Senior Finance Risk & Controls Manager

Our Story Hello there. We’re Zopa. We started our journey back in 2005, building the first ever peer-to-peer lending company. Fast forward to 2020 and we launched Zopa Bank. A bank that listens to what our customers don’t like about finance and does the opposite. We’re redefining what it feels like to work in finance. Our vision for a new era of banking puts people front and centre — we’ve built a business that empowers everyone to aim high, every day, to move finance forward. Find out more about our fantastic offerings at ! We’re incredibly proud of our achievements and none of it would be possible without the amazing team here. It’s not just industry awards we’re winning, we’ve also been named in the top three UK’s Most Loved Workplaces. If you embrace unconventional challenges, are unafraid to think differently and are driven to make an outsized impact, you’ll thrive here at Zopa, so join us, and make it count. Want to see us in action? Follow us on Instagram @zopalife

Zopa Bank is one of the fastest growing neobanks in the UK. We're looking for a Senior Manager Finance Risk and Controls to join our first line Finance and Legal team to manage and develop risk and controls in a high-growth, fast paced digital bank preparing for the next stage of scale.

This is a rare opportunity that provides high visibility with senior leadership across Risk and Finance, ability to lead changes and influence Finance-wide processes, opportunity to build scalable controls and shape a strong risk and controls environment.

The Senior Finance Risk and Controls Manager will report to the Finance Director and work with leaders of each Finance function to maintain and manage robust control frameworks over all aspects of internal and external reporting. The role will cover the whole of CFO function (Financial Control, Management Reporting, Financial Reporting, Regulatory Reporting, Financial Planning and Budgeting, Tax Reporting, Treasury and Legal).

A day in the life:

• Maintain and manage the internal control frameworks as well as the design, implementation, and operating effectiveness of key controls across Finance & Legal (Financial Control, Management Reporting, Financial Reporting, Regulatory Reporting, Financial Planning and Budgeting, Tax Reporting, Treasury and Legal).
• Continuous monitoring of the key Finance & Legal processes, delivering efficiencies and control automations where possible.
• Ensure Finance functions comply with operational risk framework and support leaders of each Finance function in carrying out their operational risk responsibilities. Liaise and work closely with Zopa 1st Line Risk and Compliance to manage risk events and change initiatives, critically assessing their impact on Finance and leading on Finance-owned risk events and change initiatives. Periodic review of Risk & Control Self-Assessment (RCSA) across Finance & Legal function
• Forge a strong relationship with the first and second line risk community in the Bank
• Periodic review and testing of Finance End User Computing (EUCs).
• Educate and support teams in appropriate execution of internal controls and ensuring that controls and actions are appropriately evidenced and reviewed.
• Work closely with the first and second lines of defence and internal/external auditors as part of periodic reviews and audits.
• Prepare and present reports to senior management and Board committees.

About you:

• You're ideally a qualified accountant with demonstratable post qualification experience in external/internal audit, risk or compliance, preferably gained within a Top 6 accounting firm or within a regulated financial services business.
• You are a fast learner who is hands-on, agile and adaptable, with the confidence to lead change management across Finance and help teams embed new processes, controls and ways of working.
• You have a proven track record in assessing the design, implementation, and operating effectiveness of internal controls.
• You're highly organised, effective at stakeholder management, project management and can manage conflicting priorities.
• You're resilient under pressure, embrace change and can operate in a fast-paced environment.
• You’ll be energetic, motivated, and have a passion for excellence and innovation in pursuit of success.
• You may have experience of working within the US SOx control environment, but this is not essential.
• An understanding of bank regulatory (PRA/FCA) reporting and compliance requirements is preferred.

#LI-LK1

At Zopa we value flexible ways of working.

We value face-to-face collaboration and a good work-life balance. This hybrid role requires you to come to our London office 2-3 days a week.

You'll also have the option of working from abroad for up to 120 days a year!* But no matter where you are, we’ll make sure you’ve got everything you need to thrive, both in your work and home life, from day one.

*Subject to having the right to work in the country of choice

Diversity Statement

Zopa is proud to offer a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds leads to better products for our customers and a unique company culture for our people. We are made up of nearly 50 nationalities, have a DE&I forum made up of Zopians wanting to make a difference and we are proud of our culture where everyone can bring their full self to work. Our approach to DE&I is reflected in our hiring process so please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments.

Our approach to AI in interviews

At Zopa, AI isn't something we're testing out — it's part of how we work every day. As a proud partner of , we're committed to building AI fluency across our workforce, and we expect Zopians to use AI as part of how they do their jobs.

Because of that, we want to be transparent about how we think about AI use during our hiring process.

Behavioural and competency-based interviews: please don't use AI. These conversations are designed to understand you — your experiences, your judgment, and how you've approached real situations. An AI-generated answer can't tell us that. What it can do is get in the way of us finding out whether we're the right fit for each other.

Technical interviews: it depends on the role. Some technical stages actively welcome AI use, others don't. Your Talent Partner will let you know what's expected at each stage. Where AI is part of the assessment, we'll be interested not just in the outcome, but in how you used it – the tools you chose, your reasoning, and the decisions you made along the way.