Chief Risk Officer

Location: London

The Client:

Our client is the UK entity of an international banking Group. This is an exciting role with the scope to develop the risk culture and build a team.

Key Responsibilities:

• Promote a strong risk culture aligned with ethical leadership, integrity, and sound governance.
• Provide subject matter expertise on UK financial services risk frameworks, including operational, conduct, and regulatory risks, as well as emerging risk trends.
• Lead risk identification, assessment, and management processes, ensuring alignment with the firm’s risk appetite and UK regulatory requirements (FCA, PRA, SMCR).
• Advise branch leadership on key risk exposures, emerging threats, and risk mitigation strategies.
• Oversee the risk governance structure, including committees, reporting, and escalation processes, ensuring risks are appropriately owned, monitored, and mitigated.
• Drive risk assessments related to new products, services, or operational changes, ensuring appropriate risk controls are designed and implemented.
• Partner with business units to review internal processes, identify control weaknesses, and implement remediation plans where risk gaps are identified.
• Manage regulatory risk interactions, including responses to FCA and PRA requests, inspections, and audits, ensuring accurate and timely information flow.
• Oversee the execution and governance of SMCR processes, including SMF applications, conduct rule training, and accountability mapping.
• Develop, maintain, and enhance the UK Risk Management Framework, including risk policies, control standards, and operational procedures.
• Ensure robust monitoring mechanisms are in place to detect, assess, and escalate risk issues in real-time.
• Lead issue management for risk-related incidents, including root cause analysis, remediation planning, and regulatory reporting where necessary.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders including Legal, Audit, and Compliance to support a coordinated approach to risk management.
• Provide risk reporting to senior management, the board, and regulators, including risk dashboards, metrics, and thematic reviews.
• Support the delivery of risk-related strategic initiatives and ensure that internal controls remain effective and proportionate to the risk profile of the business.

Requirements:

• Experience within banking in a senior risk leadership role, ideally will have held the SMF4 position previously
• Strong technical knowledge of the UK financial services regulatory environment, including PRA, FCA, and accountability frameworks under SMCR.
• Proven ability to manage and influence relationships with regulators, senior stakeholders, and governance bodies.
• Demonstrated experience in operational risk, conduct risk, and regulatory risk management within financial services.
• Exceptional stakeholder management and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work collaboratively across diverse functions.