Senior Risk Manager - Operational Resilience

at  Nationwide

We’re navigating significant change at Nationwide. It’s an exciting time as we evolve to a new future that sees us accelerate delivery of our strategic aims, value to our members and engage colleagues around new ways of working.
At the same time we are investing in the Operational Risk Oversight team, increasing our capacity, seniority, and capability adding to customer value by investigating, challenging, and influencing across the Society.
This role is within the second line of the three lines of defence model.
Operational resilience is critical to maintain the stability of Nationwide and wider UK financial ecosystem. It’s about how we plan for, prevent, respond to and recover from disruptions in a way which minimises impact to our customers. This includes threats from physical and cyber-attacks, IT system outages, third-party supplier failure, as well as natural hazards.
We’re looking for a talented senior risk manager to provide pro-active oversight of our operational resilience risk oversight agenda, working closely with the first line risk owners, senior leadership and partners across the lines of defence.
You will provide support, challenge and influence over the Society’s approach to operational resilience playing a pivotal role in identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, drive risk awareness, and implement effective controls to protect our organisation from resilience vulnerabilities. You will also be accountable for understanding and advising on regulatory expectations.
At Nationwide we offer hybrid working wherever possible. More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working. We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected.
For this job you’ll spend at least two days per week, or if part time you’ll spend 40% of your working time, based at either our London or Swindon office. If your application is successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this works. You can also find out more about our approach to hybrid working here.
If we receive a high volume of relevant applications, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so please apply as soon as you can.

ABOUT YOU

As a minimum:

• You will have a proven track record of delivering and/or overseeing the implementation of an operational resilience framework within a Retail Banking / Financial Services firm.
• You will have working knowledge of both operational resilience regulatory requirements applicable in the UK including SS1/21 (and preferably SS2/21).
• You will have the ability to demonstrate decisiveness and sound judgement on a consistent basis. With strong critical thinking, you’ll comprehend and assimilate information rapidly, break down complex problems and provide support and challenge to risk owners in a clear and understandable way to suit different audiences, from Board level through to wider colleague engagement.
• You will have a firm understanding of enterprise risk management frameworks, including proven experience in the application of risk appetite, policy management, risk assessments and controls.
• You will have effective relationship management skills which enable strong relationships to be built across the business. You will have experience of working on a regular basis with a broad range of stakeholders (including “Head of” level) and you can develop high value relationships at all levels.

Our Customer First behaviours are all about putting customers and members at the heart of how we work together. You can strengthen your application by showing the behaviours that resonate with you, and how you might have already demonstrated these.

• Say it straight - This is about being honest and direct with good intent and saying what needs to be said in the room. It’s also about being clear, precise, and using language that we and, importantly, our customers and members can understand.
• Push for better - This is about aiming high and constantly looking for better in how we work together and serve our customers and members.
• Get it done - This is about prioritising what will have the greatest impact, being decisive and taking accountability for delivering on the end-to-end outcome.

We know applying for jobs can sometimes feel like you’re sending an application into a black hole. We review each application individually. So, it’s a good idea to call out your most relevant experience on your application to give yourself the best chance.

As part of this role, you will be responsible for:

• Developing and delivering an effective oversight approach in relation to operational resilience (working closely with colleagues across the wider Operational Risk Oversight team to ensure collaboration on strategic resilience deliverables impacting other risk categories e.g. technology, payments, third-parties etc).
• Leading effective oversight of the operational resilience framework through support and challenge of the design and implementation of supporting methodologies.
• Leading the delivery of resilience related oversight activity through both a close and continuous approach and through undertaking risk and control based formal oversight reviews where appropriate.
• Delivering on the teams objectives to provide assurance to executive management and the Board Risk Committee on the adequacy and effectiveness of risk and control management.
• Maintaining high value relationships across the lines of defence with sufficient depth of technical and business understanding of their area, priorities and risks.
• Monitoring compliance against regulatory expectations relating to operational resilience.
• Deputising for the Head of Operational Risk as required.