Head of Department, Technology, Resilience & Cyber

About The FCA 

At the FCA, we’re creating a fair and more resilient financial system. We’re establishing more transparent relationships between financial services and customers, building trust in financial markets and protecting vulnerable consumers. 

 

We’re currently on an exciting journey as we drive forward significant organisational, people, process, and technology transformation to become a more forward-thinking, proactive regulator. We will use data more effectively to drive better regulatory decisions and build greater cohesion across our broad financial services remit.  

 

Significant improvements in digital enablement, business intelligence, market data and information management maturity are all being pursued to maintain our position as a world leader in financial services regulation. 

In March 2025, The FCA Launched a New 5-year Strategy To Deepen Trust, Rebalance Risk, Support Growth And Improve Lives. The FCA Will Focus On Four Priorities

• Be a smarter regulator; predictable, purposeful and proportionate. The FCA will improve its processes and embrace technology to become more efficient and effective.
• Support sustained economic growth, by enabling investment, innovation and ensuring the continued competitiveness of the UK’s world-leading financial services.
• Help consumers navigate their financial lives by working with industry to boost trust, product innovation and ensuring the right information and support is available for people to take financial decisions.
• Fight financial crime, focusing on those who seek to use the fact they are regulated to do harm. It will go further to disrupt criminals and support firms to be an effective line of defence.
  
  

 

The Role  

An exciting opportunity has arisen to take on the role of Head of Technology, Resilience and Cyber (TRC) department.

TRC plays a central role in protecting consumers and markets from the impact of operational disruption and cyber-attacks. The department comprises five specialist teams focused on incident response, supervisory strategy, and engagement with domestic and international stakeholders. The department is at the forefront of shaping regulatory approaches to technology risk, cyber security, third party oversight, and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing. It also leads the FCA’s oversight of Critical Third Parties (CTPs) under FSMA 2023, working jointly with the PRA and Bank of England to ensure the operational resilience of key service providers to the UK financial industry.

What will the candidate get from the role?

• Joining the Senior Leadership Team at the FCA during an exciting and challenging time of great change in financial services and its regulation 
• Leading a department of talented and committed people through significant projects whilst also delivering on business-as-usual objectives 
• Exposure to strategic issues and key players in the world of finance, both nationally and internationally 
• This is an opportunity to make a significant difference. Your work will play a key part in the financial authorities’ ability to minimise the impact of operational disruptions to the financial services industry and the UK more widely.
• At a time of rapid technological change and increasing cyber threats, you will have the opportunity to lead and shape the FCA’s, firms’ and the international regulatory community’s agenda on operational resilience, third party risk management, cyber security, and the regulation of artificial intelligence.
• Joining the Senior Leadership Team at the FCA during an exciting and challenging time of great change in financial services and its regulation.
• Leading a department of talented and committed people through significant projects whilst also delivering on business-as-usual objectives.
• Exposure to strategic issues and key players in the world of finance, both nationally and internationally. 
  
  

 

Key responsibilities: 

• Leading a large, blended department of FCA supervisors, operational and cyber resilience specialists, incident responders, policy experts and data analysts, in delivering the FCA’s work helping the UK financial services industry be resilient to operational disruptions.
• Leading the FCA’s crisis response to major incidents, often chairing crisis coordination meetings with HMT, PRA, NCSC and others, as part of the UK’s Sector Response Framework.
• Leading the development and adaptation of the FCA’s rules and standards for firms in their operational and cyber resilience, so they keep pace with emerging threats and technologies.

Developing and delivering a long-term strategy for the department, aligning broader divisional and organisational strategies.

Leading on performance, capability and culture within the department, with a strong focus on operational excellence.

Delivering through others by relying on coaching, influencing and negotiating skills with a range of internal and external stakeholders. 

Building a strong and inclusive directorate that attracts and develops diverse talent. 

