Division – Payments & Digital Assets
Salary - National (Edinburgh and Leeds) up to £68,000 and London up to £75,000 per annum (Salary offered will be based on skills and experience)
The FCA regulates the conduct of 45,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive.
Are you an aspiring future leader looking for an opportunity to hone your people management experience or an existing Lead Associate looking for a new challenge in a high-profile and fast paced sector?
Are you looking to work with exciting new firms at the cutting edge of Fintech and innovation, while doing work which makes a real difference to people’s lives and has a tangible impact on tackling financial crime in the UK?
If yes, we are looking for 4 Lead Associates to join our Market Intervention - Payments Department.
The Market Interventions - Payments Department is responsible for supervising over 1250 non-bank payment service providers, and for providing specialist payments support and insight across the FCA. You will be involved in a diverse range of issues including consumer harm, prudential weakness, and financial crime. We work closely with external stakeholders such as The Bank of England, the PSR, and law enforcement agencies to tackle harm in the payment’s portfolio.
We’re seeking candidates with leadership potential and proven organisational skills. Individuals need to be able to demonstrate good judgement, engagement, delivery and self-management.
What you will be doing:
* With the support of the team’s Manager, you will take on formal line management responsibilities to progress the team’s responsibilities through a group of Associates
* High profile, interesting and varied work in a fast moving and dynamic sector; exercising judgement to assess and prioritise risk, to develop and execute supervisory strategy within the payments industry
* Driving firm engagement to robustly challenge and influence senior industry individuals to meet expected regulatory standards to achieve better outcomes for customers
* Role model operational excellence to drive and maintain high standards within your team and across the department
* Assisting and supporting in delivering the FCA’s strategic outcomes as a member of the departmental leadership team
What you will get from the role:
* Empowerment to shape and deliver supervisory strategy across a range of business models and regulatory issues
* Insight into wider departmental strategy setting and business planning processes
* Exposure to senior individuals in the FCA and the payments industry
* Experience exercising judgement in a high-profile, dynamic and fast paced sector
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.
Minimum requirements:
* Prior analytical experience, which has involved reaching sound judgements quickly and clearly from a broad and varied range of information
* Prior experience balancing and managing conflicting priorities, with factors often outside of your control
Essential
* Ability to coach, guide and motivate others and serve as a role model to positively promote and influence good behaviours within the team and wider division
* Strong ability to help plan, prioritise and allocate work within teams
* Ability to risk assess complex problems, think strategically, and identify potential harms
* Ability to oversee and effectively delegate complex and large pieces of work with minimal oversight from others
* Strong interpersonal and communication skills to build and maintain relationships with senior management and stakeholders internally and externally
* Ability to present yourself and the FCA in a professional and credible manner, with strong verbal and written presentational skills
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 ExCo are women (4 of 8).
The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisation. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, minority ethnic, disabled, and neurodivergent candidates for these Lead Associate roles.
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.
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
* The roles are graded as Lead Associate – Regulatory
* We are recruiting for 4 full-time positions
* Advert Closing Date: Monday 27th January (midnight)
* Case Study: To be completed at the start of February
* Competency Based Interviews: w/c 10th and 17th February
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 or you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact:
For internal candidates: please contact Jen Wishart at jennifer.wishart@fca.org.uk
For external candidates: please contact Chhavi Bartaria at Chhavi.bartaria@fca.org.uk
Applications must be submitted through our online portal. Applications sent via email will not be accepted.