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Job Title: Head of Operational Risk & Resilience
Location: East Midlands, Hybrid 2 days a week in the office
Salary: Up to circa £110,000
Hours: Monday to Friday 9 am to 5 pm or Monday to Friday 8 am to 4 pm
Benefits:
- Annual discretionary bonus and incentive scheme
- 29 days holiday +Bank and public holidays
- Holiday Purchase scheme
- Medicash Cashplan
- X4 Life assurance
- Pension
- Flexible and hybrid working options
- Savings Scheme
- Enhanced Maternity leave and options for shared paternal leave
About our Client and the role of Head of Operational Risk & Resilience:
We're working in partnership with a leading financial services business to recruit a Head of Operational Risk and Resilience - a critical leadership role with real impact and visibility. This is an exciting opportunity to shape and deliver the organisation's approach to operational resilience and first line risk, ensuring it's practical, embedded in day-to-day operations, and tested in real-world scenarios - not just aligned to regulatory expectations. You'll lead the development and delivery of the Operational Resilience Framework, working closely with senior stakeholders to assess performance, identify vulnerabilities, and drive continuous improvement. You'll also play a key role in building first line risk capability within the Customer Office, enabling confident, informed risk-based decision making at the frontline. This is a hands-on delivery role for someone who can balance strategic thinking with practical execution, influence at all levels, and drive meaningful change in a fast-moving financial services environment.
Responsibilities for the role of Head of Operational Risk & Resilience:
- Own and continually evolve the organisation's Operational Resilience Framework.
- Lead the design and delivery of resilience activities to strengthen operational capability and readiness.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with Important Business Service (IBS) Owners and senior stakeholders.
- Develop and oversee testing strategies to ensure resilience plans are robust, practical, and business-led.
- Lead and develop the first line risk and control team within the Customer Office.
- Guide the implementation of the Enterprise Risk Management Framework (ERMF) within operational teams.
- Foster a culture of resilience, risk awareness, and proactive risk management across the business.
- Monitor, report, and provide insight on key operational risk and resilience metrics.
- Oversee remediation plans and drive timely action to address resilience or risk-related gaps.
Experience required for the role of Head of Operational Risk & Resilience:
- Significant experience in Operational Risk and Resilience, with 5+ years in a senior leadership role within financial services.
- Proven track record of designing, building, and embedding operational resilience frameworks from the ground up.
- Strong knowledge of first line risk management, control environments, and regulatory requirements.
- Experience leading and developing high-performing teams, with the ability to build capability and grow a function.
- Comfortable operating strategically - setting vision and direction - while remaining hands-on to deliver outcomes in a developing and evolving environment.
- Skilled in crisis management, business continuity planning, and incident response.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at all levels.
- Strong analytical mindset, with the ability to interpret data and identify risk trends.
- Confident facilitating discussions around risk appetite and operational resilience testing.
- Proactive, delivery-focused, and commercially aware approach to risk management.
For more information regarding the role of Head of Operational Risk & Resilience please contact us
Stellar Select is acting as an employment agency and is a corporate member of the REC.
Due to a high volume of applications, we will only contact you if your application has been successful. We aim to contact all successful contacts within two business days.
