Senior Manager, Risk & Execution

Company Description

Standard Bank Group is a leading Africa-focused financial services group, and an innovative player on the global stage, that offers a variety of career-enhancing opportunities – plus the chance to work alongside some of the sector’s most talented, motivated professionals. Our clients range from individuals, to businesses of all sizes, high net worth families and large multinational corporates and institutions. We’re passionate about creating growth in Africa. Bringing true, meaningful value to our clients and the communities we serve and creating a real sense of purpose for you.

Job Description

Responsible for defining and executing the frontline BCB governance strategy and operating model. The role provides leadership and oversight across regulatory, legal and conduct governance; risk and control management; customer lifecycle governance; data governance; assurance and remediation; operational resilience; and governance reporting. The incumbent ensures that governance requirements are embedded into day-to-day business execution, strategic initiatives and customer journeys, while maintaining clear first-line accountability for risk ownership and control effectiveness.

Governance Strategy and Function Leadership

• Lead, coach and develop the governance team, setting clear performance expectations and building specialist capability across the Risk Execution/ Governance team.
• Establish clear accountability across the business for risk ownership, control execution, regulatory compliance, customer governance and data quality. Provide consolidated governance oversight, challenge and decision support to BCB leadership and relevant management forums.
• Prioritise resources and interventions based on material risks, emerging themes, customer impact and strategic importance.
• Provide risk and governance oversight for strategic initiatives, new products, customer propositions, partnerships, digital transformation and material process changes.

Regulatory, Legal and Conduct Governance

• Oversee the implementation and embedding of applicable regulatory, legal, compliance and conduct requirements across BCB. Partner with Compliance, Legal, Financial Crime Risk and other specialist functions to ensure that regulatory requirements are effectively understood, implemented, monitored, and evidenced across BCB.
• Oversee conduct risk monitoring, thematic reviews, training and escalation of material breaches or concerns. Drive adherence to KYC, AML, financial crime, data privacy, market conduct, personal conduct and other relevant requirements.

Risk Management and Control Environment

• Lead the implementation and embedding of operational and non-financial risk frameworks across BCB.
• Coordinate risk event reporting, incident management, root-cause analysis, remediation plans and lessons learned. Drive the adoption and effective use of risk management and operational control tools.
• Recommend process improvements and control enhancements that reduce risk while supporting operational efficiency and customer outcomes.

Customer Lifecycle and Data Governance

• Oversee governance across customer onboarding, segmentation, migration, servicing, periodic review, remediation and exit processes. Establish oversight of customer lifecycle risks, process exceptions and recurring execution gaps, with clear remediation and escalation.
• Provide governance oversight of customer-related models, dashboards and decision tools in partnership with the relevant specialist owners.
• Drive the adoption of enterprise data governance requirements, including data ownership, data quality, completeness, accuracy, protection and appropriate use.

Assurance, Issue and Remediation Management

• Lead the BCB combined assurance approach, consolidating insights from first-line reviews, Compliance, Risk, Internal Control, Internal Audit and regulatory assessments.
• Coordinate audit findings, assurance issues, compliance monitoring actions, regulatory findings and self-identified issues through to sustainable closure. Provide an integrated view of assurance coverage, material gaps, overdue actions and residual risk to leadership forums.

Strategic Change and Governance Advisory

• Act as a trusted advisor to business leaders, balancing strong governance with practical and commercially sustainable execution.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, Commerce, Finance, Accounting, Risk Management, Auditing, Law, Data Management or a related field. A relevant postgraduate qualification or professional certification in risk, compliance, audit, governance, law or data governance will be an advantage.
• Minimum of 7 years relevant experience within banking or financial services, including meaningful leadership responsibility.
• Experience within frontline Business Units, operational or non-financial risk, compliance, legal, audit, governance, customer management, data governance or related functions.
• Proven experience implementing and managing governance, risk, compliance and control frameworks in a complex business environment.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams and coordinating delivery across business and independent control functions.
• Experience managing assurance programmes, remediation portfolios, regulatory initiatives and material change programmes.
• Practical understanding of customer lifecycle processes, data quality disciplines and frontline banking controls.

Technical Skills

• Strong knowledge of banking regulations, legal and conduct obligations, risk management frameworks, governance principles and compliance requirements.
• Advanced risk assessment, control evaluation, assurance, issue management and root-cause analysis capabilities.
• Ability to develop governance strategy and translate complex requirements into practical business actions.
• Strong analytical capability, including interpretation of risk and governance data and development of executive insights.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication, facilitation, influencing and constructive challenge skills.
• Strong people leadership, project management, change management and execution capabilities.

Personal Attributes

• High levels of integrity, professionalism, objectivity and sound judgement.
• Courage to challenge non-compliance, weak controls and poor customer outcomes while maintaining constructive relationships.
• Strategic thinker with strong execution discipline and attention to detail.
• Collaborative and inclusive leader who develops people and promotes clear accountability.
• Customer-focused, commercially aware and committed to enabling responsible growth.
• Resilient, adaptable and comfortable operating in a dynamic and highly regulated environment.