Operational Risk Manager

Overview

Hello there. We’re Zopa. We started our journey back in 2005, building the first ever peer-to-peer lending company. Fast forward to 2020 and we launched Zopa Bank. A bank that listens to what our customers don’t like about finance and does the opposite. We’re redefining what it feels like to work in finance. Our vision for a new era of banking puts people front and centre — we’ve built a business that empowers everyone to aim high, every day, to move finance forward. Find out more about our fantastic offerings at Zopa.com.

We’re incredibly proud of our achievements and none of it would be possible without the amazing team here. It’s not just industry awards we’re winning, we’ve also been named in the top three UK’s Most Loved Workplaces. If you embrace unconventional challenges, are unafraid to think differently and are driven to make an outsized impact, you’ll thrive here at Zopa, so join us, and make it count.

At Zopa, we believe risk management is our competitive advantage. We want it to be a cutting-edge, data-led capability that fundamentally improves how we build and run our products, not just making us safer but also faster and more efficient. Reporting to the Director of Operational Risk, you’ll be part of a small, high-impact 2nd line team working closely with Operations, Product, Customer Services, and other business areas. Your job: to understand how our processes really work, identify where they can fail, and use evidence, logic, analytical tools and AI, and sound judgement to challenge and strengthen how Zopa manages risk. This is a role for someone who thinks like an engineer, curious, precise, and rigorous and applies that mindset to operational processes. You’ll use data, AI and analysis to assess how well controls operate in practice and guide first line teams on what “good” truly looks like.

Day to day responsibilities:

• Analyse how processes and controls really work – map end-to-end workflows, trace data and hand-offs, and identify where things can break or be simplified.
• Run targeted risk reviews – dig deep into operational areas such as payments, customer operations, supplier management, or collections to evidence whether controls are working effectively.
• Assess and challenge first line controls – use critical thinking and an engineering mindset to judge whether controls are well-designed, efficient, and proportionate.
• Guide on what “good” looks like – share insight and best practice with first line teams to strengthen controls, making them more targeted, automated, efficient and effective, using the best analytical and technical tooling.
• Deliver clear, evidence-based assurance – produce concise findings that highlight key issues, root causes, and practical fixes.

About you:

• Engineering mindset – think in systems, spot failure points, and use logic and evidence to test whether controls really work.
• Analytical and curious – enjoy understanding how operational processes fit together and where they might fail.
• Critical thinker – comfortable forming independent, well-reasoned judgements and explaining them clearly.
• Process literate – skilled at mapping workflows, controls, and dependencies to see the whole picture.
• Commercially aware – able to balance risk management discipline with practical business delivery.
• Pragmatic and outcome-driven – care about reducing real risk, not generating paperwork.
• Analytical and evidence-led – base your conclusions on analysis, data, and facts.
• Collaborative and thoughtful – partner well with first line teams to improve, not just critique.
• AI advocate – well-versed and hands-on in using AI to solve problems, forward-thinking about what it can do and how to put it to use effectively.
• Eager to learn – keen to build deep expertise and grow into more complex risk domains.
• Process-curious – fascinated by how things actually work and how to make them safer and stronger.

Working at Zopa:

At Zopa we value flexible ways of working. We value face-to-face collaboration and a good work-life balance. This hybrid role requires you to come to our London office 2-3 days a week. You'll also have the option of working from abroad for up to 120 days a year! But no matter where you are, we’ll make sure you’ve got everything you need to thrive, both in your work and home life, from day one.

Diversity Statement:

Zopa is proud to offer a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds leads to better products for our customers and a unique company culture for our people. We are made up of nearly 50 nationalities, have a DE&I forum made up of Zopians wanting to make a difference and we are proud of our culture where everyone can bring their full self to work. Our approach to DE&I is reflected in our hiring process so please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments.