Central Compliance Lead
About the role
We are looking to appoint two Compliance Leads within the Partnership to develop our Central Compliance team capability as part of our existing broader Risk and Assurance team. These roles are available as either Fixed Term or Permanent contracts.
As a Partner in our business, you will develop, implement and operate an enterprise wide compliance framework, and provide practical insights and challenges to protect value in JLP.. You will achieve this by offering commercial and practical SME advice and support on compliance areas across all aspects of our business.
Working pattern - The Partnership has adopted a hybrid working approach, meaning you'll be able to work between the office and home based upon your personal needs whilst balancing the needs of the business. The team meets in the London Pimlico office twice a week.
It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting. If required, you’ll find out more about vetting throughout the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays.
Key responsibilities
• Designing, building, operating, assuring and continuously improving a standardised compliance framework for JLP with clear accountabilities articulated throughout.
• Developing the provision of regular reporting, monitoring and assurance to provide a single enterprise wide view of our compliance position, action plans and action tracking status. In doing so, supporting assessment of the Partnership’s regulatory compliance risk.
• Providing challenge to leadership and second line teams over the adequacy of the control environment and action plans in place to ensure and improve compliance.
• Training Partners in controls design and effectiveness, reporting and assurance.
• Providing central compliance SME support, connections and advice to Partners JLP wide across a broad stakeholder group, including the legal team as a key stakeholder.
• Supporting the Director, Risk and Assurance in regular reporting across governance groups and to the Executive Team; and setting the strategic direction for our approach to maturing compliance across the Partnership.
Essential skills/experience you’ll need
• Ability to think, challenge and influence enterprise wide. Able to have challenging conversations with senior stakeholders in a clear and constructive manner. Build relationships of trust quickly.
• Core technical compliance skills and understanding of compliance frameworks, auditing, risk, controls and processes.
• Critical and commercial thinking to ensure processes and touchpoints developed to enable framework implementation are relevant and appropriate.
• Ability to interpret evidence and information to develop well reasoned arguments and ability to readily draw on evidence to justify a chosen course of action.
• Strong working knowledge and experience of enterprise wide compliance framework building and implementation, ideally across large, complex organisations.
• Ability to demonstrate an understanding of omnichannel retail and the Partnership business model.
• Continuous improvement mindset in particular in relation to framework development, implementation, synergies and savings.
• Legal understanding - working alongside in-house legal and SMEs - to interpret technical areas of legislation
• Understanding and practical application of the 3 lines of defence model
• Compliance, Risk, Internal Audit qualification or equivalent experience
• Strong working knowledge of risk frameworks, corporate governance and internal control principles across all relevant aspects of the business.
Desirable skills/experience you may have
• Experience of large scale multi-site retailing or FMCG
• Experience of implementing cyber, data, property rental, financial services, employee, customer, regulatory and programme risk management and compliance frameworks. The Partnership
• We’re the largest employee owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We’re not just employees, we’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us.
• We’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose.
• As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect.
• We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective.
• As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.
Important points to note:
It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third-party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles.
We also recommend that you apply as soon as possible as vacancies can close early if we see a high number of applicants.
We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.