Risk & Governance Specialist

Job Description

Who we are

We are a global investment company that helps clients and customers to plan, save and invest for the future. By doing so, we enable our clients and customers to be better investors. Strengthening talent and culture is one of our strategic priorities. We strive to make abrdn a great place to work so that we can attract and retain the industry’s best talent. Our people put our stakeholders at the heart of everything they do by helping us to make a positive difference to the lives of our clients, customers, colleagues, shareholders and society.

abrdn comprises three businesses, Investments, Adviser and interactive investor (ii), each of which focuses on meeting and adapting to our clients’ evolving needs.

• Investments manages £368bn of client assets, offering investment capabilities built on the strength of our insights from wide-ranging research, worldwide investment expertise and local market knowledge.
• Adviser provides financial planning solutions and technology to over half of the UK’s financial advisers, enabling them to create value for their businesses and clients.
• ii, the UK’s second-largest direct-to-consumer investment platform, helps over 430,000 individual customers to plan, save and invest in the way that works best for them

About the role:

Risk & Governance Specialist that is functionally aligned to UK Adviser business. The role holder will be responsible for the independent second line risk and governance activities including reporting for the Executive & Boards, supporting the CRO.

This role has responsibility for proactively Supporting and delivering improvements to the Risk Governance activities and practices associated with our functional delivery of independent oversight and reporting to the Group CRO, Executive and Boards.  This includes Subsidiary Board Reporting and management of Subsidiary Board Risk Appetites. The role scope is considered enterprise risk wide. 

Key Responsibilities:

• Proactively support Risk Governance Activities and practices associated with our functional delivery of independent oversight and reporting to the Group CRO, Executive and the Boards.

• Take ownership of the Governance cycle through to subsidiary Board papers ensuring all reporting completed on time and with correct input from R&C partners.

• Optimise the Risk Reporting operating model through driving improvements and efficiencies including Power BI, collaborating with the team to ensure reporting shows a holistic view of the risk insights and intelligence across the team.

• Independently own and maintain Board Risk Appetite operational processes and required Board reporting, working closely with Metric owners across the Group and the Adviser Business. Collaborating with Group Framework on the Group PLC appetite refresh and ensuring consistency.

• Support the annual Board Risk Appetite review process, including workshops with the Adviser business and preparation of related Board reports.

• Operational and administrative support to Chief Risk Officer in maintenance of the Risk Governance Framework, including associated actions.

• Support strategic risk advisory activities that arise, that don’t directly align to the business  i.e. strategic / transformational activities of the firm.

Contribution to the team and functional objectives and activities:

• Enhance knowledge and understanding on the use of the Enterprise Risk Management Framework, supporting our objective of raising awareness of and being advocates of the effective management of risk in achieving abrdn’s strategic objectives.

• Providing insightful analysis through thematic reviews and analysis of risk and compliance information and outputs from the use of the enterprise risk management framework, delivering a holistic view of the risk profile of the Adviser Business.

Contributing to Risk & Compliance team functional objectives and team activities:

• Build effective and collaborative relationships across the Global Risk & Compliance function to support delivery of team and functional objectives.

• Supporting the production of relevant management information.

• Promoting and encouraging a risk culture that underpins abrdn’s values and drives risk awareness and accountability within the business.

• Supporting the wider team and R&C function in the delivery of functional activities where required and where appropriate.

Skills and Experience:

• Sound understanding of the principles of risk management with knowledge of the ERMF and activities of a Risk & Compliance Function preferred.

• Effective communication & stakeholder engagement skills; ability to articulate complex concepts in an effective way.

• Strong ability to facilitate collaborative working within and across teams.

• Innovative problem solver, with the ability to simplify complex issues and innovate to deliver clear useable solutions.

• Ability to deliver in a proactive and collaborative manner for the benefit of relevant stakeholders, working independently with initiative where required.

• Degree qualified or equivalent professional experience

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer. Therefore, if you have a disability and would like to apply to one of our UK roles under the Disability Confident Scheme, please notify us by completing the relevant section in our candidate questionnaire and one of our team will reach out to support you through your application process.

Our benefits

There's more to working life than coming home with a good salary. We have an environment where you can learn, get involved and be supported.

When you join us, your reward will be one of the best around. This includes 40 days’ annual leave, a 16% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance-based bonus (where applicable), private healthcare and a range of flexible benefits – including gym discounts, season ticket loans and access to an employee discount portal. You can read more about our benefits here.

Our business

Enabling our clients to be better investors drives everything we do. Our business is structured around three distinct areas – our vectors of growth – focused on our clients’ changing needs. You can find out more about what we do here.

We’re committed to providing an inclusive workplace where all forms of difference are valued and which is free from any form of unfair or unlawful treatment.  We define diversity in its broadest sense – this includes but is not limited to our diversity of educational and professional backgrounds, experience, cognitive and neurodiversity, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief and ethnicity and geographical provenance.  We support a culture that values meritocracy, fairness and transparency and welcomes enquiries from everyone.

If you need assistance or an adjustment due to a disability please let us know as part of your application and we will assist.