Head of Technology & Resilience Risk

AXA UK; Tees Valley; Hybrid; GBP 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

AXA Accessibility Concierge

Job summary

AXA Insurance UK is seeking a Head of Technology and Resilience Risk to shape our risk framework across technology, resilience, change, and third-party oversight. You will lead a team of risk professionals to protect the business while enabling safe, responsible innovation.

Reporting to the Director of Risk, Governance and Conduct, you will drive risk maturity, incident management, and data governance, delivering strategic insights to senior leadership and governance forums.

Qualifications

• Technology risk and resilience expertise with customer-focused outcomes.
• Experience managing risk in a large financial services organisation.
• Up-to-date regulatory knowledge for UK insurance and financial services.
• Advanced risk assessment methods, KRIs and assurance techniques.
• Strong stakeholder engagement across senior levels with empathy.
• Clear, concise reporting and strategic risk recommendations.
• Proven people leadership of risk teams driving culture and capability.
• Ability to lead complex risk initiatives and influence ExCom.

Responsibilities

• Lead Technology and Operational Resilience Strategy aligned to standards.
• Manage technology risk, modernisation plans and estate improvements.
• Oversee Change and Transformation Risk and framework effectiveness.
• InfoSec and Data Governance with GDPR compliance and quality control.
• Oversee third-party and supply chain resilience and exit strategies.
• Incident management, root-cause analysis and lessons learned.
• Risk reporting and insights on cyber, technology and resilience risks.
• Build risk maturity, governance and culture across the organisation.

Skills

Technology risk

Resilience expertise

Financial services experience

Regulatory knowledge

Risk assessment

Stakeholder engagement

Communication & reporting

People leadership

Strategic leadership

Tools

SCALA

Job description

About AXA

AXA is a global leader in insurance and financial services, dedicated to helping customers protect what matters most to them. As the sixth-largest insurance company in the world, we provide a wide range of services, including health, car, home, and business insurance. We support millions of customers worldwide, helping them navigate life's uncertainties with confidence.

About AXA

AXA is a global leader in insurance and financial services, dedicated to helping customers protect what matters most to them. As the sixth-largest insurance company in the world, we provide a wide range of services, including health, car, home, and business insurance. We support millions of customers worldwide, helping them navigate life's uncertainties with confidence.

AXA Insurance UK, formed by uniting our Commercial and Retail teams under a single leadership, strengthens our core capabilities and our commitment to exceptional customer service.

Job Overview

Join AXA Insurance as Head of Technology and Resilience Risk, a pivotal leadership role where you'll drive our approach to managing technology and operational resilience across the organisation. Reporting to the Director of Risk, Governance and Conduct and being a key part of the Line 1 Risk Leadership team, you'll also sit on the AXA Insurance COO’s extended Senior Leadership team, providing strategic risk insight and inputting into key decisions to ensure we execute our business priorities in a way that is safe and sustainable. Leading a dedicated team of risk professionals, you'll shape our risk management frameworks and maturity while championing customer-centric thinking across technology, operational resilience, change management, incident response and third-party oversight. This is your opportunity to influence the end-to-end Technology and Resilience agenda, collaborate across all three lines of defence and act as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders navigating the critical intersection of innovation, risk and business continuity. This is a hands-on and fast paced role where you’ll be required to display thought leadership to support risk owners to manage uncertainty in a way that protects the business and enables innovation.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead Technology and Operational Resilience Strategy – Develop and enhance AXA Insurance's Operational Resilience plan aligned to industry standards and IBS requirements, with clear understanding of critical dependencies (People, Property, Suppliers, IT, Data) and recovery protocols for vendor exit or business discontinuity.
• Manage Technology Risk and Modernisation – Leverage expert knowledge to identify technology risks and support the COO in designing and executing plans to simplify, modernise and improve the estate for efficiency and better customer outcomes.
• Oversee Change and Transformation Risk – Establish standards and impact assessments to evaluate how changes and initiatives align to simplification and resilience agendas, lead risk advice on key transformation initiatives and support the COO's view on Change Management Framework effectiveness.
• Information Security and Data Governance – Maintain clear understanding of InfoSec, Data and Privacy requirements, identify and drive remediation of gaps, oversee a comprehensive Data Risk Management Framework covering quality, integrity, GDPR compliance and availability.
• Third-Party and Supply Chain Resilience – Assess and manage vendor and supply chain risks, embedding resilience standards and exit strategies to mitigate dependencies and ensure operational continuity.
• Incident Management and Root Cause Analysis – Lead incident management both in-the-moment and retrospectively, delivering risk event reporting, root cause analysis and lessons learned to drive continuous improvement and inform path-to-tolerance plans.
• Risk Reporting and Insights – Provide timely, data-driven reporting on technology, resilience, cyber and incident risks using tools such as SCALA, deliver insightful analysis of end-to-end risk profiles, customer journey impacts and intervention opportunities to senior management and governance forums.
• Build Risk Maturity and Culture – Embed strong risk management disciplines across AXA Insurance COO through KRI development, RCSA execution and governance best practices, lead a high-performing, inclusive risk team and act as trusted advisor to ExCom and key risk committees.

Work Arrangements

At AXA we work smart, empowering our people to balance their time between home and the office in a way that works best for them, their team and our customers. You'll work at least three days a week (60%) away from home, this means attending the office, visiting clients or attending industry events.

Your Skills & Experience

• Technology Risk and Resilience Expertise – Extensive proven track record championing customer-centric outcomes and implementing pragmatic, commercially driven operational solutions that balance risk management with business performance.
• Large-Scale Financial Services Experience – Hands-on experience managing financial, operational, regulatory and strategic risks within a large-scale financial services provider, with deep understanding of industry-specific controls and mitigation strategies.
• Regulatory Knowledge – Up-to-date knowledge of UK regulatory expectations for insurance and financial services, able to translate regulatory requirements into practical risk management frameworks.
• Advanced Risk Assessment and Assurance Skills – Proficiency in KRI development and monitoring, statistical sampling, outcome-based testing and control assurance methodologies to identify and mitigate risks effectively.
• Stakeholder Engagement and Influence – Strong ability to challenge, influence and build rapport across all organisational levels through empathy and pragmatism, fostering a risk-aware culture and driving informed decision-making.
• Exceptional Communication and Reporting – Ability to deliver clear, concise, and impactful insights tailored to diverse audiences, with meticulous attention to detail and strategic recommendations.
• People-Centric Leadership – Demonstrated ability to drive engagement, develop capability and foster a culture of positivity, empowerment, innovation and teamwork across teams and the wider organisation.
• Strategic Risk Leadership – Proven ability to lead complex risk initiatives, integrate risk into strategic decision-making and influence senior leadership to embed a sustainable risk and resilience mindset.

As a precondition of employment for this role, you must be eligible and authorised to work in the United Kingdom.

Please be aware that this position is a Certified Function role under the SM&CR regime, which means the successful candidate will be subject to an enhanced level of background screening requirements.

We’re proud to be an Equal Opportunities Employer and don’t discriminate against employees or potential employees based on protected characteristics. If you have a long-term condition or disability and require adjustments during the application or interview process, we’re proud to offer access to the AXA Accessibility Concierge.