 

Skills/Experience Required  

We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, and therefore, people or individuals with disabilities and long-term conditions who best meet the minimum criteria for a role will go through to the next stage of the recruitment process. In cases of high application volumes we may progress applicants whose experience most closely matches the role’s key requirements. (To learn more about the Disability Confident Scheme Click Here)

Minimum  

• Significant experience of managing and influencing key stakeholders, including senior decision makers internally and externally.
• In-depth experience in technology regulation, operational resilience, or evidence demonstrating a keen desire to learn more and support others’ learning in the fields of cyber, technology risk, artificial intelligence and emerging challenges such as quantum computing.
• Significant experience in leading teams to deliver high quality complex work.
• Experience developing and communicating new policies and standards to firms.
  
  

 

Essential  

• Strong communication skills, both written and oral (ability to convey complex issues in a coherent, logical and compelling way, including communicating technical issues to non-technical audiences).
• Exceptionally strong judgement, supported by highly developed analytical skills and high levels of diligence; can demonstrate making challenging, risk-based decisions in a complex and changing landscape.

Experience in dealing with contentious issues in firms, taking decisive action and delivering difficult messages.

An ability to get up to speed on new issues quickly and innovative thinking for how to deal with new complex problems most effectively.

Experience of role modelling strong leadership behaviours in line with organisational values.

The ability to inclusively lead a group of talented individuals with a wide variety of professional expertise, experience, and backgrounds.

An open and flexible management style and the ability to communicate effectively to a wide-ranging audience with different skills and perspectives.

The job holder will be required to obtain Developed Vetting (DV) security clearance.

 

Desirable 

• Significant experience working with financial services, or with large third-party providers (e.g. cloud service providers) to another Critical National Infrastructure sector
  
  

 

The FCA’s Values & Diversity  

Our ambition is to create a diverse and inclusive workplace that reflects the society we serve, helping us to be a better regulator. We serve the public and our decisions directly affect the wellbeing of people, businesses and the UK economy.  So, our values matter. They represent the culture we aspire to every day, guiding our judgements, building trust and helping us to be ‘At our best’.

The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of our organisation. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled, and minority ethnic candidates, as under-represented groups.

As an inclusive employer, we are open to considering flexible working arrangements, including job shares. Please inform your recruiter if you wish to apply for this role on a flexible basis.

As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds or London offices. This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.

Application Support

We want to remove any possible barriers and are committed to providing a wide range of reasonable adjustments so that you can keep the focus on your conversations and be at your best.

If you have an accessibility requirement, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter to discuss this further. Our aim is to make you application as easy as possible, and your recruiter will be happy to work with you to make any necessary arrangements where possible.

Benefits

Our competitive benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifecycle. You can this this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work, or you have the option to top up your base salary by taking this as cash.

Core Benefits That You Will Receive As Standard Are

• 30 days holiday per year plus bank holidays
• 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
  
  

Conflicts of interest 

All applicants to the FCA are required to demonstrate that they do not have other interests likely to conflict with their responsibilities as an employee of the FCA. You should declare any potential conflict of interest as early as possible in the selection process, and also disclose information or personal connections that, if appointed, might be open to misperception.  

Any potential conflicts of interest will not prevent candidates going forward to interview but may, if appropriate, be explored during the interview to establish how the candidate would address the issue(s) should they be successful in their application.  

Useful information

• The closing date for this role is 23:55 on 26th April.
• Selection will be via a two-stage interview and psychometric assessment  
• If successful, you will be required to obtain and retain DV Clearance.  
• We currently operate a hybrid working model, working a minimum of 40% in the office each month (50% for senior leaders). This way of working applies in our Stratford, Leeds and Edinburgh offices. From September 2026, FCA employees will be required to spend a minimum of 50% of their working time in the office. Our Executive Director and Directors will be expected to be in a minimum of 60% per month.
• The salary range for the role is between £140,000 and £175,000 in London, and £126,000 and £157,500 nationally.
• To apply please submit your CV and cover letter.
  
  

For further information about the role, please contact luci.bines@fca.org.uk