Head of Risk UK
Job Description
The Head of Risk will be the accountable risk leader for the UK entity, responsible for ensuring that all material risks affecting UK clients, regulatory posture, and operational resilience are identified, assessed, monitored, and reported effectively. This is a broad role covering financial risk (excluding direct dealing oversight), operational risk, conduct risk, and third party/outsourcing risk.
A defining characteristic of this role is its operating model. Many core risk functions are delivered by the Group Risk team on an outsourced or shared services basis. The Head of Risk does not need to build and staff every capability locally. Instead, they must be skilled at managing outsourced service delivery: defining what the UK entity requires, holding Group Risk accountable for quality and timeliness, identifying gaps or conflicts between Group delivery and UK regulatory obligations, and escalating where service levels or outputs fall short.
This creates a dual mandate. The role holder must be a credible, senior risk professional who can engage substantively with risk content (frameworks, stress tests, MI, regulatory submissions). They must also be an effective governance operator who can manage intra group outsourcing relationships with the same rigour the FCA would expect for any outsourced critical or important function.
The role reports directly to the UK CEO with a functional dotted line to the Group CRO. The Head of Risk will be the primary risk voice in UK governance forums and the lead point of contact for FCA supervisory engagement on risk matters.
The Head of Risk will be the accountable risk leader for the UK entity, responsible for ensuring that all material risks affecting UK clients, regulatory posture, and operational resilience are identified, assessed, monitored, and reported effectively. This is a broad role covering financial risk (excluding direct dealing oversight), operational risk, conduct risk, and third party/outsourcing risk.
A defining characteristic of this role is its operating model. Many core risk functions are delivered by the Group Risk team on an outsourced or shared services basis. The Head of Risk does not need to build and staff every capability locally. Instead, they must be skilled at managing outsourced service delivery: defining what the UK entity requires, holding Group Risk accountable for quality and timeliness, identifying gaps or conflicts between Group delivery and UK regulatory obligations, and escalating where service levels or outputs fall short.
This creates a dual mandate. The role holder must be a credible, senior risk professional who can engage substantively with risk content (frameworks, stress tests, MI, regulatory submissions). They must also be an effective governance operator who can manage intra group outsourcing relationships with the same rigour the FCA would expect for any outsourced critical or important function.
The role reports directly to the UK CEO with a functional dotted line to the Group CRO. The Head of Risk will be the primary risk voice in UK governance forums and the lead point of contact for FCA supervisory engagement on risk matters.