Address Job Description
Job Title: Risk and Controls Manager
Location: Edinburgh
Contract Type: Permanent
About
At abrdn, our purpose is to enable our clients to be better investors.
Clients worldwide trust us to find future-fit investment opportunities to deliver the outcomes they want. Our technology and insight help empower them to make better decisions, while the powerful partnerships we build help to enhance the expertise that we offer. And by enabling clients to invest responsibly, it helps us to build a better world.
About The Role
Operating within the abrdn Investments Vector COO – Investment Vector Governance function, this is a first line Risk and Control role reporting directly to the Risk and Control Senior Manager within the Governance Risk and Controls area.
The role will interface internally with multiple areas across the Investment Vector, including teams globally across Operations, Investments, Client Group and Product and key contacts in Corporate Functions such as Risk and Compliance. Externally the role will interface with critical Third Party Administrators for the Investment Vector (principally Citigroup, BNPP, BoNY and State Street) as well as other external providers such as Trustees, Depositaries and external auditors.
Role Purpose
Reporting to Risk and Controls Senior Manager within the Risk and Controls team, the purpose of this role supporting all areas of the Investment Vector in the management and Control of their risks and issues, both internally to the organisation and across the third-party administrators.
As part of the role, the team manage responding the internal risk events or TPA Operational Events. These could manifest in pricing errors, breaches or other issues. A key part of the role is supporting teams across the Investments vector with the identification and resolution including, ensuring appropriate compensation and remediation of clients and funds, reporting and escalation of events and focus on effective preventative actions and improvements to strengthen controls and process across the vector to prevent re-occurrence.
The team produce regular reporting to internal and external stakeholders with trend analysis of issues and errors and commentary on the control environment.
The team also perform controls reviews where internal operational issues or areas of risk are identified, or where there is a significant control breakdown at a supplier. This may result in the delivery of due diligence visits to key Third Party Suppliers and attendance or contribution at key supplier meetings such as Control Forums or Joint Risk and Control Forums.
The role combines a blend of regular tasks, project work, new business enablement and participation in industry initiatives.
The role holder will play a key role in the strategic development and continuous improvement of our processes, systems and Controls as we roll out and embed the new Governance Risk and Control strategy across the full breadth of the Global Investment Vector.
The role is suited to a self-motivated individual with experience of Risk and Controls work. The individual is expected to manage teams of direct reports and virtual teams in the delivery of key outcomes across the team. In addition they will need to work collaboratively with Subject Matter Experts across the Business and within Third Party Administrators.
The role holder is expected to manage their time effectively and prioritise tasks, work collaboratively with other team members, demonstrate a good understanding of business operations across the Investments Business.
They will need to be able to, work well with and influence internal stakeholders across the vector and also key external stakeholders such as third party suppliers and strategic clients.
The core objectives of the role include:
- Lead aspects of the roll out and embedding of the new Investment Vector Governance Risk and Control strategy across the Investments Vector
- As a team, fully understand the key accountabilities, processes and Controls that are critical to delivery of customer or regulatory outcomes across the Vector and provide support and partnership to internal leadership teams and external stakeholders in ensuring risks are effectively managed and Controlled
- Provide input into the establishment of an appropriate assurance and Controls framework within abrdn Investments Vector and our outsource arrangements.
- Support the Senior Manager in the direction of the team to meet key strategic priorities.
- Actively contribute with the identification and implementation of key strategic priorities to the wider team.
- Understand and support strong governance for Legal Entities across the Investment Vector helping to ensure timely and accurate reporting and escalation of issues and management of key risks
- Globally, ensure that risk events or external operational events or pricing errors follow the appropriate notification, investigation and resolution process, with a focus on understanding the root cause of issues and implementing preventative actions where necessary;
- Provide support and guidance to the Risk and Control consultants ensuring that internal risk events and TPA errors and operational events follow the appropriate notification process and are dealt in a timely manner, and are investigated from a process/control perspective.
- Develop and sustain productive working relationships with key internal and external stakeholders to support embedded good governance, sound risk management practices and improvements to the Investment Vector control environment.
- Lead in the planning and Trustee and Depositary due diligence visits, undertaken to review abrdn processes and to ensure that procedures, checks and/or controls are in place at Legal entity).
To be successful in this role you will need (minimum experience/ requirements)
- Extensive practical experience in a risk or controls role, with relevant qualifications or training being an advantage
- Good knowledge of asset management processes across operations, client, investments and product functions an advantage
- Relevant experience of leading teams to deliver project outcomes
- Strong analytical skills and attention to detail
- Excellent interpersonal skills including the ability to build and maintain strong working relationships
- In depth knowledge of MS Office suite of applications, particularly Excel and reporting tools like Power BI.
- Excellent communication skills, both oral and written
Moreover, we recognise that supplementary skills beyond the minimum criteria can greatly enhance your success in this position. These skills are:
- Expertise in managing outsourced relationships
- Experience in presenting to clients, regulators, trustees and auditors
- A team player – able to collaborate effectively with your colleagues, consistently putting the teams’ goals and interests ahead of personal ones and actively contributing to the wider teams shared objectives.
- Excellent time management skills – the ability to demonstrate exceptional time management skills by efficiently planning and prioritising tasks to meet deadlines.
- Self-Motivation – you exhibit a high level of self-motivation and can take the initiative to identify and tackle challenges proactively.
- You are able to take ownership of your work, ensuring that it aligns with organisational objectives and quality standards.
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, including 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 site amongst many others.
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.
