Zopa26d ago

Third Party Risk Lead

London · (london)Employee - Permanentlead

Legal & ComplianceCybersecurityThird-Party Risk Analyst

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Quick Summary

Overview

Our Story Hello there. We’re Zopa. We started our journey back in 2005, building the first ever peer-to-peer lending company. Fast forward to 2020 and we launched Zopa Bank.

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Legal & ComplianceCybersecurityThird-Party Risk Analyst

Our Story

Hello there. We’re Zopa.

We started our journey back in 2005, building the first ever peer-to-peer lending company. Fast forward to 2020 and we launched Zopa Bank. A bank that listens to what our customers don’t like about finance and does the opposite. We’re redefining what it feels like to work in finance. Our vision for a new era of banking puts people front and centre — we’ve built a business that empowers everyone to aim high, every day, to move finance forward. Find out more about our fantastic offerings at Zopa.com!

We’re incredibly proud of our achievements and none of it would be possible without the amazing team here. It’s not just industry awards we’re winning, we’ve also been named in the top three UK’s Most Loved Workplaces.

If you embrace unconventional challenges, are unafraid to think differently and are driven to make an outsized impact, you’ll thrive here at Zopa, so join us, and make it count. Want to see us in action? Follow us on Instagram @zopalife

This role sits within Zopa’s 1st Line of Defence (1LoD) Risk Function, supporting the business to embed effective and efficient risk management into day-to-day decision making

You will lead the Distributor Risk Team, owning the end-to-end onboarding and ongoing oversight risk frameworks for Auto, Payments and Retail Finance distribution partners.

You’ll build and run proportionate frameworks that protect Zopa’s risk appetite and control environment, while materially improving onboarding speed and partner lifecycle monitoring. You’ll be expected to operate as a domain expert who can set direction, shape clear frameworks, and communicate complex risk analysis effectively to senior stakeholders

Own and operate onboarding risk frameworks

Design, iterate and operate a fast, risk-based onboarding model for Auto, Payments and Retail Finance partners within clear, proportionate end-to-end risk frameworks.

Define and maintain risk appetite guardrails, decision-making authorities, and minimum control standards for partner onboarding and changes to partner operating models, aligned to Zopa’s broader risk management model and appetite monitoring approach

Ensure distributor/partner risks (including failures in onboarding or ongoing management) are clearly captured and managed as part of the bank’s operational risk taxonomy for distribution methods/intermediaries

Embed data-driven risk management

Translate risk appetite into measurable metrics and high-quality MI for senior governance, using a robust set of KRIs/KCIs/KPIs and clear thresholds/trigger points

Build and calibrate monitoring that provides early warning indicators and actively manages risk exposure across the full partner lifecycle

Provide clear, structured risk analysis and recommendations to support decisions that balance risk and reward within appetite

Drive automation & tooling

Partner with Product and Engineering to digitise onboarding and monitoring workflows, converting policy requirements into scalable, system-executable controls (e.g., automated checks, evidence capture, attestations, monitoring triggers).

Help ensure control performance is measurable and evidenced appropriately, aligned with expectations for control ownership, operation, and keeping risk/control data up to date

Continuous control improvement

Proactively identify weaknesses and friction points across onboarding and monitoring; implement enhancements that improve speed, clarity, and resilience.

Use lessons learned (issues, incidents, near misses) to strengthen frameworks and controls, consistent with the “response and learning” cycle in Zopa’s risk model

Act as a commercial risk partner

Provide structured challenge and clear trade-off analysis to enable growth within appetite.

Build strong cross-functional partnerships across 1LoD/2LoD and business teams, influencing outcomes through clear communication of complex topics to senior stakeholders

Deep experience designing and operating risk-based onboarding and oversight frameworks for third parties, intermediaries, merchants, brokers, distributors, payment partners, or similar.

Strong capability in risk MI: defining KRIs/KCIs/KPIs, thresholds, and early warning indicators; turning risk appetite into practical measurement and governance-ready reporting