Controls Governance Lead

London, England, United Kingdom

7/11/2025

Overall Summary

At Close Brothers we look to recruit individuals from all different backgrounds and encourage you to apply even if you don’t tick every box. We celebrate diversity, promote inclusivity and are open to discuss flexible work options to help you balance your work and home life.

Join Close Brothers Central Risk Team where you will reporting to the Controls Design & Oversight Director, this role will help establish and manage a Controls Centre of Excellence to strengthen the bank's controls culture. The role involves developing and maintaining core controls governance activities, including the control library, standards, and attestation framework, to ensure consistency, clarity, and accountability in control design and management.

Our ideal team member will have proven experience in risk management, internal controls, or compliance functions. We are looking for someone who possesses great interpersonal skills and is able to communicate at all levels.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain the Bank’s control standards, ensuring they are current, practical, and meet regulatory expectations and industry best practices.
• Own and update the Control Library framework, ensuring consistent articulation of controls across all business areas and embedding it as a key reference tool for the organisation.
• Coordinate and lead the annual controls attestation process, working closely with divisional teams to support completion, address control gaps, and report on outcomes.
• Embed control design principles into change initiatives by engaging with programme and project teams, ensuring new and updated controls meet required standards from the outset.
• Provide tools, templates, and guidance to support high-quality control design and documentation across the first and second lines of defence.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to ensure alignment between the control taxonomy, risk frameworks, and assurance activities.
• Review and challenge control descriptions and designs as part of regular activities and changes, helping to improve clarity, completeness, and testability of controls.
• Support the implementation of a consistent control lifecycle approach across the bank, from initial design through to ongoing monitoring and review.
• Plan, coordinate, and deliver governance meetings related to controls oversight, ensuring timely distribution of high-quality materials, accurate tracking of actions and decisions, and effective escalation of issues.
• Create and maintain regular governance reports, including key metrics, trends, and exceptions related to control performance and adherence to standards.
• Ensure internal controls governance aligns with broader risk and compliance frameworks, supporting a unified approach across all lines of defence
• Work with the Talent Acquisition Business Partner to promote a fair and inclusive recruitment process and employ high calibre and diverse employees, including overseeing new employee onboarding.
• Ensure effective management of HR employee relation matters with the help of the HR Business Partners.
• Enhance control-related practices across the organisation by identifying and implementing improvements to tools, methods, and standards.
• Promote the automation and digitisation of controls governance where possible, working with risk systems and technology teams to integrate efficient solutions.
• Actively provide oversight and direction to employees in accordance with Close Brothers policies, procedures, standards and SLAs
• Ensure that team members complete online training when required and are kept abreast of any internal communications.
  
  
  
  

WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU IF HAVE/ARE:

• Strong attention to detail and accuracy in documentation and reporting
• An ability to quickly learn and adapt in a fast-moving, changing environment
• Effective stakeholder management and communication skills
• Practical experience coordinating governance or attestation processes, including SOX control testing
• Comfortable using GRC systems such as MetricStream or equivalent tools
• Problem-solving mindset with the ability to take initiative and work independently
• A collaborative team player, able to support leadership and work cross-functionally
  
  
  
  

IT IS NOT ESSENTIAL BUT IT WOULD BE GREAT IF YOU HAVE:

• Relevant professional training or certifications in risk, compliance, or internal controls
• Experience or formal training in SOX compliance or internal control frameworks
  
  
  
  

We are an inclusive organisation and committed to ensuring our recruitment process is as accessible as possible to everyone. We will make adjustments for people who have a disability or long-term condition. If you need the job description or application form in an alternative format or would like to discuss the recruitment process with us, please email us at [email protected] or request a call back.

About Us

At Close Brothers we support employees to balance their work life priorities and in this role you will be able to enjoy a mixture of hybrid working.

Close Brothers is a leading UK merchant banking group providing lending, deposit taking and securities trading. We employ approximately 3,000 people, principally in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Close Brothers Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250.

To find out more about Close Brothers, please visit our careers page: https://www.closebrothers.com/careers

To find out more about life at Close Brothers:

https://www.closebrothers.com/life-close-brothers#374017299-899295541

To find out more about our benefits:

https://www.closebrothers.com/employee-benefits

To find out more about our commitment to creating an inclusive environment:

Our Responsibility - Diversity and inclusion ¦ Close Brothers Group