Director, Chief Controls Office – Business Risk and Control

About CLS:

CLS is the trusted party at the centre of the global FX ecosystem. Utilized by thousands of counterparties, CLS makes FX safer, smoother and more cost effective. Trillions of dollars’ worth of currency flows through our systems each day.

Created by the market for the market, our unrivalled global settlement infrastructure reduces systemic risk and provides standardization for participants in many of the world’s most actively traded currencies. We deliver huge efficiencies and savings for our clients: in fact, our approach to multilateral netting shrinks funding requirements by over 96% on average, so clients can put their capital and resources to better use.

CLS products are designed to enable clients to manage risk most effectively across the full FX lifecycle – whether through more efficient processing tools or market intelligence derived from the largest single source of FX executed data available to the market.

Our ambition to make a positive difference starts with our people. Our values underpin everything that we do at CLS and define our working environment:

- Pivotal purpose

- Trusted guardian

- Targeted innovation

- Facilitate connections

- Delivering excellence

- Inclusive culture

Functional title

Director, Chief Controls Office – Business Risk and Control

Department

Chief Controls Office

Corporate level

Director, Business Risk and Control

Reports to

Executive Director, Chief Controls Office – Business Risk and Control

Location

London

What you will be doing

This is an exciting opportunity for a talented individual to join our Chief Controls office (CCO), a dedicated first line risk and control function. This role has arisen due to the expansion of responsibilities, offering the successful candidate the opportunity to make an impact and actively contribute to the evolution of the group.

As part of the CCO team, you will play a hands-on role in supporting risk and control activity across the first line, including performing assurance testing and working with business owners to address issues identified.

- Improving the oversight of operational risks, bringing risk and control subject matter expertise to partner with 1LOD business owners to proactively identify, assess and mitigate risks.

- Supporting oversight across the first line by helping to drive good practice and consistency in control standards for the effective management of risks within risk appetite.

- Performing controls assurance testing across 1LOD, documenting results clearly, agreeing remediation actions where appropriate, and partnering with 1LOD to help maintain a well understood and documented control environment.

- Supporting good risk and control behaviours by helping employees understand their role in managing risk and the importance of an effective control framework.

What we’re looking for

The role would suit candidates with 2LOD/3LOD experience looking for an opportunity to move into 1LOD, or candidates with 1LOD control/ control remediation/ validation experience.

The Business Risk and Control Director is a key member of the CCO team who will work closely with 1LOD business owners to support the management of risk and controls. The role includes, but is not limited to:

Risk management & control framework

- Support the development and implementation of a robust risk and control approach to mitigate operational and compliance risks.

- Identify and deliver best practices in control standards across CLS and support the business in the identification of risks and controls, including through business process mapping.

Stakeholder engagement

- Partner with business units, Operational Risk Management, compliance and audit, teams to enhance risk culture. Support internal audit and compliance testing engagements and work with the business to review the findings and define actions.

- Contribute to training and awareness programs on risk management and control best practices.

- Represent CCO in working groups as required.

Testing strategy & execution

- Support the development of CLS’s testing strategy and methodology by contributing practical insight from control testing activity.

- Identify and deliver best practices in testing and control standards across CLS, engaging with the wider risk and controls teams to support continuous improvement

Competencies required for successful job performance

- Proven experience of risk assessment, controls assurance testing and control delivery/remediation, from a business / embedded risk function, 2LOD/3LOD, external audit or 1LOD ownership perspective.

- Ability to assess, design, and enhance control environments and to drive a risk-aware culture across business units.

- Strong problem-solving skills, with a proactive approach to risk mitigation.

- Strong written and verbal communication skills.

- Attention to detail is essential, demonstrating high standards to the control and oversight of risk.

- Knowledge of Financial Services, Financial Markets Utilities or another highly regulated industry sector is preferred.

- Ability to understand how individual control activities, testing results and remediation actions contribute to the wider risk and control environment.

- Strong stakeholder management skills, with the confidence and judgement to engage credibly with senior stakeholders, including EMC members, and to communicate testing outcomes and control matters clearly.

- Ability to provide constructive challenge, speak up where control weaknesses are identified, and support practical improvements to processes and controls.

- Takes professional pride in delivering high-quality testing, clear documentation and practical recommendations that help address root cause issues.

- Build effective working relationships with multiple internal and external stakeholders, bringing different viewpoints together as appropriate.

- Able to work through ambiguity, asking the right questions and escalating appropriately to agree a practical way forward.

Professional qualifications / certifications

- Qualifications in any of the following specialisms would be beneficial but not essential:

- Risk Management

- Internal Audit

- Compliance

- Project Management

- Proficient IT skills in Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

Our commitment to employees:

At CLS, we celebrate inclusion and consider this to be one of our strongest assets. We are committed to fostering an environment in which everyone feels comfortable to be who they are, and inclusion is valued. All employees have access to our inclusive benefits, including:

- Holiday - UK/Asia: 25 holiday days and 3 ‘life days’ (in addition to bank holidays). US: 23 holiday days.

- 2 paid volunteer days so that you can actively support causes within your community that are important to you.

- Generous parental leave policies to ensure you can enjoy valuable time with your family.

- Parental transition coaching programmes and support services.

- Wellbeing and mental health support resources to ensure you are looking after yourself, and able to support others.

- Employee Networks (including our Women’s Forum, Black Employee Network and Pride Network) in support of our organisational commitment to embrace and always be learning more about inclusivity.

- Hybrid working to promote a healthy work/life balance, enabling employees to work collaboratively in the office when needed and work from home when they don’t.

- Active support of flexible working for all employees where possible.

- Monthly ‘Heads Down Days’ with no meetings across the whole company.

- Generous non-contributory pension provision for UK/Asia employees, and 401K match from CLS for US employees.

- Private medical insurance and dental coverage.

- Social events that give you opportunities to meet new people and broaden your network across the organisation.

- Annual flu vaccinations.

- Discounts and savings and cashback across a wide range of categories including health and retail for UK employees.

- Discounted Gym membership – Complete Body Gym Discount/Sweat equity program for US employees.

- All employees have access to Discover – our comprehensive learning platform with 1000+ courses from LinkedIn Learning.

- Access to frequent development sessions on a number of topics to help you be successful and develop your career at CLS.