforms, data quality, and MI/reporting frameworks.
• Advanced root‑cause analysis and systemic‑issue remediation skills.
• Exceptional executive communication and influence; effective at board/senior governance forums.
• Proven cross‑functional partnership with Product, Technology, Risk, Compliance, Legal, Fraud/FinCrime, and Operations.
• People leadership of global, matrixed teams; talent development and succession planning.

Preferred Qualifications, Skills and Capabilities

• Experience spanning Retail and Investment Banking products and customer journeys.
• Prior ownership of a global complaints product/utility (capability, tooling, operating model).
• Built and scaled QA frameworks and enterprise customer remediation programs across jurisdictions.
• Led large‑scale digital enablement for complaints and control execution; experience with modern workflow/case‑management/analytics tools.
• Crisis/incident management leadership in high‑profile customer or regulatory matters.
• Willingness to travel internationally.

Equal Employment Opportunity

We are an equal‑opportunity employer and place a high value on diversity and inclusion at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of any protected attribute, including race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital or veteran status, pregnancy or disability, or any other basis protected under applicable law. We also make reasonable accommodations for applicants’ and employees’ religious practices and beliefs, as well as mental health or physical disability needs.