Operational Risk and Controls Lead, OVO
£64.3-75k
You’ll be eligible for an on-target bonus of 15%
Senior and Expert level
London
More information about location
1 day a week in office
Powering human progress with clean affordable energy for everyone
Be an early applicant
Powering human progress with clean affordable energy for everyone
1001+ employees
B2CEnergySustainability
Be an early applicant
£64.3-75k
You’ll be eligible for an on-target bonus of 15%
Senior and Expert level
London
More information about location
1 day a week in office
1001+ employees
B2CEnergySustainability
Company mission
We're on a mission to lower carbon emissions to zero by 2035, helping our customers reduce theirs at the same time - we call this Plan Zero.
Role
Who you are
- Top 3 qualities for this role: Analytical, Engaging, Flexible
- Have significant experience in operational risk management within a regulated industry and experience in building an effective first line of defence. We’re looking to build our muscles in this area and are looking for someone who can immediately make an impact and quickly accelerate our maturity. Experience of operational risk management in an energy supply setting would be advantageous
- It goes without saying that you will have a strong understanding of risk management frameworks, tools and methodologies and you will also have a proven ability to analyse complex operational risks and design practical control solutions
- You will have an ability to communicate complex risk concepts to non-specialist audiences, and a proven track record of collaborating with senior leadership and cross-functional teams. Experience of change and project management is helpful but not essential
- You should be an authentic leader able to balance strategy and execution. Someone who could easily maintain high performance across conflicting priorities but who also isn’t afraid to roll up their sleeves when there is a need. You will be able to form strong working relationships quickly and be ready to take on a challenge
What the job involves
- Reporting to: Head of Outsourcing and Oversight
- This role in 3 words: Business Partnering, Operational Excellence, Risk Management
- Within OVO we operate a three lines of defence risk model, and as a member of the Operational Oversight leadership team, you’ll take overall responsibility for making sure we have an effective first line of defence across Operations
- You will be responsible for working with key stakeholders and process owners across Operations ensuring that we identify, assess and manage risks in our day to day operations and put in place an effective control environment to mitigate these in line with our risk appetite
- You will lead the validation and evolution of our first line risk governance, supporting the wider leadership team to grow their understanding of risks and controls
- At a strategic level you will help us make sure that risk and control considerations are reflected in our strategy and our change agenda and that we have an appropriate risk awareness and culture across our business
- This role is crucial in ensuring that the organisation delivers high-quality customer outcomes, maintaining compliance with industry regulations and minimizing operational risks
- You’ll work collaboratively across the business, building trusting relationships
- You will thrive on high levels of accountability and aligned autonomy while navigating ambiguity
- You will be confident in senior-level forums, able to simplify complexity for easy consumption, and able to communicate across the entire organisational landscape at all stakeholder levels
- Working in the Customer Enablement team you will work across Operations to surface and connect overlapping risks
- You will serve as a critical friend to the process owners and policy makers; reviewing controls with a customer journey lens
- You will work closely with Customer Experience and 2nd-line Risk and Compliance teams to make sure that the controls framework is robust
- Your role will identify opportunities for innovation and efficiency leveraging tech solutions to increase the quality of the controls
- You’ll be a role model for the wider team, embodying OVO’s leadership qualities
- You’ll be a builder and someone who thrives on forging new relationships and creating operational controls to help us manage and oversee day to day work
- Ensure Operations works within all regulatory and/or legal obligations
- Support the development and delivery of operational strategies and change , ensuring risk and control environment needs are reflected
- Collaborate with stakeholders across the business to deliver the service strategy, and support delivery of the wider business strategy
- Work collaboratively across the business to ensure risks and positive customer outcomes are reflected in priorities
- Work with stakeholders to deliver a robust approach to identify, assess, and monitor risks across Operations within OVO’s wider risk framework
- Ensure the quality and completeness of risks identified and support mitigation planning
- Ensure the Operations senior leadership team maintain a comprehensive understanding of the key risks
- Run risk workshops, as required, to engage and empower team members in risk identification and control implementation
- Implement robust frameworks to put in place operationally effective controls to mitigate risks in line with our agreed risk appetite in a proportionate and cost effective manner
- Ensure the health of controls across, including within third party suppliers
- Escalate areas of risk that do not have appropriate controls and the subsequent risk that this poses to OVO in line with OVO’s risk framework
- Ensure that first line control testing is in place to provide confidence in the robustness of the operation of our controls
- Facilitate comprehensive reporting to ensure that the leadership team maintains an understanding of the health of controls across the Operation
- Define an appropriate risk culture in Operations in line with the teams risk appetite statements
- Assess the team alignment with the required risk culture and awareness
