Zopa for Business - Risk Lead

Our Story   Hello there. We’re Zopa.   We started our journey back in 2005, building the first ever peer-to-peer lending company. Fast forward to 2020 and we launched Zopa Bank. A bank that listens to what our customers don’t like about finance and does the opposite. We’re redefining what it feels like to work in finance. Our vision for a new era of banking puts people front and centre — we’ve built a business that empowers everyone to aim high, every day, to move finance forward. Find out more about our fantastic offerings at Zopa.com!    We’re incredibly proud of our achievements and none of it would be possible without the amazing team here. It’s not just industry awards we’re winning, we’ve also been named in the top three UK’s Most Loved Workplaces.    If you embrace unconventional challenges, are unafraid to think differently and are driven to make an outsized impact, you’ll thrive here at Zopa, so join us, and make it count. Want to see us in action? Follow us on Instagram @zopalife Zopa for Business is building propositions that help businesses serve their customers better. As Risk Lead, you will lead the team responsible for managing the risks arising from our partnerships and distribution activity across all Zopa for Business products.  This is a senior 1LoD leadership role. You will set the direction for partner risk management, lead a capable team and provide clear, commercial risk advice to senior stakeholders. You will ensure that risk is understood, well managed and proportionate to the opportunity - from initial due diligence through to ongoing oversight. A day in the life: Lead the risk function •  Lead, develop and inspire the Zopa for Business risk team, setting a clear operating rhythm, high standards and a strong culture of sound judgement. •  Own the end-to-end approach to partner and distributor risk, ensuring it remains effective, pragmatic and fit for a growing business. •  Be a trusted adviser to business leaders, helping them make well-informed decisions that balance growth, customer outcomes and risk appetite. Set clear risk standards and decisions •  Design and maintain proportionate risk frameworks, policies and minimum standards for onboarding, material change and ongoing oversight. •  Provide clear recommendations and challenge on higher-risk cases, with the confidence to make or escalate decisions when required. •  Ensure risks, controls, decision-making and accountability are clearly evidenced and understood. Manage the full relationship lifecycle •  Oversee due diligence, risk assessment and approval for new partners and material changes to existing relationships. •  Establish effective ongoing monitoring, early-warning indicators and timely intervention where a partner’s risk profile changes. •  Work with commercial and specialist teams to manage remediation, restrictions and exits where necessary. Build a scalable, data-led capability •  Use data and management information to give leaders a clear view of exposure, trends, performance and emerging risks. •  Work closely with Product, Engineering and risk specialists to improve processes, controls and tools as the business scales. •  Use insight from issues, incidents and feedback to strengthen the control environment and improve the partner experience. About you: •  Strong experience leading risk, compliance, financial-crime, third-party or distribution-risk activity in a regulated financial-services, fintech or payments environment. •  Sound commercial judgement and the ability to make balanced decisions in complex, fast-moving situations. •  A proven track record of designing and operating risk-based onboarding and oversight frameworks for partners, merchants, intermediaries, brokers or similar third parties. •  The leadership capability to build a high-performing team and influence senior stakeholders across commercial, product and risk disciplines. •  Excellent communication skills: able to turn complex risk topics into clear recommendations and practical action. •  Experience working with technology and data teams to improve risk processes and controls. #LI-LK1 At Zopa we value flexible ways of working. We value face-to-face collaboration and a good work-life balance. This hybrid role requires you to come to our London office 2-3 days a week. You'll also have the option of working from abroad for up to 120 days a year!* But no matter where you are, we’ll make sure you’ve got everything you need to thrive, both in your work and home life, from day one. *Subject to having the right to work in the country of choice   Diversity Statement Zopa is proud to offer a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds leads to better products for our customers and a unique company culture for our people. We are made up of nearly 50 nationalities, have a DE&I forum made up of Zopians wanting to make a difference and we are proud of our culture where everyone can bring their full self to work. Our approach to DE&I is reflected in our hiring process so please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments.    Our approach to AI in interviews At Zopa, AI isn't something we're testing out — it's part of how we work every day. As a proud partner of Jobs 2030, we're committed to building AI fluency across our workforce, and we expect Zopians to use AI as part of how they do their jobs.  Because of that, we want to be transparent about how we think about AI use during our hiring process.  Behavioural and competency-based interviews: please don't use AI. These conversations are designed to understand you — your experiences, your judgment, and how you've approached real situations. An AI-generated answer can't tell us that. What it can do is get in the way of us finding out whether we're the right fit for each other.  Technical interviews: it depends on the role. Some technical stages actively welcome AI use, others don't. Your Talent Partner will let you know what's expected at each stage. Where AI is part of the assessment, we'll be interested not just in the outcome, but in how you used it – the tools you chose, your reasoning, and the decisions you made along the way.