Operational Risk Lead

**Company Intro**

**Booking Holdings Financial Services UK (hereinafter “BHFS”)** is based in London, UK and provides financial services in the form of payment services and e-money products across all the brands. BHFS is committed to conducting its business in compliance with applicable laws, regulations and guidelines, with integrity and to the highest ethical standards.

**Job Summary**

We are seeking an experienced Operational Risk Lead to support the BHFS Risk programme and help drive the advancement of BHFS’s risk and control architecture globally. The role holder will be responsible for helping execute our programme strategy and to embed a standardized and consistent approach to risk identification, governance, reporting and mitigation. The role holder will be an agile member of the wider BHFS Risk Team, who will deputize for the UK Chief Risk Officer and will be suitably empowered to lead key Risk workstreams.

The role sits in the BHFS UK Risk Team which is part of the Second Line of Defense (SLOD) and an independent function, charged with proactively challenging business and functional units in the first line of defense (FLOD) on their risk identification, assessment and mitigation strategies. The function is responsible for ongoing review and oversight of the control environment, which will entail scrutinizing processes, controls and remediation efforts to highlight gaps in risk mitigation.

The role holder will propel BHFS risk culture, inspire risk management behaviors and embolden optimal risk management practices by exhibiting support and partnership across the BHFS organization, and will embrace opportunities to collaborate with stakeholders at all levels across the wider Group.

The role holders will work across the Enterprise-wide risk taxonomy, with a focus on operational risks, which are failures in the day to day business activities including the systems, equipment, people, and processes that support and enable BHFS to execute on its vision of evolving payment services. The role holder will effectively steward these risks by executing risk initiatives and reviews with a degree of rigor and independence.

As the BHFS Risk Programme progresses to execution phase, the role holder will be expected to be an integral member of the team and lead/ support one or more of the workstreams dedicated to Operational Resilience, Third Party Risk Management and/ or Controls Assurance. This role will be fully remote until the London office is open. Thereafter, the role is expected to be based on a hybrid working model.

**Key Responsibilities**
- Actively stewarding the BHFS FLOD to ensure all relevant risks are identified and effectively managed by a robust control environment.
- Contributing to the advancement and execution of BHFS Operational Risk activities and programs, such as RCSAs, Risk Event management and Controls Library build.
- Assisting in the writing and embedding of risk policies, procedures and standards to institutionalise governance processes and a ways-of-working for optimal risk outcomes.
- Using metrics and testing to provide meaningful independent oversight and challenge to drive FLOD risk and control management.
- Drive efforts to ensure capture of FLOD remediation plans, management of issues and timely reporting of threats.
- Updating Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans to ensure they remain current, complete and aligned to regulatory expectations.
- Promoting and embedding a culture of risk management and mitigation across the organisation, by facilitating training, workshops and collaborative first line liaison.
- Remaining current on business, industry and regulatory matters to identify new and emerging risks to which BHFS is exposed.
- Day-to-day guidance of analyst staff as required.

**Knowledge and Skills**
- Undergraduate degree (required)
- Post-graduate certification ideally in Risk, Audit, Finance or Law (preferable)
- 5+ years experience within the risk management function of a payments organisation, an FCA Regulated organisation, or within risk consulting.
- Solid experience delivering/ building SLOD (or TLOD) activities to assess the design and effectiveness of FLOD risk management efforts and in driving value-add oversight and challenge.
- Appreciation of a robust Risk and Control Framework with demonstrable experience developing policies, procedures and standards to meet regulatory requirements.
- A deep understanding of controls across payments or financial organisations, with experience reviewing and/or developing organization-wide control libraries.
- Fluent in risk management best-practice and aware of methodologies, risk governance and activities used across the Industry.
- Proven experience driving the ‘Risk Culture’ of an organisation by using partnering, training and/ or workshops to drive risk awareness and FLOD risk management.
- Working knowledge of Third Party Risk Management (TPRM) and the various components required to operate