Business Controls Oversight, Senior Specialist

hackajob is collaborating with Vanguard to connect them with exceptional professionals for this role.

Serves as a senior specialist responsible for the design, implementation, and oversight of a Issues Management program across several Personal Wealth subdivisions. Provides strategic insight and leadership in risk identification, mitigation, and continuous improvement. Partners with first and second line of defense operational excellence, enterprise risk, and divisional risk teams to ensure alignment with company policy, regulatory expectations, and industry best practices.

The Issues Management leader plays a critical role in strengthening the company’s risk framework by designing, implementing, and executing the Issue Management program across multiple Personal Wealth subdivisions. This role ensures the division proactively identifies, assesses, and mitigates risks plus maintains effective internal controls.

Specific Responsibilities

• Issues Management Program Leadership
• Ensure Issue Management activities align with enterprise risk policies and financial‑sector regulatory guidance
• Establish standardized methodologies and ensure consistent adoption across first‑line teams.
• Develop and manage the end‑to‑end Issues Management lifecycle for the specific Personal Wealth subdivisions
• Issue Identification, Assessment, and Remediation
• Develop and manage routines with business leaders to consistently open and close unmitigated risks (issues) on time with sustainable solutions
• Develop standards and quality routines to ensure issue rating, root cause, and action plans meet quality expectations supporting effective risk management
• Reporting & Governance
• Prepare high‑quality Issue Management summaries, dashboards, performance metrics, and profiles for senior risk committees, business executives, and regulators.
• Provide meaningful insights and trends related to emerging risks and cross subdivision control weaknesses or concentration areas
• Support governance activities such as risk committee meetings, compliance reviews, and exam preparation.
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Act as a trusted advisor to business leaders, risk partners, compliance, internal audit, and other risk management teams
• Educate front‑line and control owners on issue management requirements, regulatory expectations, and best practices.
• Build strong relationships across first‑line and second‑line functions to ensure a culture of risk awareness and accountability.
  
  

Core Responsibilities

• Leads enterprise-level control initiatives across multiple business lines. Designs and implements scalable control frameworks that ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and internal policies.
• Provides strategic guidance on risk identification, measurement, and mitigation. Develops and refines control management programs that align with enterprise risk tolerance and business objectives.
• Influences divisional and enterprise-wide control strategy by identifying gaps, proposing solutions, and driving continuous improvement initiatives. Ensures alignment with industry standards and evolving regulatory expectations.
• Builds and maintains strategic partnerships with senior stakeholders across business, risk, compliance, and audit functions. Facilitates cross-functional collaboration to ensure consistency and effectiveness of control activities.
• Serves as a subject matter expert in business controls and operational risk. Provides mentorship and thought leadership to peers and junior specialists. Represents the function in enterprise forums and regulatory discussions as needed.
• Maintains deep knowledge of Vanguard’s business operations, regulatory landscape, and industry trends. Applies this knowledge to anticipate risks and proactively shape control strategies.
• Participates in special projects and performs other duties as assigned.
  
  

Qualifications

• Minimum of ten years related work experience.
• Undergraduate degree or equivalent combination of training and experience. Graduate degree preferred.
• Deep risk management expertise, control frameworks and operational risk.
• Experience in line of business risk, control assurance or internal audit, ideally in a regulated financial services environment.
• Strong relationship management and influencing skills across all levels of the organization.
• Ability to analyze data and translate it into meaningful insights and recommendations.
• Strong data literacy and ability to translate data into actionable insights and strategic recommendations.
• Experience with GRC platforms (e.g., Archer) is a plus.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through complexity and ambiguity while delivering sustainable outcomes.
  
  

Special Factors

Sponsorship

Vanguard is not offering visa sponsorship for this position.

About Vanguard

At Vanguard, we don't just have a mission—we're on a mission.

To work for the long-term financial wellbeing of our clients. To lead through product and services that transform our clients' lives. To learn and develop our skills as individuals and as a team. From Malvern to Melbourne, our mission drives us forward and inspires us to be our best.

How We Work

Vanguard has implemented a hybrid working model for the majority of our crew members, designed to capture the benefits of enhanced flexibility while enabling in-person learning, collaboration, and connection. We believe our mission-driven and highly collaborative culture is a critical enabler to support long-term client outcomes and enrich the employee experience.