Associate Director - CIB Sustainability Risk, Capability Office

Job description

**Job title:** **Associate Director - CIB Sustainability Risk, Capability Office** Support the Sustainability Business Risk agenda across CIB, UK CMB, HK CMB and HASE by driving effective oversight of operation of the control framework, ensuring high-quality risk and control assessments, and delivering clear, decision-useful MI. Lead the identification of opportunities to simplify and automate controls. The role supports the business identify and manage sustainability-related risks in line with risk appetite, policy requirements, and control standards—supporting safe growth and good customer outcomes. **Why join us?** CIB Business Risk is responsible for the oversight and mitigation of Financial and Non-Financial Risks in the First Line of Defense for Global Banking (GB) and Commercial Banking (CMB). Working with Business areas, the team is responsible for providing specialist risk support on key verticals in - First Line Controls/office, - Financial Crime, - Fraud, - Resilience, - Regulatory, Governance and Framework including risk identification and assessment of Business Risks as part of the activities and process within the lines of business. **Governance and Committee Memberships** - Owns: Sustainability Risk Oversight Forum (SROF) cadence, MI definitions and reporting pack structure, RCA/RCSA facilitation approach, evidence standards for 1LoD reporting, Sustainability Execution Risk (SER) policy review and SER procedure. - Recommends/escalates: Risk acceptance, material control changes, appetite breaches, significant incidents, and policy exceptions via agreed governance. **In This Role, You Will** **Principal Accountabilities and Responsibilities (e.g., for Business, Customers and Stakeholders; internal control environment, etc.)** **Governance** - Own and run the Sustainability Business Risk operational governance ‘Sustainability Risk Oversight Forum’ (SROF), including agenda planning, actions tracking, and timely escalation of material risks and control concerns to the ‘Sustainability Risk Oversight Meeting’. - Prepare high-quality papers for relevant forums (e.g., business risk committees / sustainability governance), clearly setting out issues, options, impacts, and recommended decisions. - Maintain an effective Risk Taxonomy Control Library (RTCL) control inventory and documentation set (process maps, control descriptions, evidence standards) for sustainability business risk coverage. - Support HIF&S product governance processes **Control Oversight** - Lead Sustainability Execution Risk (SER) policy related Risk Control Assessment (RCA) activity: facilitate risk identification, assess inherent/residual risk, confirm control design/operation, and ensure robust evidence. - Own and coordinate engagement with SER Risk Steward and Business Control Owners - Continuous Monitoring Process (CMP), driving proactive BAU and Post Implementation reviews to confirm control effectiveness - Challenge risk and control assessments to ensure consistency and alignment to policy and risk appetite. - Identify control gaps and drive remediation plans, ensuring clear ownership, milestones, and measurable outcomes. - Support change activity (new products, client propositions, disclosures/claims, process changes) by ensuring sustainability risks and controls are assessed early and captured in RCAs. **Management Information (MI)** - Manage the Sustainability Business Risk Dashboard suite, including KRIs/KPIs, trend analysis, and forward-looking insights. - Enhance MI through automation (data feeds, dashboards, and reconciliations) to deliver timely, accurate, and repeatable reporting with transparent definitions and lineage. - Work closely with SMEs, technology and data teams to ensure MI is accurate, timely, and reconciled to source data; implement data quality checks and clear definitions. - Provide narrative that links MI to decisions: what’s changed, why it matters, what action is required, and by when. **Simplification & automation of the control environment** - Work with SMEs to identify opportunities to simplify the sustainability control environment by removing duplication, consolidating overlapping controls, and clarifying control ownership, frequency, and evidence standards. - Standardise control design and documentation (common control language, templates, and minimum evidence requirements) to improve consistency and reduce operational friction. - Automate control execution and monitoring where feasible (e.g., workflow tooling, automated attestations, rule-based checks, exception reporting), reducing manual touchpoints and improving reliability. - Identify opportunities to further digitise evidence capture and retention (e.g clear “straight-to-source” evidence principles), improving auditability and reducing time spent on chasing artefacts. - Monitor embedding of controls into business-as-usual processes. - Measure benefits from simplification and automation (time saved, reduced errors, improved control effectiveness, fewer repeat issues) and track delivery. - Partner with Technology/Change, Operations, and relevant control functions to prioritise initiatives, manage dependencies, and ensure solutions meet policy, risk, and data requirements. **Stakeholders** - Internal: Sustainable Finance & Transition, Operations, Transformation, Technology/Data, Sustainability Execution Risk Stewards, Regulatory Compliance, Internal Audit. - Forums: CIB business risk committees, sustainability governance, relevant control/risk/transformation working groups. **Stakeholder management** - Partner closely with CIB Coverage/Product, Operations, Transformation, Data, Technology, Compliance and Risk, and Internal Audit to align expectations and deliver outcomes. - Act as a constructive challenger—pragmatic, evidence-led, and focused on improving the control environment without slowing the business unnecessarily. **Decision-making authority** - Owns: SROF cadence, MI definitions and r