Director, Business Unit Risk – Operational Services

Your opportunity

At Schwab, you are empowered to make an impact on your career. Here, innovative thought meets creative problem solving, helping us “challenge the status quo” and transform the finance industry together.

Operations Control assists Operational Services in managing risk through a well-balanced control environment. Our mission is to protect the client and firm by partnering with businesses and technology to create a strong control environment. We offer a variety of enterprise-wide control services that balance efficiency, cost, and risk while ensuring regulatory and corporate policy requirements are met. 

This Director will play a role supporting the Operations Control Coordination Team within Operational Services. This organization, with the leadership of the position, is responsible for the following within Operational Services:

• Partner with members of Internal Audit and leaders that support various functions within Operational Services. Responsibilities will include:

• Representing Operations Control, as the 1^st line Business Unit Risk Function for Operational Services, in interactions with Internal Audit leading up to and during testing.
• Understanding the scope of each audit and ensuring the functions under review in Operational Services have a good understanding of risks and processes will be under review prior to testing.
• Working across Internal Audit and Operational Services to understand outcome of testing and ensure outcomes are well represented and documented within reporting and various risk governance materials (when necessary).
• Ensure outcomes of testing are met with action plans that will effectively address issues and result in processes that are efficient, leveraging automation where necessary to remediate the risk.  
• Communicating any changes in Internal Audit testing and annual testing plans to Operational Services leadership team.

• Partner with members of Compliance to maintain an understanding of key rules, regulations, and internal policies that apply to multiple functional areas under Operational Services. The Director will be responsible for assessing the existing control environment to maintain compliance with all applicable rules, regulations, and internal policies.
• Engage with leaders within Operations Control and other business partners to identify and anticipate changes to the existing risk and control environment, evaluating the emergence of new or changing regulations and risks and the need to adjust the control environment.
• Advise of upcoming risk-related and corporate policy and standard changes that will require engagement from the business and communicate execution plans to drive adherence (e.g. new regulation, policy change, updated control requirements, etc.). Ensure adherence with our Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework.
• Apply mix of risk-based criteria and critical thinking to review both new and existing regulatory and/or internal initiatives and assess applicability to Operational Services processes and required level of engagement.
• Create supporting resources and education to support Ops Control change management and execution teams and contribute to an evolving library of change management artifacts for greater consistency in our delivery model.
• Represent Operational Services in discussions with Internal Audit, Compliance, and potentially other Lines of Defense to understand expectations of our regulators and take appropriate action with the business functions the role supports.
• Develop deliverables and content used in the Operations Risk Committee meetings, regulatory meetings, and various risk committees. This person may be responsible for speaking to content developed to demonstrate quality of our control environment and understanding of risk.
• Build strong partnerships with members of Operations Control, Operational Services, Compliance, Internal Audit, Bank and Trust Services, and our Lines of Defense to support Enterprise objectives.
• Participate in industry risk forums and training activities to stay current with risk and control management best practices.
• This individual may eventually lead employees in a multi-site location. Functional teams and team members that may report into the Director are responsible for supporting Operational Services and the firm in the activities listed above. This includes specialized functions that are responsible for driving adherence to rules, regulations, and corporate risk management policies and standards.
• Incorporate the use of data analysis to identify trends, patterns, and areas of emerging risks to Operational Services. This includes but is not limited to:

• Partner closely with Operations Control Change Management Team Director and Operations Control Risk Team Director.
• Work with our Operational Risk Liaisons in the second line of defense on issue resolution, control designs, and participating in scenario and predictive analysis.
• Participating and in some cases leading risk governance committees.

What you have

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree.
• Five or more years of audit experience, preferably with a Big 4 firm.
• Experience establishing audit plans, testing controls, identification of issues, writing audit reports, and working with management to construct remediation plans.
• Possess a good understanding of applicable Broker Dealer and Banking rules and regulations; familiarity working with Compliance functions.
• Strong history of control creation, issue management, and interaction with lines of defense.
• Proficiency in risk and control data analysis, in particular the ability to incorporate and understand mass information from a variety of sources to recommend a course of action.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Professional certifications such as CPA, CIA, CISA, FRM.
• Series 7 license.
• Strong leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills when interacting with our line of defense teams in implementing firm-wide risk management initiatives into Operational Services to drive compliance with rules, regulations, and corporate risk management policies and standards.
• Strong organization, negotiation, strategic, and relationship management skills.
• Excellent oral, written, presentation, and communication skills.