Risk Business Partner in Basingstoke

We have a fantastic opportunity for an experienced Risk Business Partner to join our Risk and Assurance team at Sovereign Network Group (SNG). This is a high-impact role that plays a pivotal part in safeguarding SNG's resilience, reputation and long-term sustainability. You'll lead the strategic oversight and challenge of risk across a broad business portfolio, ensuring that material risks to strategy, operations, customer outcomes and regulatory compliance are proactively identified, assessed and effectively managed.

Based from our offices in Basingstoke or Wembley, you'll combine home and office working to ensure a positive work/life balance. There may be some occasional travel to our other offices for meetings or workshops.

The Role

Reporting into the Head of Risk, you'll operate as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, providing independent second-line assurance, delivering robust insight, foresight and evidence-based challenge to influence decision making. You'll play a crucial role in embedding a proactive risk management culture within SNG, enabling confident, informed risk-taking within appetite and strengthening enterprise-wide risk maturity and culture.

Responsibilities include:

• Acting as the primary second-line risk lead for designated business areas, building strong, trusted relationships with senior leadership teams.
• Partnering with internal stakeholders to embed a risk-aware culture, ensuring risk is considered in strategic planning, investment and change decisions, and that appropriate forums receive timely risk insight and challenge.
• Influencing strategic planning, transformation programmes and investment decisions by ensuring risk considerations are fully embedded and aligned to organisational risk appetite.
• Providing credible, independent and constructively challenging advice to senior stakeholders, balancing commercial and operational realities with risk discipline.
• Identifying systemic risks, cross-cutting themes and emerging threats, influencing organisational responses and long-term resilience planning.
• Driving continuous improvement in risk maturity, embedding best practice and innovative approaches across the organisation.
• Ensuring consistent and effective application of the risk management framework across assigned areas, promoting strong first-line accountability.
• Contributing to high-quality, forward-looking reporting for Executive Committee, Audit & Risk Committee and Board.

What we're looking for

You should have previous experience in a similar role, with demonstrable technical knowledge and skills in enterprise risk management, including operating effectively as a second line of assurance and applying proportionate oversight and independent challenge. A background in housing is not essential but ideally you'll have experience from a large organisation with a range of risk areas to consider. You'll also have:

• Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence and engage stakeholders at all levels, providing constructive challenge and articulating clear risk opinions.
• Experience in supporting the implementation of a robust risk management framework.
• Clear communication skills, ensuring technical information is presented clearly and concisely.
• An agile approach, confident to work successfully on multiple projects at different stages and effectively prioritise tasks.
• A high level of integrity, independence and professionalism, with the ability to remain objective and evidence-led when advising and challenging.
• A professional risk management qualification (e.g. IRM).
• Experience using risk, compliance or assurance tooling, and the ability to interpret data to produce insight for senior stakeholders.
• Experience in designing and/or delivering risk management awareness and training programmes is desirable.

Please note: First stage interviews will be held towards the end of July.