Head of Stress Testing

Company Description

Wise is a global technology company, building the best way to move and manage the world’s money. Min fees. Max ease. Full speed.

Whether people and businesses are sending money to another country, spending abroad, or making and receiving international payments, Wise is on a mission to make their life easier and save them money.

As part of our team, you will be helping us create an entirely new network for the world's money. For everyone, everywhere. 

More about our mission.

Job Description

We’re looking for a Head of Stress Testing to join the 2nd Line Risk function. You will be part of the Group Risk Management organisation, reporting into the Global Head of Financial and Prudential Risks.

This role is critical in ensuring we understand and can measure all material risks, and hold capital and liquidity accordingly. 

We see stress testing as a continuous exercise which supports the identification of emerging risks and patterns, and consequently informs both the required enhancements in product features and control environment, and the management of capital and liquidity, in order to ensure that we achieve an appropriate balance between regulatory constraints, P&L optimisation and resilience in adverse scenarios. 

We are looking for someone to

• Understand our full suite of products and services, get into the details, roll up their sleeves, adjust their understanding of risk to Wise (which is an EMI and investment firm)

• Independently and effectively engage with 1LOD risk owners, and confidently challenge their understanding of tail events and effectiveness of existing controls

• Enrich our scenario library

• Design a meaningful, data-driven stress testing program, including further development of methodologies to measure diversification benefits. 

• Have tangible impact on controls, product features, pricing, and forward looking optimisation of capital & liquidity requirements

 What you'll be doing

• Developing and leading a second-line, Group-level stress testing function 

• Leading scenario workshops with 1LOD risk owners and contributing with novel ideas informed by strong product knowledge 

• Building and implementing a data-driven and methodologically robust stress testing program; this will include: developing and maintaining models that are capturing second round effects or interactions between different risk types + developing automated reports and calculations (with delivery supported by Risk Analytics)

• Owning the quantification of regulatory and internal capital and liquidity requirements, actively engaging with regulators as part of supervisory review processes 

• Developing and maintaining methodologies to measure diversification benefits and to allocate capital across products and legal entities.

• Proactively engaging with 1LOD and 2LOD risk managers (and consequently advising ALCO) especially with regards to the identification and quantification of emerging risks, and the potential impact of new products or initiatives

• Combining stress testing expertise and commercial awareness to find the best answer for the customer (not the easy answer) and to have tangible impact on (i) product pricing (ii) optimising the scalability of capital requirements (iii) setting up risk appetite metrics and limits. 

Qualifications

What you'll bring

• Demonstrable, extensive (10+ years) experience in economic capital modelling or stress testing for operational risks and financial risks (preferred, esp. FX) 

• Understanding of capital & liquidity (preferred) requirements either under CRR or MIFIDPRU 

• Proven track record of driving change, managing complex projects, and delivering actionable insights to support strategic decision-making

• Knowledge of industry best practices. Familiarity with ORX beneficial

• Progressive, forward-looking and pragmatic approach to risk management 

• Strong Interpersonal skills that enable you to effectively form trusted relationships with business unit management teams but at the same time retain an ability to challenge with empathy and understanding.

• Confident, resilient, with a presence and a determination to succeed in a dynamic business environment

• Bachelor's degree in finance/economics/econometrics or maths/physics, or related fields (more advanced degrees are preferred)

Additional Information

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For everyone, everywhere. We're people building money without borders — without judgement or prejudice, too. We believe teams are strongest when they are diverse, equitable and inclusive.

We're proud to have a truly international team, and we celebrate our differences.
Inclusive teams help us live our values and make sure every Wiser feels respected, empowered to contribute towards our mission and able to progress in their careers.

If you want to find out more about what it's like to work at Wise visit Wise.Jobs.

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