- Drive a culture of risk awareness in line with the agreed culture and appetite statement across the function
- Collaborate across Operations to make sure risk management and control practices are integrated seamlessly into day-to-day operations and meet the OVO-wide risk framework
- Working cross functionally to proactively anticipate, assess, and reduce future potential risks
- Alongside OVO’s 2nd-line Risk Team, deliver training, coaching and awareness programs to ensure team members understand and are able to fulfil their responsibilities
- Work closely with OVO’s 2nd-line Risk Team to oversee risk appetite statements, supporting measures and scorecards and ensure these remain current and fit for purpose
- Make sure operational leaders have clearly defined operational limits based on the risk appetite statements to enable effective decision making
- Support the establishment of effective first line risk governance across Operations
- Provide clear, actionable risk and control reports to support decision-making
- Ensure that appropriate escalation mechanisms are in place to wider COO and enterprise risk function and governance
- Oversee the investigation and resolution of operational risk incidents
- Lead wider business incident retrospectives
- Develop and maintain an effective internal incident reporting system including third party suppliers
- Work closely with OVO’s 2nd-line Risk Team to make sure incidents are escalated to the right level
- Oversee Operations’ contribution to OVO business continuity, disaster recovery, and operational resilience plans
- Ensure critical functions remain effective during disruptions
- Embed OVO’s vision, culture and values across the Operations
- Role models the OVO way of working and supports effective collaboration across COO and the wider business
- Be a consciously inclusive leader, proactively supporting and advocating Belonging
- Develop a progressive people environment where people feel seen, valued and supported, and individuals and teams are recognised and rewarded for the value they deliver
- Work collaboratively enabling empowerment and delegation, creating a robust talent pipeline that is able to fulfil the future needs of OVO
- Recognises and embeds belonging, diversity and inclusion through the function
Salary benchmarks
Our take
On average, home energy represents 26% of our carbon footprint. Ovo Energy wants to bring this to zero by providing cheaper, greener and simpler energy to customers. They are analysing meter data to deliver easy, personalised actions, turning electric vehicles into power stations with clever chargers, and building energy-efficient heaters. For households, their offering is organised into four different energy plans. that include interest rewards on energy credit balance.
In 2020, OVO completed the acquisition of SSE Energy Services' retail arm for £500 million, meaning that the challenger brand now has around 4 million customers in the UK.
While helping Ovo members halve their carbon footprints, the company is also working towards becoming a net zero carbon business by 2035. The challenges ahead for the company include encouraging consumer behaviour change, shifting towards subscription models for home energy use.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Top investors
Company
Employee endorsements
Inspiring mission
"The mission to provide Green energy to all customers, and to enable all our customers to start on a journey towards zero carbon living is written in..."
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Jul 2023
$263.3m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Feb 2019
$263.3m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Total funding: $567.3m
Company benefits
- Annual Discretionary Bonus
- 9% Flex Pay - extra on top of your core pay to use as you like. You can take it as cash, use as your pension contribution, or choose to spend it on a huge range of flex benefits (tech schemes, EV leasing and more!).
- Flexible / Remote Working
- Personal Development Allowances and Free Access to OVOLearn - our very own training platform
- 34 Days Holiday (including bank holidays)
- Health Insurance
- £400 OVO Energy Discount
Company values
- Find a better way - We always look for a better way, whether that’s by delivering a better service, employing brilliant people or improving our products and processes
- Do what's right - Being open, honest and fair is one of the values which applies to everything we do. We take pride in talking to our customers and delivering exceptional work
- Build something great - Simple solutions aren’t quick or easy to find. They take time and tenacity. Our people work to find an answer that helps us ‘build something great’
Company HQ
Redcliffe, Bristol, UK
Leadership
David Buttress
(CEO)CEO of OVO, the UK’s 3rd largest energy supplier. Joined in May 2024.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at OVO
Alessandro Storer (Head of Inclusion & Belonging )
- We run inclusive training and unconscious bias workshops for employees and interviewers
- We provide mental health support, through different networks, having mental health first aiders within the business and running initiatives like our "wellbeing Wednesdays" to promote this.
- We have dedicated Early Years programmes with a focus on underrepresented groups, offering different training opportunities within the business.
- We invest in tools, like Textio, and focused I&D job boards to help us reduce bias in our job postings and recruitment activity.
- Commitment in improving diversity across our Tech Teams and working with companies to improve the tech ecosystem as a whole, specifically have committed to 25% Women in Tech at OVO by 2025
- We've signed up to numerous charters, like the Tech Talent Charter, Race at Work Charter and Trans in the City, to show our continuing commitment to improving I&D within OVO and the wider community
- Within OVO we have multiple belonging networks and communities set up, to offer support and forums for everybody
- Read more about our commitments to improving Diversity & Inclusion at OVO in our linked belonging report
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