Northam Enterprise and Operational Risk Lead

Wise•Austin, TX

About The Position

Wise is seeking an Enterprise and Operational Risk Lead to manage the Northam Enterprise and Operational Risk Management team. This role will drive the implementation and day-to-day management of Enterprise and Operational risk management frameworks across US and Canada entities. Key responsibilities include driving control mapping, designing and implementing control monitoring, risk appetite statements, and KRIs. The role also involves managing the issue management process, fostering a culture of proactive self-identification and accountability for remediation. Additionally, this position will support Product Managers in launching new products safely and efficiently by identifying risks and building scalable controls.

Requirements

Experience managing, coaching, and mentoring a team.
Worked in the financial services, banking, or fintech sector.
Keen interest and proven experience in payment services, and operational controls and reporting.
Working knowledge of the OCC regulatory regime relating to enterprise and operational risk management.
Experience in enterprise risk and operational risk management, risk and control self assessments, and risk reporting.
Ability to go deep and understand complex operational processes, identify risks and controls.
Experience designing and implementing control monitoring, risk appetite statements, and KRIs.
Comfortable with AI, data analysis, and data-driven problem solving and solutionizing.
Experience in new product risk assessments, operational risk event analysis and finding new and innovative ways to do things.
Strong problem-solving, decision-making, and analytical skills to navigate complex situations and make data-driven decisions.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, and proficiency at drafting concise executive-style narratives for risk committees and board reporting.
Curious and collaborative - great at asking incisive questions to pick things up and act on them quickly.

Nice To Haves

Regulatory remediation experience.
Understanding the mechanics of Federal Reserve Bank payment rails and scheme rules.
SQL, Looker and Superset experience.
Payment products, ACH payment rails and payment operations experience.

Responsibilities

Manage, coach and mentor a team of four risk management professionals.
Manage, partner, and influence senior regional stakeholders across Product, Engineering, Operations, Banking and Compliance to embed the risk function and risk management program.
Lead the implementation and ongoing management of Enterprise and Operational Risk Management frameworks across the US and Canada entities, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations, embedding of the risk and control self assessment process, and issues management.
Conduct in-depth reviews to identify risks and complete control mapping across material processes, and help design scalable controls and a control monitoring & testing program.
Lead the development and implementation of risk appetite statements, risk tolerance thresholds, and key risk indicators, and work with data analysts and Product managers to create monitoring dashboards.
Support first line teams in documenting, solutioning, and prioritizing control gaps.
Provide ongoing oversight of issue remediation activities, including regulatory remediation, using the risk management tool (Audit Board) to ensure appropriate risk-focused prioritization, and help validate closure of remediated issues, including advising on the risk acceptance of issues where appropriate.
Analyze incidents and produce actionable insights.
Partner with ‘first line’ teams across the business to support the launch of new products by ensuring key risks are identified and mitigated with the right balance of pre-launch and post-launch checks, focusing on enabling the shipment of quality products at pace.
Coordinate the quarterly residual risk assessment process across the risk taxonomy, including loss and incident reporting, to inform the regional risk profile for reporting to local and global risk committees, and to local boards.
Promote and help embed a proactive risk culture, making risk meaningful and relevant to everyone at Wise.