About Griffin
Hi, we’re Griffin! We’re the bank for companies who want to build and launch financial products.
Our context
We're rapidly heading towards a future where most of us access financial services through technology companies rather than high street banks. All sorts of companies are now embedding financial products into their apps and user journeys so that their customers can seamlessly make payments, manage expenses, take out loans, save, invest, and do more.
The problem is that companies are still dependent on legacy banking infrastructure if they want to offer regulated financial products. They need to either partner directly with an incumbent bank and/or stitch together middleware from various Banking as a Service (BaaS) providers. This process is slow, expensive, and complex and makes it very hard for companies to get new financial products off the ground.
At Griffin, we want to change this.
Our purpose
We want to make it easy for companies to bring finance to their customers at the point of greatest relevance. So, we built a bank.
But not just any bank! Griffin is a technology platform and a bank: fully regulated, API-first, developer-centric, and purpose-built to serve innovative fintechs and brands who want to build and embed financial products.
Learn more about what we do.
Our culture
Our culture is our most important asset, and one of the ways we safeguard it is by being extremely intentional about hiring the right people. We won't hire people who don’t seem like a strong fit for our core values, even if they're otherwise extremely qualified.
We also believe that smart, motivated, conscientious people thrive in high-trust, high-autonomy environments. That’s why we’re transparent by default, and we encourage open discussion and challenge across all levels of the organisation. We’re also remote-first, asynchronous, and fully flexible - because you're the expert on how and when you do your best work.
Learn more about our culture.
The Risk and Compliance team
Like most of Griffin, the Risk and Compliance team is still establishing itself.
We're working to build a second line that is a highly respected and integrated part of the business and somewhere our colleagues go to for expert and pragmatic advice, while remaining independent from the first line.
Our aim is no less than to be the best in class. We are not putting patches on legacy frameworks, we're laying the foundations of the future of global financial infrastructure.
Who are you?
The ideal candidate for this job will have most of the following:
Experience
Strong knowledge of the UK’s banking regulatory framework, as well as industry best practice in the design and operation of systems and controls.
Solid experience in working within financial services in the UK, preferably in a challenger bank or in professional services.
Experience in enterprise risk management and operational risk.
Solid experience in payments and cards, preferably in a bank.
Capable of holistic oversight of systems and controls across a new bank, either in economic crime, compliance or risk.
Able to get into regulatory detail and cross reference with policy and practices.
Qualities
Pragmatic and collaborative mindset, with an interest in working closely with all other parts of the business to embed a strong three lines of defence model.
We are a new bank so it is imperative that you are comfortable in going outside your comfort zone. This means that you may be asked to do other second line related activities as required by the CRO.
We’re hybrid-remote, and most of your colleagues will not share an office with you on a day-to-day basis. This means you should also have:
Comfort with solo execution and managing people remotely - we're a small team so you'll need to be happy rolling up your sleeves and help more junior colleagues to succeed.
A high degree of comfort adopting new software tools for document drafting, collaboration and communication.
You love writing - we have a lot of documents to draft and we place a high degree of importance on clarity and readability (read more about how we write ).
What will you be doing here?
As Head of Operational Risk you will:
Support the CRO with the oversight of the risk profile and the implementation/embedding of the risk management framework and risk appetite statement, proposing the changes required to ensure that it remains fit for purpose.
Act as risk subject matter expert for Non-Financial Risks, providing independent guidance to the first line and oversight for the following risks: operational risk, operational resilience, outsourcing, change risk, technology, or any other non-financial risks that are key for Griffin.
Oversee (from a second line perspective) project and new products, carrying out and reviewing risk assessments as needed.
Act as second line subject matter expert to payments, savings and cards products.
Manage and oversee the work of other colleagues in the operational risk team, acting as their reporting line as required.
Oversee and, if required, deliver some of the second line assurance plan across all areas of the business, to ultimately conclude on whether the first line is adhering to policy and testing the design and effectiveness of the controls environment.
Writing ToRs, risk management policies and standards, and other governance documents to to be implemented by the first line.
Design, develop and improve MI and reporting packs to various committees, support committees discharge their duties appropriately.
Roll-up sleeves and assist with any other second line activities, coping with the changes to the business typical in a bank in our stage of growth.
This is a certified role under the Senior Manager’s and Certification Regime (SMCR), meaning the role holder must comply with the FCA’s Fitness and Propriety Requirements.
What can we offer you?
We are an early stage startup and we're working hard to expand our benefits package. We're planning to add to this list in the future.
25 days off a year + winter break(we close in between Christmas and New Year) + bank holidays
Remote-first flexibility - work from anywhere in the UK
Support with home office setup
Share options - so you own a piece of what we’re building
1:1 coaching and therapy through Oliva
Auto-enrolment into company pension scheme with Penfold
Enhanced parental leave with up to 6 months at full pay
Private medical insurance and life insurance (provided by Vitality and AIG respectively)
As a bank, we’re committed to maintaining the highest standards of security. This means that the successful candidate will need to complete background screening, and our offer will be conditional upon satisfactory review of these checks. This would include verification of right to work, criminal record, credit history, social media and professional reference checks.
How do I apply?
Are we your next move? Apply via the link below, if there's a match our Talent team will reach out to schedule an initial conversation and talk you through what happens next.
We’re remote-first
We have a small London office in Moorgate, but we are comfortable hiring people to work from anywhere in the UK. About a third of the company is based within occasional commuting distance of London, the rest are full-time remote.
Under representation
Our goal is for Griffin to proportionally represent the diversity of the working population in society. We’re working to ensure that Griffin is a supportive, empowering and inclusive environment for every member of our team — whatever your combination of race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, physical ability, nationality, neurodiversity, and religious beliefs. If you’re part of a group that is under-represented in fintech, we’d love to hear from you.
Griffin Bank Ltd request that recruitment agencies do not speculatively submit CVs to any employee or associate of our company unless explicitly asked to do so by a member of our Talent team.
Any CVs sent to any member of our team on a speculative basis will not be recognised and we will not accept liability for any fee or commission should we subsequently employ a candidate who applied to us directly or was introduced by an instructed agency that may also have been submitted speculatively by an uninstructed agency.
