Head of Operational rigor

Head of Operational Rigour | Barclays | Geneva.

Come join us as Head of Operational Rigour! The successful candidate will be responsible for overseeing the effective design, implementation, and maintenance of the Geneva Operations Risk Management Framework. As part of the first line of defence, this role ensures strong risk governance, drives a culture of quality assurance, and partners closely with business teams to proactively identify, manage, and remediate operational risk.

Key Responsibilities:

Risk Management and Oversight

• Maintain a strong risk partner relationship within Geneva Operations, offering guidance and challenge in operational risk identification and resolution.
• Lead the co-ordination of 2nd line Quality Assurance, Conformance Testing, and Management Information (MI) for relevant Risk Forums.
• Ensure all open actions (Audit, RCSA, etc.) are completed in a timely and accurate manner.
• Support a robust control environment through root cause analysis (RCA), incident escalation, and continuous process improvement.
• Track and report Key Risk and Quality Indicators (KRIs/KQIs) across daily, weekly, and monthly cycles.

Quality Assurance

• Oversee the execution of Quality Assurance and Conformance Testing on critical tasks, ensuring appropriate volume, frequency, and documentation of issues identified.
• Continuously assess and improve QA activities to ensure emerging risks are captured and addressed.
• Ensure end-to-end understanding of operational processes, risks, and controls, with adequate documentation and escalation protocols.

Leadership and Stakeholder Management

• Manage and develop a team performing high-risk quality and control checks, ensuring operational accuracy and timely delivery.
• Promote a high-performance culture through coaching, training, and talent development.
• Set and monitor stretching objectives, ensuring team performance aligns with business goals.
• Engage regularly with senior stakeholders across Risk, Financial Crime, Compliance, and Global Operations.

Decision Making and Reporting

• Present findings, gaps, and recommendations to senior stakeholders (VPs and Process Owners), ensuring actions are tracked and followed up.
• Share best practices across Risk and Control (R&C) teams and contribute to continuous improvement initiatives.
• Support data-driven decisions through accurate, concise reporting and insightful MI.

Risk and Control Objective

Ensure that all duties are carried out in accordance with internal policy, regulatory requirements, and the Enterprise-Wide Risk Management Framework. Foster a risk-aware culture and maintain effective controls and monitoring to support operational integrity.

Person Specification:

Essential Skills and Qualifications

• Proven experience managing teams in an operational risk or control environment.
• Strong analytical, investigative, and numerical skills.
• Excellent knowledge of operational risk standards and frameworks.
• Highly detail-oriented with a positive, proactive mindset.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
• Skilled in communicating with and presenting to senior stakeholders.

Desirable

• Prior experience in financial services operations, risk, or compliance.
• Fluency in English (written and spoken); additional languages an advantage.

This role is based in Geneva.
You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.

Purpose of the role

To support PBWM with day-to-day processing, reviewing, reporting, and issue resolution.

Accountabilities

• Support with day-to-day Private Bank and Wealth Management initiatives including processing, reviewing, reporting, and issue resolution with regards to accounts, products and services.
• Support the management of the banks client relations to clearly identify their needs and provide a service that meets expectations.
• Collaboration with teams across the bank to align and integrate Private Bank and Wealth Management processes.
• Identification of areas for improvement and providing recommendations for change in Private Bank and Wealth Management processes.
• Development and implementation of Private Bank and Wealth Management procedures and controls to mitigate risks and maintain operational efficiency.
• Development of reports and presentations on Private Bank and Wealth Management performance and communicate findings to internal senior stakeholders.
• Identification of industry trends and developments to implement best practice in Private Bank and Wealth Management Services.
• Participation in projects and initiatives to improve Private Bank and Wealth Management efficiency and effectiveness.

Vice President Expectations

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.

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