At Royal London we want to attract the best talent to help us achieve our vision of becoming the most trusted and recommend financial company in the UK. We are the largest mutual life, pensions and investment company in the UK and we are committed to being a responsible investor. We take the long-term view when looking at what’s best for our investments, business, customers, members and society as a whole.
Maintaining the Spirit of Royal London is of paramount importance to us as we face new and different ways of working. That is why we are embracing technology throughout our recruitment process to support interactions. As you embark on your journey with us will engage with you via email, telephone and video to ensure we all remain safe. We are committed to wellbeing and at this challenging time, it remains our priority.
As a mutual we also have a legal duty to act in the best interest of our customers, which is why we’ve developed our own climate change action plan and we have an exciting opportunity for a Climate Change Lead to join us to develop and lead our Climate Change strategy across Royal London.
This is an absolutely unique and fantastic opportunity to operate at the strategic core of the organisation, working with senior stakeholders across Royal London, and shape our organisational response to the climate change challenge on behalf of our customers.
It’s a transformational role, driving response, alignment and adjustment to the crucial implication of climate change and how they impact our operating model and propositions. The right individual will be extremely knowledgeable about climate change, and will embrace the visionary task with passion, energy, and intellectual rigor.
The role will sit in our Investment Office team, which is part of Group Finance function, and the executive function of the Board Investment Committee which owns the Group investment philosophy, develops and reviews the Group’s investment strategy within the risk appetite, oversees asset manager performance and operations for all Group investment funds, as well as delivering all Group Treasury and Unit Linked Governance responsibilities.
The individual will lead the development of the strategy related to climate change, including monitoring of relevant regulatory, competitor and other significant market activities, and provides asset owner specialist expertise on climate change matters.
The role holder will also lead the delivery of the assessment, reporting, oversight and integration of all climate change activities into the Risk Management System and investment related activities.
The successful candidate will be well versed in strategic thinking and thought leadership as well as operational processes and he/she will deliver by using influence, weight of intellectual proposition and the ability to create messages which resonate across the whole spectrum of the organisation for all matters relating to climate change.
Key Accountabilities
- Develops and maintains the strategy and framework for RLMIS related to climate change, including operational activities, risk management and reporting.
- Leads research as required to inform strategy.
- Leads the assessment and reporting (internal and external) of climate change activities across RLMIS
- Challenges and improves to processes, methodologies, and reporting to ensure capabilities are improved in line with evolving industry developments and best practice
- Leads the assessment, review and integration of climate change risks and controls across all risk categories
- Ensures appropriate alignment to key business risks are fully understood, controlled and mitigated on the team to ensure local plans are delivered and we meet our regulatory requirements
- Ensure key controls are tested and ensure risk events are reported, investigated and reported in accordance with the risk event & escalation process
- Ensures regular reporting and papers are produced for board and executive committees
Skills and Experience
- Educated to degree level with Accounting, Actuarial, IMC qualifications or similar equivalent
- Deep understanding of current and developing Climate Change trends with current and expected regulatory requirements
- Deep understanding of good practice in the risk assurance and oversight preferable in the financial services sector
- Good understanding of the Responsible Investment marketplace preferable
- Ability to coordinate activities across a wide range of business areas
- Good analytical skills – a strong attention to detail and capability to identify, assess and mitigate risks
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Team player willing to collaborate to solve challenges
- Strong planning and organisational skills; a completer finisher
- Capable of building strong and lasting relationships
- Positive attitude
Essential Criteria
- Demonstrable track record in getting traction on complex projects
- Demonstrable intellectual discipline and climate challenge appreciation
- Strong understanding of insurance and FS
What we offer
- We’ve always been proud to reward employees by offering a number of benefits
such as Pensions and Protection, Performance and role-related benefits, Lifestyle and Wellbeing - Our culture comes from within, or to put it another way, it comes from our people. It’s what makes Royal London a great place to work.
- Our People Promise is something we live up to every day. We know we can rely on you, and you can expect plenty from us in return.
- Glassdoor have again ranked as among the best places to work in the UK
We are an equal opportunities employer. We work hard to attract the best talent for our award-winning team. We believe that embracing difference makes us stronger. Our diverse people bring us different skills – whatever their educational background, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief.
In fact, the first pillar of our People Promise is designed to make sure you ‘work somewhere inclusive’. We want to live up to this promise; it’s good for our people and good for our customers too, because our workforce should reflect our communities.
