Lead Associate - Project Team (12-Month Secondment/Acting Up Opportunity)

Consumer Finance Lead Associate (Projects) - 12 Month Secondment/Acting Up Opportunity

Division – Spc

Department – Finance, Credit & Debt Services, Consumer Finance Directorate

Salary - National (Edinburgh and Leeds) ranging from £59,100 to £80,233 and London £64,900 to £88,100 per annum (Salary offered will be based on skills and experience)

About The Fca

The FCA regulates the conduct of 45,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. Follow this link to find out more About the FCA.

The Consumer Finance Directorate manages the FCA’s regulatory oversight of diverse range of firms including, credit cards, motor finance, credit brokers, high-cost credit, mortgage intermediaries, debt managers, credit unions, retail finance, and others too.

The Finance, Credit and Debt Services (FCDS) department comprises the supervision teams for Retail Finance, Motor Finance, Debt Purchase and Collections, Debt Advice, Credit Reference Agencies and one of the two Project Teams in the Directorate.

The Project Team conducts a range of work across all portfolios in Consumer Finance, not just those in FCDS.  The team works to deliver cross-sector multi-firm work and other project work on key areas of risk. We focus on firms’ compliance with the Consumer Duty as applicable, in addition to Handbook rules. We can deploy a range of regulatory tools to address harm, and our previous work has led to substantial redress for UK consumers.  Our work often leads to published reports on our findings.

What will you be doing?

• Managing the day-to-day aspects of delivery of important cross-sector projects
• You will support the team to complete their desk-based reviews and firm visits to a high standard and help them to assimilate, package and present the findings to firms, FCA stakeholders and industry.
• Working with eight associates, and senior associates, helping to motivate, set direction and provide advice, guidance, coaching and feedback.
• Supporting the Manager in overseeing the activity of the team – for example: influencing and developing the team’s strategy; helping to determine priority projects and to scope them; resource planning and recruitment; developing materials to train the team as required
• Maintaining high standards through a local quality assurance framework; allocating tasks to colleagues and tracking deliverables against plan.
• Maintaining excellent working relationships with key stakeholders both internally and externally.

What will you get from the role?

• The ability to manage the day-to-day oversight on interesting, high-profile and varied projects which address the harm found in our investigations and delivers against the FCA strategy
• An opportunity to be creative, exercise sound judgement, and develop project design and delivery skills in an environment where priorities can change rapidly
• The opportunity to work across a range of firms and learn about the multiple sub- sectors and portfolios within Consumer Finance, and their unique challenges
• The opportunity to support and develop team members to ensure the delivery of high-quality work
• The chance to join a friendly, enthusiastic team committed to reducing harm to UK consumers.
• Which skills are required?

We are a Disability Confident Employer; therefore, disabled people or individuals with long-term conditions who best meet the minimum criteria for a role will go through to the next stage of the recruitment process. (To learn more about the Disability Confident Scheme Click Here)

Minimum

• Prior experience of supervision, compliance or project delivery gained at a regulator, consumer body or within financial services.
• Prior experience of building constructive working relationships at all levels; ability to positively influence the firms we regulate; and ability to communicate effectively with external stakeholders.
• Prior experience of coaching, supporting or mentoring others.

Essential

• Ability to see emerging patterns and trends from engagement with firms, understand their relative importance and help the team to form sound, well-reasoned judgements to shape the delivery of project outcomes.
• Ability to draft complex documents
• Strong sense of accountability – in many aspects of our team’s work, you will have limited oversight from the project team manager, and in many cases will be deputising for them. You’ll be able to demonstrate evidence of taking responsibility for a range of outputs across a portfolio of work.
• Ability to consistently and calmly managing the multiple priorities within your workload, managing your time effectively to achieve results and ensure that you remain open and willing to help others when they need your advice and steer.
• The ability to support the team and manager by thinking quickly when priorities change or issues emerge unexpectedly, considering a range of options innovatively and flexibly and suggest appropriate solutions with confidence and at pace

Our Values & Diversity

We are proud to be an inclusive employer and our ambition is to cultivate a culture for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.

Within the workplace you will have access to various employee resource groups which aim to promote and achieve a healthy work / life balance and support our diversity ambitions.

Did You Know?

50% of our Executive Committee were the first in their family to attend university.

Benefits of working at the FCA

• 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays
• Hybrid working (work from home up to 60% of your time)
• Private healthcare with Bupa  
• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach age 35)  
• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary  

• Income Protection

We also have a competitive flexible benefits scheme which gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifestyle.

We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements.  Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares.  We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we can explore what might work best for both sides.

Follow this link to see what life is like at the FCA - Life at the FCA

Application Support

We are dedicated to removing barriers and ensuring our application process is accessible to everyone. We offer a range of adjustments to make your application experience as comfortable and straightforward as possible.

If you have an accessibility need, disability, or condition requiring changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter using the details below and they will be happy to discuss this further with you.

Useful Information and Timeline

• This role is graded as Lead Associate, Regulatory
• Advert Closing Date: 15th October at 23:59pm
• CV Review/Shortlist: 17th October
• Interview Stage: commencing 22nd October onward

Your Recruiter will discuss the process in detail with you during screening for the role, therefore, please make them aware if you are going to be unavailable for any date during this time. 

Got A Question?

If you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact: 

Sartaj.Deol@Fca.Org.Uk