Chief Risk Officer (CRO at Save the Children

Role Purpose:

Save the Children has agreed an ambitious new strategy for 2022-24, which requires us to take and manage an appropriate level of risk, often in complex environments, in order to improve the lives of the most marginalised children and communities. We are a large, complex organisation and risk touches every part of the organisation and all aspects of what we do. Save the Children sees risk management as everyone’s responsibility, with functions across the organisation responsible for risk identification, assessment and mitigation (the first line of defence).

The Chief Risk Officer will be a thought leader, driving strategic approaches to understanding and managing different types of risk across Save the Children International (SCI) and the 30 national members of the Save the Children Association (SCA). The CRO will work with senior leaders in SCI and the national members to build the culture, policies, systems and procedures which enable all our teams to manage risk effectively. The CRO will lead on some of the most delicate and critical issues across our child rights movement, and will require strong moral leadership and cultural sensitivity.

The role holder will:

• Work closely with SCI leadership, and leaders in Save the Children’s 30 members, to build a strong culture of risk management across Save the Children.
• Ensure that understanding and management of risk is central to all Save the Children’s strategic decisions, and to the implementation of our 2022-24 strategy. 
• Ensure a strong focus on strategic risks to Save the Children’s mission and future, alongside effective management of operational risks.
• Provide thought leadership on risk issues to a wide range of colleagues and stakeholders; communicating actively on our approach to risk both within and outside our movement.
• Ensure that the principal risks facing Save the Children are identified, assessed, communicated to the Board and wider leadership; and that risk owners drive effective approaches to managing risks (across the four pillars of awareness, prevention, reporting and responding) so that Save the Children operates within agreed risk appetite.
• Support the Board and leadership of Save the Children to review its risk appetite and drive continuous improvement in its Risk Management Plan, covering both risks managed by Save the International (SCI) and risks shared across the 30 national members of the Save the Children Association (SCA).
• Build sustainable capability in the risk management functions of SCI – high quality staff; strong and integrated processes and policies; and robust data systems.
• Lead a new Risk Hub comprising a set of second-line risk management functions in SCI (the risk, safeguarding, fraud, and insurance teams), coordinating closely with other functions with second-line risk management responsibilities (including safety and security, people and organisation, legal, medical, construction, information security and data protection) to ensure a coherent approach.
• Support first-line functions (particularly the SCI international programming teams at country, region and centre) to strengthen skills and systems for identifying and managing risks.
• Represent Save the Children Risk Management function externally and ensure that external best practice is understood and applied in Save the Children.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

• Senior leadership in a risk management function, within a complex global organisation.
• Proven and demonstrable track record of improving risk management in a global organisation.
• Good understanding of safeguarding, fraud and other key risk areas.
• Experience of complex case management
• Proven business partnering and consensus-building skills in an environment with potentially conflicting interests.
• Proven ability to analyse and interpret complex sets of data and situations
• Proven ability to work well under pressure, and to tight deadlines.
• Energy, drive and experience to effect significant change in a large complex organisation
• Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and coaching – ability to work with people of all levels from CEO to junior staff and across all functions including programme development and awards management leadership.
• Commitment to Save the Children values

Closing Date : Sep 19, 2022