Risk and Assurance Manager (Maternity Cover)

Risk and Assurance Manager (Contract)

Contract: fixed term contract until January 2028 (maternity cover). Working hours: 35 hours per week is full time. Where possible, we are open to considering part time/flexible working patterns. Please let us know in your application your desired working pattern.

Salary: circa £70,000.

Location: London Docklands / Hybrid.

Reporting to: Head of Risk and Assurance.

By joining our team, you'll enjoy the best of both worlds – hybrid working and the collaboration of a great office environment, as well as extensive opportunities for personal and career development. Our permanent hybrid policy sees us all working at least four days across a fortnight in the office.

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About Us

The Financial Ombudsman Service is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that plays a vital role in UK financial services. Every day we help resolve disputes between consumers, or small businesses, and their financial service providers.

This role supports the Head of Risk and Assurance in strengthening the organisation’s risk management and assurance frameworks, ensuring effective governance and informed decision-making during change. It partners with senior leaders to embed a strong risk culture, oversee risk reporting and assurance activities, develop risk appetite measures and key risk indicators, lead reviews and investigations, and drive continuous improvement in risk capability, controls, and governance processes while managing and developing the risk and assurance team. This is an exciting period within the risk team as we are making big strides forward in how we support the organisation. At the start of this year we launched our new risk management tool, provided by Corestream, which is enabling significant improvements in our risk management practice and culture. In addition, this year we have been taking forward a major project to enhance our approach to risk appetite, with high levels of engagement from our wider SLT. The role will provide a great opportunity to build on these developments to further strengthen our organisational approach to risk management.

What You’ll Do:

• Support the Head of Risk and Assurance in overseeing team delivery and ensuring risk and assurance activities are delivered to plan.
• Lead the development and continuous improvement of risk management, assurance and control frameworks across the organisation.
• Partner with stakeholders to identify, assess and manage risks, providing expert advice, challenge and guidance.
• Produce high‑quality risk and assurance reporting for senior leaders, Executive Committees and governance forums.
• Conduct risk reviews and deep dives to evaluate risk exposure, control effectiveness and alignment with risk appetite.
• Work closely with Internal Audit and business leaders to strengthen governance, risk management and assurance arrangements.
• Lead and support investigations, reviews and lessons learned activities, including whistleblowing and control‑related matters.
• Coach and develop team members, ensuring they have the skills, training and support needed to deliver excellent outcomes.

Minimum Criteria – Professional qualification in Risk Management, Governance or Assurance (e.g. IRM) or equivalent demonstrable experience

• Demonstrable experience applying risk management frameworks and assurance models (such as ISO 31000, COSO ERM and the Three Lines Model).
• Experience producing and presenting risk and assurance reports for senior leadership, Boards or governance committees.
• Strong knowledge of risk management principles, including risk appetite, key risk indicators (KRIs) and control assurance.
• Knowledge of the UK Corporate Governance Code, HMT Orange Book and control self‑assessment methodologies.

What you’ll bring:

• Strong relationship‑building skills with the ability to influence and challenge stakeholders at all levels.
• Experience managing and developing team members through coaching, mentoring and performance support, with a commitment to developing others.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex risk concepts in a clear and engaging way.
• Proactive and collaborative approach, with the ability to work effectively across teams and functions.
• Analytical and solution‑focused mindset, with strong judgement and decision‑making skills.
• Strong delivery focus, and ability to manage multiple deliverables with different stakeholders efficiently and effectively.

Why You’ll Love Working With Us

We are a values led organisation. Our values define our culture, influence our decisions, and underpin our vision and strategy. They set out how we play our PART through Purpose, Ambition, Respect and Trust. You can learn more about our values here: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/who-we-are/aims-values

Wellbeing: [Health plan, gym memberships, mental health support] Growth: We invest in your future with [courses, mentorship, promotions] Culture: Diverse. Inclusive. Collaborative. Fun. We also offer an attractive, competitive salary and flexible benefits to suit our people.

Benefits & Perks

• 25 days holiday entitlement, with the option to buy extra or sell days
• Generous pension
• Various Family Friendly Policies, including enhanced maternity pay, carers and dependants leave
• Employer provided benefits such as Private medical insurance, virtual GP, Critical illness cover, Life assurance cover, to name a few
• Choice of voluntary benefits including Technology scheme, Cycle to work scheme, Will‑writing service amongst others
• Gym membership discounts, and a fully equipped on‑site gym open 24/7 in London only

Application Information

Applications need to be submitted by 23:59 on Sunday 27 September 2026. Longlisted candidates will be invited to complete an online assessment which will be sent out on 30 September 2026. Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed w/c 5th October via Microsoft Teams.

Interview dates may vary; please ensure you are available during the week beginning October 5th.

Equal Opportunity & Inclusion

The Financial Ombudsman is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all team.

We view diversity as fundamental to our success and welcome applications from underrepresented groups across all communities.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader and, under the scheme, will progress a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the role to interview.

Interviews may be conducted via video, telephone, or a panel Interview, with some vacancies requiring an online assessment to measure the minimum criteria.

Authenticity of applications: We value authentic personal applications. If we determine that your CV or supporting statement was generated using AI tools, your application may be withdrawn from consideration.

Who we are… With fairness at the heart of everything we do, we embrace difference and treat everyone as equals. We’re a diverse organisation, but something we all share is our values. They’re central to the way we work – and work together. We’re an independent, not-for-profit organisation that sorts out disputes between financial businesses and their customers. We do this by making decisions that are fair – and feel fair to both sides. The Financial Ombudsman Service is an equal opportunities employer. All applicants will be treated in a fair and equal manner and in accordance with the law, regardless of gender, marital status, race, religion, colour, age, disability or sexual orientation. We’re committed to being a great place to work – attracting and developing people from the widest possible range of backgrounds. We want everyone to perform at their best and feel able to be themselves. We understand that if we’re diverse and inclusive, we’ll better understand different perspectives, which is fundamental to our job resolving financial complaints.

You can read more about Diversity and Inclusion. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. Disabled applicants who fulfil the minimum criteria for the role will be progressed to the next stage of the process. Do let us know of any reasonable adjustments you need. You will need to demonstrate that you meet the minimum criteria in order to qualify for the Disability Confident scheme.