Job Description

Job Type: Permanent 

Location: This role could be based in any of our offices in London, Birmingham or Edinburgh with time spent working in the office and from home.

Flexible working: All roles are open to part-time, job-share and other types of flexibility. We will discuss what is important to you and balancing this with business requirements during the recruitment process. You can read more about flexible working here.

Salary and benefits: £85,000 to £110,000 dependent upon experience, plus an indicative bonus range of 30% to 60%, private medical cover, 38 days annual leave, excellent pension, 12x salary life assurance, career breaks, income protection, 3x volunteering days and much more.

Closing date: 28th October

Who are we?

We’re Standard Life, a retirement specialist focused entirely on retirement savings and income. We champion the belief that everyone’s journey to and through retirement can be better, and for more than 200 years, we’ve been helping our customers plan and prepare for their financial futures.

Life today is increasingly complicated, uncertain and unpredictable. People move through different careers, face unexpected moments and navigate important choices. We offer our colleagues flexibility, trust and benefits that work for whatever life brings. In return we expect curiosity, connection, accountability and high standards. We make room for what matters - so you can bring your best, every day.

The role

The Senior Financial Risk Manager will play a senior role in Financial Risk Operations, leading high-quality risk reporting and governance activity across external and regulatory disclosures.

We are looking for an experienced financial risk professional who can bring structure, judgement and strong stakeholder management to complex, cross-functional reporting. The role will coordinate input from various areas across Standard to ensure outputs are clear, accurate, and suitable for Boards, Committees, regulators, investors and senior stakeholders. Key deliverables include risk-related input to the Annual Report and Accounts, Interim Report, SFCR, Statutory Accounts, debt prospectus, ORSA and external surveys, including managing governance requirements around these deliverables.

The successful candidate will also support the departmental planning process, governance coordination, oversight of governance processes, process improvement, resource allocation and finance activity, while improving the efficiency and effectiveness of recurring reporting and governance cycles. This senior role requires excellent written communication, proactive ownership, sound judgement and the ability to constructively challenge and influence senior stakeholders.

Key responsibilities 

• Lead key risk reporting outputs, including external and regulatory disclosures, regulatory compliance evidence, and relevant external risk surveys.
• Coordinate input from Finance, Risk SMEs, Legal, CoSec and wider business colleagues, ensuring clear ownership and consistency across risk reporting outputs.
• Draft and review Board, Committee, regulatory and external reporting material, translating complex risk, regulatory and financial information into clear, decision-ready content.
• Support the Head of Financial Risk Operations with governance planning, operational management, resource coordination, and wider team objectives.
• Oversee the governance process for risk committees, including forward planning, agenda coordination, paper tracking, action management and effective engagement with contributors and stakeholders.
• Maintain oversight of reporting-related risks and controls, including relevant RCSAs and controls that support robust, accurate and well-evidenced reporting.
• Provide constructive challenge to ensure risk reporting is balanced, aligned to the Group and regulatory requirements, Board expectations and market practice.
• Drive continuous improvement by simplifying processes, strengthening handovers, using technology and AI effectively, and embedding lessons learned across recurring cycles.

What are we looking for?

• Experience in financial risk, enterprise risk, external reporting, regulatory reporting or a related area within life insurance or wider financial services.
• A relevant professional qualification, such as Fellow of the IFoA, CERA or FRM, or equivalent experience in risk, actuarial, finance or regulatory disciplines.
• Experience producing clear, concise and audience-appropriate material for Boards, Committees, regulators, investors and senior stakeholders.
• An understanding of life insurance business models, Solvency UK, risk management frameworks and the interaction between financial, strategic, emerging, operational and regulatory risks.
• Proven ability to coordinate complex reporting or governance processes, including planning, stakeholder engagement, review cycles, submissions and maintaining clear evidence trails.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work collaboratively across Finance, Company Secretariat, Risk subject matter experts and senior leaders to clarify ownership and align outputs.
• Sound judgement and the ability to provide constructive challenge, identify material issues, draw out key themes and translate complex information into practical insights.
• An understanding of controls, governance and operational risk management, including the importance of proportionate, well-evidenced reporting processes.
• Ability to work independently, manage competing priorities, lead by example and support continuous improvement within a large, complex organisation.

We want to hire the whole version of you.

We are committed to ensuring that everyone feels accepted and welcome applicants from all backgrounds. If your experience looks different from what we’ve advertised and you believe that you can bring value to the role, we’d love to hear from you.

If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, please let us know so we can help you to be at your best.

We’re reviewing applications as they come in and may close this role before the closing date, so apply early to avoid missing out.

Find out more about working at Standard Life

Guide for Candidates: standardlifeplc.pagetiger.com/guideforcandidates

Find or get answers from our colleagues: www.standardlifeplc.com/careers/talk-to-us

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