Senior Manager - Customer Outcomes Assurance

About the role

The Senior Manager is a key member of the Customer Outcomes Assurance team, responsible for contributing to and delivering the second line outcomes assurance plan to provide confidence to all stakeholders that the processes, products and services the Group offers are delivering positive customer outcomes.  Through the lens of the Consumer Duty, this role is key to evidencing that positive customer outcomes are achieved on a consistent basis across the Group and underlying controls are designed and perform as expected, driving a customer focussed risk culture.

You'll spend your time focussing on:

Customer Outcomes assurance planning:

• Undertake and maintain a risk assessment using available data sources to define the assurance universe, with an explicit focus on customer outcomes.

• Support the Director in development of a plan and obtaining Executive and Board governance approval, reflecting priorities and concerns within the Governance frameworks.

• Maintain ongoing awareness of the risk and compliance environment to recommend adjustments as necessary.

• Work alongside the Internal Audit function to develop an integrated assurance approach, with complementary scope to deliver 'added value' across the business.

Deliver the Customer Outcomes assurance plan

• Ensure the delivery of the plan and accountable for delivery of individual reviews against the approved programme and dates.

• Deliver timely outputs, working constructively with the business and stakeholders to ensure effective delivery of findings and required improvements.

• Support team members in the scoping of reviews, delivery of fieldwork and reporting outputs including required actions, owners and priority of findings.

• Identify and lead reactive assurance activities to respond to events and concerns that are generated internally or from the external environment, with the appropriate degree of flexibility demonstrated.

• Ensure high quality outputs that deliver insight into the performance of the internal control environment, for consideration within the governance arrangements including Board reporting.

Oversight of actions implementation

• Work with management to define appropriate mitigation plans to address observed weaknesses, setting realistic target dates to minimise the risk of customer harm.

• Monitor and review the progress of actions to proactively identify where actions are not on track and intervene / escalate.

• Support reporting to ERCC and other forums on action status, including highlighting late actions and inadequate delivery of remedial actions.

Root Cause Analysis

• Use assurance findings to help identify underlying causes of control weaknesses and feed this into other risk processes e.g. RCSA, Risk Events, Operational Resilience to scope function wide priorities.

• Analyse findings to assess weaknesses across the group companies to drive improvements across the legacy business areas.

Stakeholder Management:

• Cultivate strong relationships with key stakeholders, including executives, Senior Leadership Team (SLT) members, board members, regulators, and external partners.

• Communicate effectively with stakeholders to ensure a clear understanding of Customer Outcomes assurance, policies and procedures.

• Work with the CRO leadership team and wider department to drive a risk aware culture that permeates all business areas, to drive a strong control environment and focus on end customers and advisers.

Team Leadership and Development:

• Work with the Director to actively develop and retain a high-performing Customer Outcomes assurance team that bring genuine insight to the achievement of positive customer experiences.

• Foster a culture of continuous learning and development within the team to ensure they stay abreast of industry best practices and evolving risk and assurance landscapes.

• Provide mentorship and guidance to team members, encouraging a collaborative and results-driven approach.

We've always placed more importance on cultural contribution above technical ability, but to thrive in this role you'll need:

• Proven experience in an assurance focussed role, preferably at senior manager level with good executive level relationship management experience.

• In-depth knowledge of key customer focussed processes, regulatory requirements, Risk and Control Self-Assessments, Risk Events processes and reporting.

• Knowledge of platforms, pensions and investment processes and where these processes and procedures impact on customer experience and outcomes.

• Strong leadership skills, with a track record of supporting and developing a high-performing team.

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and engage stakeholders at all levels.

• The ability to translate complex processes and issues into actionable business insights and reduced risk profiles.

• Relevant professional qualifications are highly desirable.

A little about us

We are the Nucleus Financial Platforms group and we help make retirement more rewarding. Here at Nucleus, people come first - whether it's our colleagues, or the advisers and customers we support, we know that working in partnership and collaboration leads to the best outcomes. Together, we've shaped the platform to how it is today. We work hard, and we celebrate hard too.

Our ambition is to create a platform with a difference, putting the customer centre stage meant tearing up the rule book and starting from scratch. We've come a long way since then, but our mission remains just as focused. That's why our culture, values, and social responsibility are things we keep at the top of our agenda - because we know they matter and have a big impact.

Our culture is one of the many things that sets us apart from the pack. We want to have an environment where our people feel that they can make a real difference, know they'll be rewarded for their efforts and more importantly, enjoy themselves at work.

Are we a perfect match? Check out this video and find out!

Inclusion and diversity at Nucleus

As with most things in life, who cares, wins. We really care about inclusion.

For us it's not a tick box exercise; inclusion and diversity are embedded in our culture and everything we do. It's a commercial imperative. It isn't about being PC. It's about being future-relevant and durable. We owe it to ourselves and the industry to ensure we are playing our part in creating a fair, balanced and transparent financial services sector.

More diversity means broader experience, a wider set of perspectives and a better collective ability to problem-solve. And it means being more representative of customer groups, which supports areas such as product development.

At Nucleus, we offer a generous blend of benefits for the things that really matter to our people, including a non-contributory pension, bonus, enhanced parental leave, paid time off for emergencies, health and wellbeing initiatives and flexible working options.

If you'd like to find out more about us or the role, please get in touch with Hannah McCreadie in our People team.