Senior Risk Manager

At Smart, our mission is to transform retirement, savings and financial wellbeing, across all generations, around the world.

THE ROLE

(6 Month Fixed-term contract)

We’re looking for a strategic, analytical, and proactive Senior Risk Manager to join our growing Risk and Assurance team. In this senior role, you will take ownership of strengthening our risk management framework, partnering with senior leaders across the business to identify, assess, and manage key risks. You will ensure that internal controls are clearly defined, effectively operated, and regularly reviewed, while driving a strong risk culture and providing meaningful insight to support informed decision-making across the organisation.

• Lead the implementation and continuous improvement of the first line risk management framework.

• Manage and update all risk and compliance policies to ensure they reflect the latest regulatory requirements and client expectations.

• Develop a more pragmatic and efficient risk register review process, moving away from traditional lengthy RCSA approaches.

• Develop and run workshops to facilitate the completion and ongoing review of risk registers.

• Develop and deliver risk reporting for governance committees, the Board, and client audiences.

• Provide risk insights and analysis to senior leadership, including trends, emerging risks, and key risk indicators (KRIs).

• Develop the control testing plan and compliance monitoring plan, and conduct control testing activities.

• Support the development and maintenance of risk registers, control libraries, and issue/action tracking.

• Support client-driven information requests, including completing due diligence questionnaires and maintaining client-facing risk and compliance documentation.

• Support Smart’s SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications, particularly around maintaining and documenting the control framework.

• Drive continuous improvement in risk and compliance awareness and control effectiveness, including running workshops, awareness sessions, and contributing to mandatory training materials to make them more relevant to Smart.

• Support audits, assurance reviews, and regulatory requests, ensuring timely and accurate responses.

• Mentor junior team members and promote a proactive, solutions-oriented risk culture.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

The skills, experience, and aptitudes we are looking for are listed below but please don’t be discouraged from applying if you don’t meet every single one of these criteria – having a ‘can do’ attitude is sometimes more important than being able to tick every box:

• You will have several years’ experience working in a first line risk, operational risk, compliance, or control-focused role, ideally within a tech company or fast-paced, technology-driven environment.

• You will have experience in drafting policies, carrying out compliance reviews, and performing risk and compliance thematic reviews to identify trends and improvement opportunities.

• You will have strong organisational and planning skills, with the ability to prioritise and manage multiple risk and compliance activities at once.

• You will have excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate risks, issues, and recommendations.

• You will be proactive and solutions-orientated, using your initiative to identify control gaps, improve processes, and strengthen risk mitigation.

• Experience analysing data, preparing risk reports, drafting policies and procedures, and producing clear documentation is an advantage.

• You will have great attention to detail and strong problem-solving skills, particularly when assessing risks, reviewing controls, or ensuring compliance requirements are met.

• You will enjoy working collaboratively with other teams and will be motivated by making a positive contribution to improving risk culture, compliance maturity, and operational outcomes.

• You will be confident engaging with a wide range of internal stakeholders, supporting them to understand and manage risks within their processes.

WHO WE ARE

We work in partnerships with governments and financial institutions in the UK and internationally. Our cloud-native digital platform is revolutionising how people around the world think about, and save for, their retirement.

At heart, we’re a financial technology business. What we do is all about innovation, and using the power of digital change to put the customer first. Our Engineers will tell you that working at Smart gives you the opportunity to play your part in developing world-class technological solutions, working with – and learning from – like-minded people.

You’ll also find that, across our business, our colleagues love Smart’s culture, and how what we do means better financial outcomes for savers. That feels worthwhile, and it means that what we do, collectively, goes way beyond the nine to five of a typical working day.

Don’t just take our word for it – you can see what our colleagues say about working at Smart on LinkedIn Life and Glassdoor .

BENEFITS

At Smart, one of the eight principles we work to is “We want happy and good people in our team”. We created a list of benefits that helps us achieve this goal:

• 25 days’ holiday per year, increasing with length of service.

• £500 annual training budget to spend on your professional development

• Extensive private healthcare, including dental, eyecare and EAP

• Enhanced sick leave (three months’ pay per year)

• Enhanced maternity and paternity (maternity – 6 months fully paid/paternity – 3 weeks fully paid)

• Death in service insurance cover

• Fully-paid five-week sabbatical after five years of employment

• In office wellbeing, such as manicures, massages and barbers.

• Smart employees also enjoy a 50% discount on orders from our sister company Arena Flowers, Britain's most ethical florist. They offer unique hand-tied bouquets, luxury flowers, letterbox flowers, plants and gifts to spend on friends and loved ones or even for yourself.

At Smart, we are committed to creating an inclusive and equitable workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to do their best work.

We believe that diverse perspectives help us lead the way in transforming retirement, savings, and financial wellbeing. We welcome differences in background, experience, thinking, and identity, and we recognise that innovation is strongest when it is built on inclusion and fairness. We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and experiences and do not discriminate on the basis of any protected characteristic.

If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process or in the workplace, we encourage you to let us know - we are committed to supporting you.

We think Smart is an awesome place to work. If it sounds like somewhere you’d like to work, too, and if you’re ready to play your part in our continued success in the future, then naturally we’d love to meet you.