Head of Portfolio Risk

Nest Pensions; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid of office and home working

Job summary

Nest Invest is seeking a hands-on Head of Portfolio Risk to lead the portfolio risk and performance oversight function within the Risk Team. You will work closely with the investment teams and senior stakeholders to ensure risk is understood, managed and aligned with governance expectations.

You will build and enhance the portfolio risk framework, drive quantitative insights, and mentor a specialist team to deliver clear risk reporting and impactful decision support for long-term outcomes.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in portfolio risk management within asset management, investment management or pension funds.
• Deep understanding of multi-asset portfolio construction, investment processes and governance.
• Experience in investment risk measurement, attribution analysis and quantitative modelling.

Responsibilities

• Lead portfolio risk and performance oversight across all asset classes.
• Develop and enhance portfolio risk framework and reporting for governance committees and the Board.
• Provide expert independent challenge and insights to support investment decisions.

Skills

Portfolio risk management

Multi-asset investing

Quantitative risk modelling

Data analysis

Stakeholder management

Programming

Tools

Aladdin

Bloomberg

CEPRES

Job description

At Nest Invest, we're leading the way in driving up standards and best practices across the industry, delivering a high-quality, low-cost pension scheme that's open to all. Now with 14 million members, we're playing a critical role in helping people save for their retirement, many of whom are low to moderate earners who may be saving for the first time and moving jobs frequently.

Our investment team is responsible for investing our members' contributions to grow their retirement pots over the long term. We're building a capability and culture that embraces innovation, leverages technology and harnesses the power of data to deliver exceptional outcomes for our members.

The Role

As our Head of Portfolio Risk, you'll lead Nest Invest's portfolio risk and performance oversight capability within the Risk Function (Second Line of Defence). Reporting to the Head of Risk (Executive member), you'll be hands on with the investment team and provide independent insight, challenge and oversight across portfolio construction, investment performance, sources of return and portfolio risk exposures, ensuring our investment portfolios remain aligned with investment objectives, risk appetite and governance expectations.

Leading a small specialist team of portfolio risk professionals, you'll be responsible for developing and continuously enhancing our portfolio risk and performance framework across all asset classes and investment portfolios. Working closely with investment teams, senior management, external investment managers and service providers, you'll ensure high-quality portfolio risk analysis, performance attribution and quantitative insights support effective investment decision-making.

You'll combine strategic leadership with deep technical expertise, driving the development of analytical capabilities, quantitative models and reporting that provide clear insight into portfolio risks, performance drivers and emerging investment risks. You'll play a key role in strengthening investment governance by providing trusted advice, independent challenge and practical insight to senior stakeholders, Committees and the Board, while helping the business make informed investment decisions and continuously enhance its portfolio risk management capabilities.

The Person

We're looking for an experienced and hands on investment risk professional with a strong background in portfolio risk management. You'll be an established technical leader with deep expertise across multi-asset investing, portfolio construction, investment performance and quantitative risk analysis.

You'll be equally comfortable operating strategically and getting hands-on with complex portfolio analytics, while building strong relationships across the investment function and providing credible independent challenge. As a leader, you'll develop a high-performing analytical team, foster a culture of technical excellence and continuous improvement, and act as a trusted partner to the business in delivering strong investment outcomes for our members.

You’ll have:

• Significant experience in portfolio risk management within asset management, investment management or pension funds.
• Deep understanding of multi-asset portfolio construction, investment processes and investment governance.
• Extensive experience in portfolio risk management, investment performance measurement, attribution analysis and quantitative risk modelling.
• Experience overseeing and analysing both public and private market investments.
• Proven experience designing, implementing and continuously enhancing portfolio risk and performance frameworks.
• Strong quantitative, analytical and data management skills, with experience developing risk, performance and attribution models across multiple asset classes.
• Advanced programming and data analysis skills, with experience developing analytical tools, automating workflows and extracting insights from large and complex investment datasets.
• Experience leading the development of analytical capabilities, investment risk systems, reporting frameworks and data-driven decision-making tools.
• Experience building, leading and developing high-performing analytical teams, fostering technical excellence, collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Strong understanding of scenario analysis, stress testing, factor risk analysis, liquidity risk and portfolio risk oversight methodologies.
• Experience presenting portfolio risk and performance insights to senior management, Investment Committees and Boards, translating complex analysis into clear, meaningful and actionable recommendations.
• Excellent stakeholder management influencing and communication skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships, provide independent oversight and constructive challenge and work collaboratively across the investment function to support informed investment decision-making.
• A proactive and solutions-focused approach, with the ability to identify opportunities to enhance portfolio risk capabilities, strengthen investment governance and enable the business to achieve its strategic investment objectives while operating within risk appetite.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to interpret complex investment data, exercise sound judgement and provide objective challenge that supports better investment outcomes.
• Excellent planning, organisational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage multiple priorities, respond to evolving business requirements and deliver high-quality outcomes.
• Hands-on experience using investment risk and analytics platforms such as Aladdin, Bloomberg, CEPRES or equivalent systems.
• Professional investment, risk management or quantitative finance qualifications would be beneficial.

This is an exciting opportunity to shape and lead Nest Invest's portfolio risk capability, helping ensure our investment portfolios continue to deliver strong long-term outcomes for millions of members while driving the ongoing evolution of our portfolio risk framework, analytical capabilities and investment governance.

Organisational Overview

Nest is an award-winning workplace pension scheme, the largest in the country.

Set up by the government to give every worker in the UK somewhere to save, our first-class responsible investment practice and governance are the backbone of what we do, supported by all the functions you’d expect to find in a thriving business. We’re committed to creating a workplace where you can be your authentic self and offer an inclusive and flexible working environment.

Directorate/Department Overview

The Investment directorate (Nest Invest) is responsible for investing members’ contributions to grow their retirement pots over the long‑term. The responsibilities of the team include:

• Asset allocation and portfolio risk management
• Manager selection and monitoring
• Responsible investment
• Investment communications
• Fund administration
• Investment technology and financial modelling
• Contributing to the development of the investment proposition

From December 2019, the Nest Investment team was seconded into Nest Invest Ltd (Nest Invest), the investment subsidiary of Nest Corporation.

Nest Invest is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). For the role holder, this means working in a regulated entity and being required to adhere to certain rules and behaviours included in the FCA’s Code of Conduct (COCON), specifically the individual Conduct Rules defined by the FCA.

Flexible and agile working

Everyone's personal situation is different. To make the most out of hybrid working, we've introduced different ways of working, which include (subject to role requirements):

• Hybrid of office (Canary Wharf, London) and home working (there will be an expectation to attend the office, once - twice a week, or more, as required)
• Reduce or vary working hours
• Reduce or vary the days worked
• Work compressed hours
• Job share

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Everyone is welcome to apply for our roles and we particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnicity, LGBTQ+, and disabled candidates.

Everyone is welcome to apply for our roles, and we are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment because of their age, belief, disability, gender identity, marital status, national origin, pregnancy or caring responsibilities, socio economic background, sex, sexual orientation, religion or race or any other legally protected status.

We also recognise the importance of diversity of thought and other forms of neurocognitive variation.

As a Level 2 Disability Confident organisation, we’re part of the guaranteed interview scheme. This means should you meet the minimum criteria for this role, you will automatically be put forward for an interview.

Please note that this advert may close early if we receive a sufficient number of satisfactory applications.