Quality Assurance and Operational Risk Manager

Role overview

Workplace

• Hybrid role based in Basingstoke, working three days in the office and two days at home.

Quality assurance

• Own and maintain the First Line Quality Assurance framework, methodology, and governance.
• Ensure QA activity is consistent and aligned with agreed standards and risk appetite; lead and develop colleagues conducting operational reviews.
• Oversee calibration, trend analysis, and reporting; identify themes, control weaknesses, and customer outcome risks.
• Improve QA methodology, reporting, and oversight, and ensure findings lead to clear actions, ownership, and measurable remediation.

Operational risk

• Lead day-to-day delivery of First Line Operational Risk activity and manage and develop Operational Risk Analysts.
• Oversee incident and breach reporting, issue assessment, root cause analysis, remediation tracking, and thematic analysis.
• Support business areas in managing operational risks and control weaknesses; ensure incidents are recorded, investigated, and escalated appropriately.
• Monitor remediation plans through effective completion within agreed timescales and help embed a strong risk and control culture.
• Contribute to operational resilience and continuous improvement initiatives.

Governance and stakeholders

• Produce meaningful management information for senior leaders and governance forums.
• Build working relationships across Operations, Risk, Compliance, and wider business teams.
• Support regulatory, audit, and assurance activity when required.

Essential experience and skills

• Financial services experience, ideally in banking, mortgages, or consumer finance.
• Experience in quality assurance, operational risk, risk and control, or operational oversight.
• Ability to balance operational delivery with longer-term continuous improvement.
• Experience producing management information and governance reporting.
• Understanding of operational risk principles, incident management, and control frameworks.
• Ability to identify themes, root causes, and process improvement opportunities; strong stakeholder management and communication skills.

Desirable experience

• Experience supporting operational resilience, control enhancement, or assurance programmes is desirable.
• The employer values a champion of customer outcomes.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and performance bonus based on individual and company performance.
• Contributory pension, life assurance, and 25 days' holiday with the option to buy or sell five days.
• Additional paid volunteering day, private healthcare, employee assistance programme, gym discounts, and season ticket travel loans if applicable.
• Supportive, inclusive culture where work has impact.