Senior Manager FOS Complaints

St. James's Place; Cirencester; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

28 days’ annual leave + bank holidays

Private Medical Insurance

Generous Pension Scheme

Enhanced Parental Leave

Critical illness cover

EV salary sacrifice scheme

Job summary

St. James’s Place is seeking a Senior Manager – FOS Complaints to lead a specialist team handling complaints escalated to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

You will shape strategy, drive high‑quality resolution and provide insights into emerging risks, influencing improvements across the business. As a member of the Client Liaison Senior Leadership Team, you will ensure fair, compliant client outcomes while maintaining robust governance and cross‑functional collaboration with policy, risk and

Qualifications

• Proven leadership experience managing, coaching and developing high‑performing teams.
• Significant Financial Services experience in complaints, client resolutions, regulatory operations or client outcomes.
• Strong understanding of complaints handling frameworks, regulatory requirements and customer outcome obligations.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills with senior leaders and external bodies.
• Strong analytical and decision‑making capability, with experience interpreting complex cases and driving improvement.
• Excellent communication and relationship management, with ability to challenge constructively in sensitive situations.

Responsibilities

• Providing leadership, direction and oversight to the FOS Complaints Team, ensuring colleagues are developed, supported and deployed to maximise performance.
• Setting clear priorities, objectives and performance expectations for fair, timely complaint handling and operational efficiency.
• Overseeing team workflow, resource allocation and individual performance, ensuring workloads are appropriate and case reviews meet timescales.
• Acting as a technical and operational point of expertise for FOS complaints, offering guidance and coaching on complex matters.
• Collaborating with the Policy & Technical Lead to ensure consistent approaches aligned with FOS decisions and regulatory expectations.
• Identifying, elevating and overseeing high‑risk or high‑value cases and keeping the Client Liaison Director informed.
• Monitoring progress of sensitive cases through the FOS process to support fair, timely outcomes.
• Ensuring root cause analysis is embedded to drive learning across Client Liaison and wider business.
• Maintaining processes for FOS referrals, ensuring stakeholder needs are met.
• Producing meaningful management information on referrals, outcomes and trends for senior management.

Skills

Leadership

Complaints handling

Regulatory operations

Stakeholder management

Analytical decision making

Communication

Regulatory knowledge

Education

Level 4 QCF or equivalent (e.g. CII Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning)

Job description

Are you ready to chart your own career path? With our refreshed strategy, we’re building on our rich heritage and transforming our business to be more scalable and efficient, unlocking the capabilities needed for future success. This includes significantly investing in technology, streamlining the way we work and creating an environment where colleagues feel engaged, empowered and accountable; where they can show up, speak up and perform - because we believe in the difference our work makes.

At a glance:

Location: Cirencester Office

Workplace Type: Hybrid

Employment Type: Permanent

Seniority: Mid-Senior Level

About the role:

The Client Liaison Division is responsible for SJP Wealth Management complaints, Partner Claims and supporting wider remediation activity across St. James’s Place. Working at the intersection of client experience, regulation and risk, the Division manages complaint resolution, Financial Ombudsman Service escalations, root cause analysis, Partner Claims and undertaking critical complaints oversight, regulatory and governance activities. The Division ensures regulatory compliance, the delivery of fair client outcomes and the use of complaints insight to drive improvements across the wider SJP business.

As Senior Manager – FOS Complaints, you'll lead a specialist team responsible for managing complaints escalated to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), while acting as the key relationship owner for the Ombudsman. Combining strategic leadership, operational oversight and technical expertise, you'll drive high-quality complaint resolution, provide insight into emerging risks and trends, and use Ombudsman outcomes to influence positive change across the wider business. As a member of the Client Liaison Senior Leadership Team and Governance Committee, you'll play a key role in shaping the future direction of the function while ensuring the business continues to deliver fair, compliant and client‑focused outcomes.

