Zopa for Business - Risk Lead

**Our Story** **Hello there. We’re Zopa.** We started our journey back in 2005, building the first ever peer-to-peer lending company. Fast forward to 2020 and we launched Zopa Bank. A bank that listens to what our customers don’t like about finance and does the opposite. We’re redefining what it feels like to work in finance. Our vision for a new era of banking puts people front and centre — we’ve built a business that empowers everyone to aim high, every day, to move finance forward. Find out more about our fantastic offerings at [](http://Zopa.com)! We’re incredibly proud of our achievements and none of it would be possible without the amazing team here. It’s not just industry awards we’re winning, we’ve also been named in the top three UK’s Most Loved Workplaces. If you embrace unconventional challenges, are unafraid to think differently and are driven to make an outsized impact, you’ll thrive here at Zopa, so join us, and make it count. Want to see us in action? Follow us on Instagram @zopalife Zopa for Business is building propositions that help businesses serve their customers better. As Risk Lead, you will lead the team responsible for managing the risks arising from our partnerships and distribution activity across all Zopa for Business products. This is a senior 1LoD leadership role. You will set the direction for partner risk management, lead a capable team and provide clear, commercial risk advice to senior stakeholders. You will ensure that risk is understood, well managed and proportionate to the opportunity - from initial due diligence through to ongoing oversight. ### A day in the life: Lead the risk function - Lead, develop and inspire the Zopa for Business risk team, setting a clear operating rhythm, high standards and a strong culture of sound judgement. - Own the end-to-end approach to partner and distributor risk, ensuring it remains effective, pragmatic and fit for a growing business. - Be a trusted adviser to business leaders, helping them make well-informed decisions that balance growth, customer outcomes and risk appetite. Set clear risk standards and decisions - Design and maintain proportionate risk frameworks, policies and minimum standards for onboarding, material change and ongoing oversight. - Provide clear recommendations and challenge on higher-risk cases, with the confidence to make or escalate decisions when required. - Ensure risks, controls, decision-making and accountability are clearly evidenced and understood. Manage the full relationship lifecycle - Oversee due diligence, risk assessment and approval for new partners and material changes to existing relationships. - Establish effective ongoing monitoring, early-warning indicators and timely intervention where a partner’s risk profile changes. - Work with commercial and specialist teams to manage remediation, restrictions and exits where necessary. Build a scalable, data-led capability - Use data and management information to give leaders a clear view of exposure, trends, performance and emerging risks. - Work closely with Product, Engineering and risk specialists to improve processes, controls and tools as the business scales. - Use insight from issues, incidents and feedback to strengthen the control environment and improve the partner experience. ### About you: - Strong experience leading risk, compliance, financial-crime, third-party or distribution-risk activity in a regulated financial-services, fintech or payments environment. - Sound commercial judgement and the ability to make balanced decisions in complex, fast-moving situations. - A proven track record of designing and operating risk-based onboarding and oversight frameworks for partners, merchants, intermediaries, brokers or similar third parties. - The leadership capability to build a high-performing team and influence senior stakeholders across commercial, product and risk disciplines. - Excellent communication skills: able to turn complex risk topics into clear recommendations and practical action. - Experience working with technology and data teams to improve risk processes and controls.