Director and Program Lead for Operational Risk Management

About Northern Trust:

Northern Trust, a Fortune 500 company, is a globally recognized, award-winning financial institution that has been in continuous operation since 1889.

Northern Trust is proud to provide innovative financial services and guidance to the world's most successful individuals, families, and institutions by remaining true to our enduring principles of service, expertise, and integrity. With more than 130 years of financial experience and over 22,000 partners, we serve the world's most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

At Northern Trust, we've earned the reputation of a reliable partner that our clients can count on to operate daily in an effective manner, no matter the circumstances. As such, resiliency is at the core of our value proposition and key to long-term value creation not just for our clients, but also for our employees, shareholders, and community.

This role is part of the second line of defense (2LOD) Global Non-Financial Risk (NFR) Organization. As a Program Lead for the Operational Risk Management transformation program, you will be working closely with the Global Head of Non-Financial Risk and Chief Information Risk Officer. In your role, you will lead the development and sustainable implementation of enterprise-wide enhancements across all non-financial risk programs in partnership with the first line of defense. You will also help define a clear, integrated vision and strategy for a 'resilient Northern Trust' across multiple dimensions, including: operational risk organizational design and governance, risk identification and assessment programs such as the Risk and Control Self-Assessment (RCSA), non-financial risk reporting, third party risk management, resiliency and control testing for 2LOD, technological resiliency, and business resiliency. Last but not least, given that we are a new team that lives Northern Trust's values of cherishing and nourishing our diverse and inclusive culture, we welcome you to help us further define and grow our community.

The ideal candidate will have a track record of delivering complex change programs, leading diverse, cross-functional teams, and building common vision between senior stakeholders across the organization.

The key responsibilities of the role may include:

• Understanding of different programs and competencies needed across non-financial risk programs to include business continuity, disaster recovery, risk control self-assessment control testing, stress testing, third-party risk management, etc.
• Develop and implement monitoring, testing, and oversight framework(s) for non-financial risk programs (including standards, templates, and other artifacts) to support target state
• Develop and deliver training for the different programs for all LOD
• Recruit and onboard resources to achieve the fully sustainable target state
• Develop data and technology enablement to support control automation across non-financial risk programs
• Perform continuous monitoring with improvement planning
• Drive the implementation of a lines of defense model for non-financial risk management
• Engages with 3LOD to ensure methodology for 2LOD aligns to risk framework expectations from the broader organization
• Lead the Operational Risk Management workstream as part of an enterprise-wide risk and control program transformation to ensure sustainable implementation across multiple projects to improve non-financial risk management across all LOD
• Provide strategic guidance to Working Teams and Program Managers in ways that assure effective and efficient delivery of the 'missions' and promote execution and change management best practices
• Proactively manage dependencies, 'reusable assets' (components of the solution that have been already built elsewhere), roadblocks, and learning points (i.e., milestones defined to resolve any uncertainty that the team might be dealing with)
• Assume responsibility for the program's people and vendors, including leading and contribution to the performance evaluation of the working teams and Program Managers
• Develop and control deadlines, budgets, and activities
• Apply change, risk, and resource management
• Assess and report on program performance at various levels and support presentations on program results in various forums and committees (e.g., Management Group, Operational Risk Committee, Global Enterprise Risk Committee, Business Risk Committee of the Board)
• Help shape best practices, standards, and toolkit as well as strengthen our capabilities around execution of complex cross-enterprise programs
• Help shape the enterprise resiliency strategy to achieve our vision of being a true 'all weather company' that has a distinctive ability to prevent internal stress, recover from external stress, and thrive in any altered circumstances

The successful candidate will benefit from having:

• Proven experience leading one or more non-financial risk programs at a financial services organization, preferably a GSIB
• Proven execution of multi-year transformation types of programs
• Strong problem-solving skills (e.g., ability to structure ambiguous problems and mobilize diverse teams to solve them; ability to lead the team to define the root cause of issues)
• Strong analytical skills (e.g., financial analysis, budgeting, strategic planning)
• Deep understanding of project management and portfolio management techniques and methods (i.e., what good looks like), change management principles, and how to build high-performing teams
• Experience in leading diverse, cross-functional teams to come up with the best solution, including coaching and building capabilities for high-quality execution
• Ability to move people to act (e.g., convening, structuring, owning the agenda, and facilitating meetings and workshops to lead groups to agreement and commitment to execute)
• Ability to establish trust-based relationships with stakeholders across enterprise, lead them towards common objectives, and managing upwards and downwards (e.g., experience with acting as a constructive conduit between business and non-business teams)
• Ability to communicate effectively verbally and in writing with all audiences, including senior leaders, in a structured manner, including on high-sensitivity topics (e.g., organizational structure, funding)
• At-scale project management experience across a portfolio of initiatives (e.g., defining objectives and success metrics, developing execution plans, identifying and managing dependencies, anticipating and resolving roadblocks, ensuring that the project teams stay on track, proactively managing dependencies and making purposeful trade-offs)
• Ability to develop hypotheses and make quick decisions in a fail-fast supportive environment that fosters and encourages a continuous improvement mindset and execution
• Management consulting experience
• Strategic planning experience
• BSc/BA diploma in management or finance; Master's degree is a big plus

As a Northern Trust partner, greater achievements await. You will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture in an organization where financial strength and stability is an asset that emboldens us to explore new ideas.

Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to assisting the communities we serve Join a workplace with a greater purpose.

We'd love to learn more about how your interests and experience could be a fit with one of the world's most admired and sustainable companies Build your career with us and apply today.

Reasonable accommodation

Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at

We hope you're excited about the role and the opportunity to work with us. We value an inclusive workplace and understand flexibility means different things to different people.

Apply today and talk to us about your flexible working requirements and together we can achieve greater.

For further information, and to apply, please visit our website via the "Apply" button below.