Finance Controls Lead

Job Description

At Aberdeen, our ambition is to be the UK’s leading Wealth & Investments group.

Strengthening talent and culture is one of our strategic priorities. We strive to make Aberdeen a great place to work so that we can attract and retain the industry’s best talent.

Our people put our stakeholders at the heart of everything they do by helping us to make a positive difference to the lives of our clients, customers, colleagues, shareholders, and society.

We are focused on growing our direct and advised wealth platforms and repositioning our specialist asset management business to meet client demand. We are committed to providing excellent client service, supported by leading technology and talent.

Aberdeen comprises three businesses, interactive investor (ii), Investments, and Adviser, each of which focuses on meeting and adapting to our clients’ evolving needs:

• interactive investor, the UK’s second largest direct-to-consumer investment platform, enables individuals in the UK to plan, save, and invest in the way that works for them.
• Our Adviser business provides financial planning solutions and technology for UK financial advisers, enabling them to create value for their customers.
• Our Investments business is a specialist asset manager that focuses on areas where we have both strength and scale to capitalise on the key themes shaping the market, through either public markets or alternative asset classes.

About the Department

The Finance Controls Office supports the Finance function in maintaining a strong control environment and meeting key governance and regulatory requirements, including the revised UK Corporate Governance Code. The team plays an important role in strengthening internal controls and supporting clear, effective assurance and reporting.

About the Role

The Finance Control Lead role offers the opportunity to contribute to a high-profile agenda with tangible impact across the organisation, and forms part of a team supporting the business to achieve the following goals:

• Deliver high-quality, action-focused Finance governance and management information reporting
• Improve Finance’s overall alignment with the firm’s ERMF
• Enhance the quality of Balance Sheet Substantiation processes through robust quality assurance
• Remediation support for control design and operating weaknesses, risk issues and events.
• Education and upskilling for Finance on risk management and controls

This is an excellent opportunity for a high-calibre candidate to join a visible and evolving team at the centre of Finance governance and control enhancement. The role provides meaningful exposure to senior stakeholders, the chance to influence how controls are designed and embedded, and the opportunity to build expertise in an area of growing strategic importance.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinating mandatory and ad hoc Finance risk and control reporting to other fora across the Group (e.g. Executive Risk Forum, Finance Risk and Control Forum, and other regular reporting that may be required in future)
• Supporting and coordinating the delivery of other Internal Compliance and Regulatory returns required by Finance
• Supporting the maintenance of risk and control databases for the Finance Function and providing check and challenge over quality of inputs.
• Overseeing the management and closure of risk issues and associated actions to ensure that process and control enhancements are robust.
• Liaising with the external auditor as required on behalf of the Finance Controls Office, including coordination, ongoing monitoring, and support for validating the closure of Management Letter Points by relevant owners.
• Acting as a collaborative partner within the Finance Controls Office and the wider Finance function, helping to deliver priority initiatives, support continuous improvement in the control environment, and contribute to a culture of strong governance and accountability.

About the Candidate

The essential candidate criteria for this role are as follows:

• Risk and control frameworks – experience working with or assessing systems of internal control, managing risk event data, and challenging stakeholders on risk management practices.
• Relationship building & collaboration – builds trusted relationships and works proactively with others to drive outcomes, influencing and enabling effective cross‑team working
• Communication - ability to communicate effectively with the team, and with stakeholders at various levels
• Impact and influence – operates with intellectual curiosity to identify and surface insights that help strengthen the design and operation of the internal control framework
• Attention to detail – works with precision to deliver requirements, with a focus on quality
• Qualifications - Qualified accountant or auditor preferred; candidates with relevant operational risk or controls experience will also be considered

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer. If you have a disability and would like to apply to one of our UK roles under the Disability Confident Scheme, please notify us by completing the relevant section in our candidate questionnaire. One of our team will reach out to support you through your application process.

Our benefits

There's more to working life than coming home with a good salary. We have an environment where you can learn, get involved and be supported.

When you join us, your reward will be one of the best around. This includes 40 days’ annual leave, a 16% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance-based bonus (where applicable), private healthcare and a range of flexible benefits – including gym discounts, season ticket loans and access to an employee discount portal. You can read more about our benefits here.

Our business

Enabling our clients to be better investors drives everything we do. Our business is structured around three distinct areas – our vectors of growth – focused on our clients’ changing needs. You can find out more about what we do here.

An inclusive way of working

Whatever way you like to work, if you have the talent and commitment to join our team, we’d like to hear from you.

At Aberdeen we’ve adopted a ‘blended working’ approach. This approach combines the benefits of face-to-face collaboration, coaching and connecting in our offices with the flexibility of working from home. It enables colleagues to find a balance that works for their roles, their teams, our clients and our business.

An inclusive culture, where diverse perspectives drive our actions, is at the core of who we are and what we do. If you need assistance with your application, or a reasonable adjustment to your interview arrangements – for example, because you are neurodivergent, or have a physical, sensory, cognitive, mental, visible or invisible disability – please let us know and we’ll be happy to help.