Senior Manager Operational Risk (UK) (m/f/d)

ABOUT US Pliant is a modular B2B payments platform that combines commercial card issuing, payment accounts, FX, and spend management in one system — adapting to existing setups rather than requiring customers to replace them. Businesses across industries such as travel, e-commerce, and insurance use Pliant to manage complex payment workflows with cards, backed by credit lines Pliant underwrites itself. Fintechs and software platforms embed Pliant's payment infrastructure into their own products, from API-based Cards-as-a-Service to fully white-label solutions. Banks use Pliant's Card & Spend OS, the customer-facing interface, on their own infrastructure to run card programs. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Berlin, Pliant serves 5,000+ businesses and 40+ partners across Europe and the United States. A principal member of Visa and Mastercard, Pliant issues commercial cards in 13 currencies across 32 countries — under its own European e-money license and with licensed partners in the UK and US. Learn more at http://www.getpliant.com/www.getpliant.com http://www.getpliant.com ABOUT THE ROLE As Senior Manager Operational Risk (m/f/d), you own the design and operation of the operational risk framework for the UK entity and make sure it meets Pliant’s risk appetite and FCA expectations for a card-issuing e-money business. This role is based in the UK remote but if you are based in London, our office is open for you to work in. WHAT YOU’LL DO Operational Risk Framework & Governance • Maintain and improve the operational risk framework (risk appetite, risk taxonomy, policies, RCSA, KRIs, loss event and near-miss data, scenario analysis). • Make sure governance and controls meet Pliant’s minimum standards, FCA requirements on systems and controls (SYSC) and the e-money and payment services conduct and prudential requirements. • Provide regular, decision-oriented risk reporting to UK management, the UK Board and the Group Risk Committee. • Advise on operational risk implications of new products, partners, markets and material changes (change risk assessments, new-product approval). Safeguarding & Core E-Money / Payments Processes • Oversee operational risk in the safeguarding of customer funds: reconciliations, account structure, third-party safeguarding providers, breaks and escalation, in line with the FCA’s safeguarding requirements. • Assess end-to-end risks across the card programme (issuing, authorisation, clearing and settlement, chargebacks, fraud, scheme rule compliance with Visa and processors). • Challenge the First Line on process, control and capacity risks as the business scales. Incident Management & Regulatory Reporting • Own the incident management framework for operational and ICT/security incidents: classification, escalation, root cause analysis, remediation tracking. • Make sure major operational and security incidents are assessed and reported to the FCA within the required timelines (PSRs 2017 incident reporting). • Run post-incident reviews and feed the lessons learned back into the control framework. Operational Resilience • Lead the operational resilience programme under SYSC 15A: identify Important Business Services, set and test impact tolerances, run scenario testing, map dependencies and maintain the self-assessment. • Oversee business continuity, disaster recovery and exit/wind-down planning, including alignment of RTO/RPO with impact tolerances. Outsourcing & Third-Party Risk • Own the third-party and outsourcing risk framework in line with the FCA’s outsourcing requirements (SYSC 8 and the FCA’s guidance for payment services and e-money firms), including intra-group outsourcing to Pliant GmbH. • Run due diligence and ongoing monitoring of critical vendors (processors, cloud and banking partners), including exit plans and contractual requirements. • Prepare and maintain material outsourcing notifications to the FCA. Regulatory Engageme