Deputy Head of Stress Testing

Business Unit: Finance, Stress Testing
Salary range: £70,400 – £105,600 per annum DOE + red-hot benefits
Location: UK Flexible
Contract Type: Permanent

Take control of your career. Live a life more Virgin.

Our Team

Sitting within the FP&A and Capital Management team within Finance, CSTT reach across a wide range of colleagues across Finance, Risk and Treasury to oversee the production of VMUK’s key regulatory and internal capital stress tests. These include the Bank of England’s BCST (Bank Capital Stress Test, the successor to the ACS) and VM’s Pillar 2B ICAAP stress tests.

What you’ll be doing

• As Deputy HO Stress Testing, you will be required to provide guidance, make decisions / judgments, and stand in for the HO ST as necessary. This may involve chairing Expert Panels, approving results for onwards stage gates, and presenting results at Committees like Stress Test Committee and ALCO.
• Own and be accountable for a selection of the stress test modules – providing review/challenge to proposed SME submissions. The review process represents a key stage-gate in the overall submission process, and you’ll be required to explain the key assumptions and judgments made, why they are appropriate, and ensuring they are consistent with a range of other conclusions made elsewhere.
• Preparing governance materials to senior committees, including ALCO, BRC and Board. Full balance sheet stress testing generates a vast quantity of information; you’ll need to be comfortable exercising their judgment on what elements / assumptions to elevate and explain/defend them clearly and concisely.
• Leading some of the Committee presentations and discussions and holding the pen on first drafts of ICAAP P2B chapters / sections of the ICAAP executive summary; and some of the headline BCST BOP questions on the overall narrative of the stress test.
• Overseeing the end-to-end delivery plans for the range of VMUK capital stress tests exercises (BOE BCST and ICAAP P2B). This includes working with stakeholders to set out a workable execution timetable, issuing instructions (including RACI matrices), tracking delivery milestones and ensuring controls are executed and documented in good time.
• Directing capability enhancements to be delivered during the periods between stress test exercises.

We need you to have

• Established knowledge of capital stress testing, ideally from having worked on a concurrent stress testing (e.g. ACS/EBA/CCAR) exercise at a major firm, consultancy or at the regulator.
• A strong financial risk skillset – ideally with breadth of knowledge across a range of risk stripes; this will include a strong command of bank balance sheets and P&L statements.
• The ability and confidence to make decisions and provide instruction to others on stress testing related matters.
• A proven track record of working with senior stakeholders, including Exco members (or similar). This involves demonstrating good judgment around areas of focus and degree of detail, and ability to communicate complex material to less specialist audiences.
• Substantial and demonstrable experience with building strong relationships – you will need to work constructively with colleagues in Finance more broadly, as well as colleagues in Risk, Treasury and Business Areas to ensure effective stress test delivery.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, to explain complex ideas in simple terms. You will proactively manage key stakeholders, ensuring they are engaged and consulted, and escalating issues where appropriate in a timely manner.
• Strong technical knowledge in at least one of the following areas: income modelling (on either the asset or the liability side of the balance sheet), cost modelling/management, credit risk experience (familiarity with IFRS9 or IRB) or capital management.

Red Hot Rewards

• Generous holidays – 38.5 days annual leave (including bank holidays and prorated if part-time) plus the option to buy more.
• Up to five extra paid well-being days per year .
• 20 weeks paid, gender-neutral family leave (52 weeks in total) for expectant parents and those looking to adopt.
• Market-leading pension.
• Free private medical cover, income protection and life assurance.
• Flexible benefits include Cycle to Work, wellness and health assessments, and critical illness.

And there's no waiting around, you'll enjoy these benefits from day one.

Feeling insatiably curious about this role? If we’re lucky to receive a lot of interest, we may close the advert early and would hate you to miss out.

We're all about helping you Live a Life More Virgin , so happy to talk flexible working with you.

Say hello to Virgin Money
We’re making great strides towards achieving our ambition of becoming the UK’s best digital bank. As a full-service digital bank with a heritage stretching back over 180 years, we’re a workforce to be reckoned with, and we're putting the full power of our experience behind disruptive ideas that reinvent the role a bank plays in people's lives. We're customer-obsessed and work tirelessly to deliver on our purpose, ‘Making You Happier About Money.’ This means we're able to do banking differently, and by innovating and working together we can make a real difference by creating memorable moments and red-hot experiences for our millions of customers. Join us and Live a Life More Virgin that empowers you with choice and flexibility in how you work.

Be yourself at Virgin Money
Our purpose is to make people happier about money, this means seeing and feeling the world as our customers do by creating a workforce that reflects the rich diversity of our customers and communities. We’re committed to creating an inclusive culture where colleagues feel safe and inspired to contribute, speak up and be heard.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we're committed to removing any obstacles to inclusion. If you need any reasonable adjustments or support making your application, contact our Talent Acquisition team

It’s important to note that there may be occasions where it’s not possible to interview all candidates declaring a disability who meet the essential criteria for the job. In certain recruitment situations such as receiving a high-volume of applications, we may need to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled and non-disabled applicants.

Now the legal bit
Living A Life More Virgin allows our colleagues to be based anywhere in the UK (if the role allows it), but we'll need you to confirm you have the right to work in the UK.

If you're successful in securing a role with us, there are some checks you need to complete before starting. These include credit and criminal record checks and three years' worth of satisfactory references. If the role is part of the Senior Manager Regime and Certification Regime, it requires enhanced pre-employment checks – we'll ask for six years of regulatory references, and once in the role, you'll be subject to periodic employment checks.