Associate Vice President - Risk and Controls

Job Title: Associate Vice President - Risk and Controls

About us

The role

• Lead the continuous controls monitoring team which acts as the first line of defense in GBO and reports to VP - Risk, Controls and compliance.

• Strategic Oversight: Develop and complete a comprehensive strategy for testing of process controls, aligned with organizational goals and regulatory requirements

• Leadership: Lead and mentor a team of professionals to manage the processes' review, controls testing and risk management. Develop a culture of continuous improvement and high performance

• Transformational Leadership: Drive the transformation of internal controls testing and review through innovative approaches and technology integration

• Control Environment: Supervise the design, implementation, and monitoring of internal and information technology (IT) controls to ensure they are effective, efficient, and aligned with regulatory standards

• Control Enhancements: Identify and implement enhancements to internal and IT control systems to strengthen the control environment and support organizational goals.

• Process Optimization: Evaluate and optimize control processes to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in leading operational risks.

• Reporting and Communication: Present regular reports to senior management on review and testing findings, control effectiveness and risk management activities. Communicate sophisticated information clearly and optimally.

• Partner Engagement: Collaborate with key partners, including CARE, finance, operations, IT, and external auditors, to address testing and risk-related issues and foster effective relationships.

• Develop Assurance Plans: Design and implement assurance plans to test and validate the effectiveness of process controls and procedures.

• Technology Implementation: Leverage sophisticated technologies and data analytics to enhance control processes and risk management practices.

• Change Management: Lead change initiatives to modernize and streamline controls processes, ensuring alignment with industry standard methodologies.

• Performance Metrics: Develop and supervise performance metrics to assess the effectiveness of control and audit processes and drive continuous improvement.

• Risk Innovation: Explore and implement innovative risk management strategies to address emerging risks and challenges

• Supervise Compliance: Ensure adherence to internal policies, regulatory requirements, and industry standards by supervising and reviewing process controls and compliance activities. Contribute to the development and continuous improvement of internal control frameworks, policies, and procedures.

• Analytics: Lead and mentor the team by suggesting insights for analytics in process, testing, etc.

• Strategic Partnerships: Build and manage relationships with the following:

  • Governance teams and service delivery teams to assess the level of risk and effectiveness of the underlying controls in all GBO Experience areas.

  • External auditor and CARE teams to supervise progress and support smooth execution of the annual CARM cycle for manual controls.

  • Liaise with functions & markets to obtain standard methodologies, as vital.

• Project Management:

  • Improve the control environment through various initiatives taken and drive accountability.

  • Support GBO projects and undertakings to identify control implications and challenge the outcome in light to improve the process and control environment.

Functional Responsibilities:

• Handling Risks: Actively search for risks using internal and external data sources, supervise predictive indicators within and outside of own function. Supervise and ensure mitigation plans are deployed. Use judgement and intervene to ensure course correction. Spot interdependencies and concentration of risks.

• Internal and IT Controls: Recognize opportunities to design and implement control processes into new systems or work processes. Provide mentorship and interpret key control documents and deliver independent and candid advice. Take the lead in forming provincial control environments, ensuring that robust processes are in place to bring together, report on & resolve weaknesses.

• Systems, automation, processes: Has a strong understanding of systems and processes in which the controls are operated in. Able to spot high risk areas, manual controls, process and system gaps potentially resulting in controls deficiencies. Ability to work with data led audit technologies, data lakes. Ability to spot process engineering opportunities to drive simplified, user friendly solutions in the control framework.

• Analytical thinking: Analyze available information and trends and act accordingly. Ability to analyze measures, identify issues and detect interdependencies with other sub-functional areas. Make suggestions on actions to improve performance.

This role is required to collaborate closely with partners at various seniority levels across GBO’s organization, and key assurance functions (CARE team, External Auditor, Business Integrity etc.).  

About YOU - What you’ll bring

• Chartered Accountant with minimum of 10+ years of experience

• Audit and controls exposure in consulting/Big4s or similar confirmed experience is preferable

• Risk-mindset and process knowledge

• Analytical knowledge (proficiency of analytics tools such as Power BI, Alteryx, SAP GRC etc. is preferable)

• Team management experience

• Strong written and verbal communication skills

• Strong problem solving, reporting and analytical skills

• Ability to analyze/ identify risks and opportunities and recommend appropriate actions

• Influencing and consulting skills, the ability to establish relationships partners at all levels

• Ability to think critically and analytically and use data driven insights to solve problems

• Knowledge of Operational and Compliance Risk frameworks

• Business commercial competence & knowledge

• Process Audits and Controls design experience

Celebrating our inclusive and diverse culture is core to Diageo’s purpose of “celebrating life every day everywhere”. This purpose is, in itself, inclusive in nature, as it values everybody irrespective of background, disability, religion, gender identity, sexuality or ethnicity.

We know that for our business to thrive and for Diageo to realize its ambition, we depend on having diverse talent with a range of backgrounds, skills and capabilities in each of the 180 countries in which we operate and to reflect our broad consumer base. We view diversity as one of the key enablers that helps our business to grow and our values, purpose and standards set the conditions for us to respect the unique contribution each person brings.

Flexibility is key to success in our business and many of our staff work flexibly in many different ways, including part-time, compressed hours, flexible location. Please talk to us about what flexibility means to you and don’t let anything stop you from applying.

Character Is Everything