Quality Assurance & Operational Risk Leader (First Line)

Castle Trust Group; Basingstoke; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Performance bonus

Pension

Life Assurance

Holidays + buy/sell 5 days

Private healthcare

Job summary

Castle Trust Bank is seeking an experienced Quality Assurance & Operational Risk Manager to lead the first line QA and risk frameworks. The role, based in Basingstoke with hybrid working, focuses on maintaining high customer outcomes through robust QA and risk controls.

You will lead a small team, drive calibration and reporting, and partner with Risk, Compliance and Operations to strengthen resilience and regulatory compliance.

Qualifications

• Experience in financial services, ideally banking, mortgages or consumer finance.
• Proven experience in quality assurance, operational risk, risk & control, or operational oversight.
• Balance day-to-day delivery with longer-term continuous improvement.
• Experience producing management information and governance reporting.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day QA framework development and governance.
• Oversee QA reviews across operational processes.
• Calibrate, trend analyse and report meaningful management information.
• Identify themes, control weaknesses and remediation opportunities.
• Lead the day-to-day delivery of first line Operational Risk activity.
• Develop Operational Risk Analysts for incident and breach reporting and root-cause analysis.
• Support areas to identify, assess and manage operational risks and control weaknesses.
• Ensure incidents are recorded, investigated and escalated appropriately.
• Monitor remediation plans to ensure timely completion.
• Embed a strong risk and control culture across operations.
• Contribute to resilience and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Produce clear MI for senior leaders and governance forums.
• Support regulatory, audit and assurance activity when required.

Skills

Financial services

QA

Operational Risk

Root cause analysis

Governance reporting

Stakeholder management

Incident management

Continuous improvement

Job description

Castle Trust Bank is seeking an experienced Quality Assurance & Operational Risk Manager to lead the first line QA and risk frameworks. The role, based in Basingstoke with hybrid working, focuses on maintaining high customer outcomes through robust QA and risk controls.

You will lead a small team, drive calibration and reporting, and partner with Risk, Compliance and Operations to strengthen resilience and regulatory compliance.