Head of Risk Management Private Markets

At M&G, our purpose is to give everyone real confidence to put their money to work. With a heritage dating back more than 175 years, we have a long history of innovation in savings and investments, combining asset management and insurance expertise to offer a wide range of solutions.

Our two distinct operating segments, Asset Management and Life, work together to provide access to balanced, long-term investment and savings solutions.

Through telling it like it is, owning it now and moving it forward together with care and integrity; we are creating an exceptional place to work for exceptional talent.

We will consider flexible working arrangements for any of our roles and offer workplace adjustments to ensure you have the support you need to succeed in your role.

This role leads the First Line Risk function for Private Markets, providing clear, proactive and reliable risk and control oversight across the full Private Markets platform, including acquired businesses. The Head of 1st Line Risk acts as a trusted partner to the COO and senior leadership team, ensuring risks are well understood, well managed and communicated with clarity. The purpose of the role is to strengthen operational resilience, embed high‑quality risk practices and drive continuous improvement across Private Markets. The role is the key connection point between the business, Operational Risk, Compliance and Audit.

Main Responsibilities

• Represent Private Markets in governance forums, ensuring risk and control matters are clearly communicated and actions are followed through.
• Lead and Coordinate risk and control activity across multiple business units within Private Markets, including acquired entities.
• Lead the Risk & Control Self‑Assessment (RCSA) process, working with RCSA Owners to identify material risks and appropriate mitigating actions.
• Manage Conflicts of Interest processes, maintaining the Conflicts Register and partnering with Conflict Owners including senior leadership.
• Maintain accurate Conflicts of Interest entries in MetricStream.
• Oversee Key Control Assessments (KCAs) and act as a central point of contact for risk and control enquiries and audit activities.
• Monitor the risk and control environment, including conduct, reputational risk, third‑party oversight metrics and control effectiveness.
• Identify and assess emerging risks through trend analysis, thematic reviews and change/project impact assessment.
• Support oversight of Model and User‑Developed Application (MUDA) risks, often acting as MUDA Coordinator.
• Partner with senior SMEs to support risk appetite definition, ensuring metrics link meaningfully to appetite levels.
• Prepare, review and enhance risk papers for governance committees and wider AM programmes, representing Private Markets in senior forums.
• Provide pragmatic and well‑reasoned risk and control advice to First Line teams, helping them embed strong frameworks and meet policy expectations.

Key Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Strong understanding of operational risk frameworks and first‑line risk management.
• Understanding of private markets business and pillars, previous experience in private markets desirable
• Ability to build and maintain relationships with senior stakeholders across multiple business units.
• Ability to interpret risk data, identify trends and communicate insights clearly.
• Experience managing governance processes, risk assessments and control testing activities.
• Comfort operating in complex environments across multiple stakeholder groups and acquired entities.
• Confident preparation and presentation of risk materials for senior leadership and committees.
• Proven ability to lead and manage a team of risk professionals

Essential Skills

• Clear and proactive communication style.
• Strong coordination and organisational skills.
• Analytical thinking with the ability to simplify complex risk topics.
• Effective stakeholder management and constructive challenge.
• Problem‑solving mindset with a focus on continuous improvement.

What we offer:

We’re dedicated to supporting your wellbeing and helping you thrive, both at work and beyond. Our benefits are designed to help you balance your professional and personal life, and financially plan for the future. Our UK benefits include:

• A valuable pension scheme of up to 18% (13% made up of employer contributions and 5% employee contributions).
• Access to our Share Save and Share Incentive Plan, alongside financial wellbeing and support services to help give you real confidence to put your money to work.
• Enjoy 38 days annual leave (including bank holidays), with the opportunity to purchase up to five extra days. Our Time Off When You Need It policy gives you the flexibility - to balance work and personal commitments.
• Our market-leading Inspiring Families policy includes comprehensive support and paid parental leave covering maternity, adoption, surrogacy, and paternity leave - because supporting families is an important part of our inclusive culture.
• Health & Protection cover includes Private Healthcare, Critical Illness cover and Life Assurance for you, with additional family options - for peace of mind.

To explore more about life at M&G and our full benefits offering, visit Life at M&G

At M&G we strive to have a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture, underpinned by our policies and employee-led networks that offer networking, support and development opportunities for the diverse communities our colleagues represent. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds – across gender, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation and more – including neurodivergent individuals, career returners and those with military service experience.

M&G is proud to be Level 3: Disability Confident Leader under the UK Government Disability Confident employer scheme, and we welcome applications from candidates with disabilities and long-term health conditions. If you would like to participate in the initiative, you will have the opportunity to indicate this on your application.

We are committed to providing an inclusive recruitment process. All candidates have the opportunity to request reasonable adjustments when applying. If you need any additional support at any stage, please contact us at: [email protected]