What you'll be doing:

• Providing leadership, direction and oversight to the FOS Complaints Team, ensuring colleagues are effectively developed, supported and deployed to maximise individual and team performance.
• Setting clear priorities, objectives and performance expectations to ensure complaints are managed fairly, effectively and promptly, while maintaining operational efficiency, quality standards and consistent client outcomes.
• Overseeing team workflow, resource allocation and individual performance, ensuring workloads are appropriate, progress is actively monitored and case reviews are completed within required timescales.
• Acting as a technical and operational point of expertise for FOS complaints, providing guidance, coaching and support to colleagues on complex matters, relationship management and communication standards.
• Working collaboratively with the Complaints Policy & Technical Lead to ensure a consistent approach is applied in line with FOS decisions, regulatory expectations and internal policy.
• Identify, elevate and oversee sensitive, high‑risk or high‑value cases, ensuring the Client Liaison Director is kept informed of material developments, emerging issues and potential risks.
• Monitoring the progress of sensitive or significant cases through the FOS process, ensuring appropriate actions are taken to support fair, timely and well‑reasoned outcomes.
• Ensuring root cause analysis is embedded within the FOS complaints process, enabling themes, trends and learning from FOS outcomes to be shared with the Root Cause Team and applied across Client Liaison.
• Maintaining and improving effective processes for managing FOS referrals, ensuring they meet the needs of clients, Partners, regulators, shareholders and the wider business.
• Ensuring meaningful management information is produced for FOS referrals, outcomes, trends and performance, with relevant insight and feedback provided to individuals and senior management as required.

About you:

We’re looking for an experienced people leader with a strong background in complaints, dispute resolution or regulatory operations within Financial Services. You'll be commercially aware, technically credible and confident influencing senior stakeholders, while using complaint insight and regulatory knowledge to drive better client outcomes, improve processes and lead a high‑performing team.

Essential criteria

• Proven leadership experience, including managing, coaching and developing high‑performing teams.
• Significant Financial Services experience, ideally within complaints, client resolutions, regulatory operations or client outcomes.
• Strong understanding of complaints handling frameworks, regulatory requirements and customer outcome obligations.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to engage credibly with senior leaders and external bodies.
• Strong analytical and decision‑making capability, with experience interpreting complex cases, identifying trends and driving continuous improvement.
• Excellent communication and relationship management skills, with the confidence to challenge constructively and represent the business effectively in sensitive situations.
• Qualified to at least Level 4 QCF (e.g. CII Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning) or equivalent.

Desirable criteria

• Direct experience working with or managing Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) escalations.
• Strong knowledge of Consumer Duty and its application within complaints, governance or client outcome environments.
• Experience using complaint insight, root cause analysis and data trends to influence strategic business decisions.
• Experience within Wealth Management, Investments, Advice, Pensions or a similar regulated Financial Services sector.

What's in it for you?

Whatever stage of life you're in, our benefits are designed to provide the support, flexibility, and peace of mind you need to thrive both at work and beyond.

In addition to our discretionary annual bonus scheme, which reflects both individual and company performance, you'll benefit from a market‑leading benefits package tailored to support your wellbeing, financial security, and family life.

Our benefits include:

• 28 days' annual leave plus bank holidays, with the option to purchase up to 5 additional days.
• Private Medical Insurance – company‑funded cover for you and your immediate family
• Generous Pension Scheme – a non‑contributory employer contribution of 10%, increasing with length of service up to 15%, plus the opportunity to increase this through salary sacrifice
• Enhanced Parental Leave – up to 26 weeks' full pay to support growing families.
• Protection Benefits – company‑funded critical illness cover, income protection, and life assurance
• EV salary sacrifice scheme through Tusker

Reasonable Adjustments

We’re an equal opportunities employer and want to ensure our recruitment process is accessible and inclusive for all, if you require reasonable adjustment(s) at any stage please let us know by emailing us at [e-mail]

As a business regulated by the FCA we would advise you to familiarise yourself with the conduct regulations and in particular consumer duty obligations prior to an interview with SJP.