Chief Risk & Compliance Officer

Cambridge Aerospace; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Stock options

Private Medical & Dental

Cycle to work

Lunchtime catering on site

Job summary

Cambridge Aerospace is seeking a Head of Risk & Compliance to build and lead a company-wide framework covering export control, governance, and risk. You will partner with senior leaders and the Board to embed compliance into operations and strategic growth.

The role requires deep regulatory expertise, leadership of multi-disciplinary teams, and a track record of delivering controls, training, and investigations in a highly regulated defence environment.

Qualifications

• 10–15+ years’ experience in compliance, risk or regulatory roles within defence, aerospace or similarly regulated industries.
• Eligible to obtain and maintain UK security clearance.
• Strong working knowledge of export control regimes (UK, ITAR/EAR) and international regulatory frameworks.
• Proven experience leading or scaling compliance functions and frameworks within complex organisations.
• Experience managing regulatory engagement and audits with bodies such as ECJU, MoD or equivalent.
• Experience designing and delivering large-scale, group-wide compliance training programmes.
• A proven track record in audit, controls and policy development, particularly across anti-bribery & corruption and sanctions compliance.
• A working understanding of explosives, firearms and chemicals licensing regimes, sufficient to direct and hold accountable a specialist licensing team.
• A sound understanding of manufacturing and operational regulatory compliance in safety-critical or highly regulated sectors.
• Sufficient familiarity with UK and international aviation and UAS regulatory frameworks to set direction for and hold accountable a flight safety and UAV compliance team

Responsibilities

• Lead, manage and build the company's compliance and risk function, providing strategic oversight, direction and challenge to the specialist teams responsible for trade compliance, insurance and risk, anti-bribery, corruption and fraud, third party risk management, explosives, firearms and chemicals licensing, Speak Up, and work with flight safety and UAV/UAS flight compliance.
• Develop and lead a comprehensive company-wide compliance framework, covering adherence to all relevant legislation and regulatory requirements.
• Lead regulatory horizon scanning across all domains, anticipating legislative and regulatory change, assessing its impact on the business and translating it into timely, prioritised action.
• Build, structure and scale the function from an early stage, recruiting and developing specialist leads, defining each team's mandate and maturing capability and controls as the company grows.
• Own the team’s budget and operating plan, and set the technology and systems strategy for compliance and risk, selecting and implementing the tooling that underpins monitoring, reporting and assurance.
• Oversee the trade compliance team responsible for export licensing, classification, audits and reporting, holding the Trade Compliance Director accountable for direct regulatory engagement with bodies such as ECJU and MoD.
• Oversee third party risk management, ensuring the supply chain and counterparties are screened, due-diligenced and monitored for sanctions, export control, bribery and financial crime exposure.
• Oversee explosives, firearms and chemicals licensing and safety, holding the specialist licensing team accountable for compliance with HSE, police, Home Office and MOD requirements.
• Design, implement and continuously improve policies, procedures and internal controls to support best-in-class compliance governance.
• Own the anti-bribery, corruption, fraud and sanctions control framework, maintaining the adequate and reasonable procedures needed to meet the Bribery Act and the failure-to-prevent fraud regime .
• Deliver organisation-wide compliance training programmes and promote a culture of integrity and accountability.
• Lead internal investigations, the Speak Up and whistleblowing framework, audits and incident response, ensuring appropriate corrective actions are implemented.

Skills

Regulatory compliance

Export control

Risk management

Audit & controls

Stakeholder engagement

Leadership

HSE oversight

Training programs

Governance frameworks

Security clearance

Job description

Cambridge Aerospace is seeking a Head of Risk & Compliance to build and lead a company-wide framework covering export control, governance, and risk. You will partner with senior leaders and the Board to embed compliance into operations and strategic growth.

The role requires deep regulatory expertise, leadership of multi-disciplinary teams, and a track record of delivering controls, training, and investigations in a highly regulated defence environment.