Head of Retail Investigations

Head of Department Retail Investigations

At the FCAwerecreating a fair and more resilient financial system.Wereestablishingmore transparent relationships between financial services and customers building trust in financialmarketsand protecting vulnerable consumers.

Werecurrently on an exciting journey as we drive forward significant organisational people process and technology transformation to become a more forward-thinking proactive regulator. We will use data more effectively to drive better regulatory decisions and build greater cohesion across our broad financial services remit.

Significant improvements in digital enablement business intelligence marketdataand information management maturity are all being pursued tomaintainour position as a world leader in financial services regulation.

In March 2025 the FCA launched a new 5-year strategy to deepen trust rebalance risk support growth and improve lives. The FCA will focus on four priorities:

• Be a smarter regulator; predictablepurposefuland proportionate. The FCA will improve its processes and embrace technology to become more efficient and effective.

• Support sustained economic growth by enabling investment innovation and ensuring the continued competitiveness of the UKs world-leading financial services.

• Help consumers navigate their financial lives by working with industry to boost trust product innovation and ensuring the right information and support is available for people to take financial decisions.

• Fight financial crime focusing on those whoseekto use the fact they are regulated to do harm. It will go further to disrupt criminals and support firms to be an effective line of defence.

The Role

The vacancy is in Retail 3 which sits in the Retail & Regulatory Investigations directorate and is one of three departments focused on taking regulatory civil and criminal proceedings against firms and individuals in retail/consumer markets.The Department iscomprisedof multi-disciplinary teams of experienced professionals including lawyersaccountantsand investigators with 4 investigation teams and a Crypto Hub team.TheCrypto Hubjoins upEMOscryptoassetwork to support the progression of action to tackle crypto harm and to advance complex work preparing for the UKs regulation of crypto. It brings together and further develops resource from investigations intelligence regulatory and legal.

Retail investigates sectors covering retail banking asset management mortgage broking and lending insurance financial advice consumercreditand payment services. It deals with firms that sell unsuitable products or services to consumers mishandle client money and assets or have governance and systemic issues. It also investigates financial crime matters andtakes actionagainst individuals under SMCR APER and/or fitness and properness regimes.

The successful candidate will be a member of the Divisions senior leadership team and will be expected to take a full role in supporting and challenging others to deliver the full range of the Divisions responsibilities (which also include Market Oversight and Intelligence). The candidate will work collaboratively ensuring that the Division offers itsstaff a challenging and high-performance place to work and that the Division is constantly focussed on improving efficiency and innovation in its work and contributing to the leadership and strategy of theFCA as a whole.

What will the candidate get from the role

• Youlljoin the FCAs senior leadership team at an exciting period of change for financial services and its regulation.

• You will lead adepartmentof talented and committed people working collaboratively on significant projects and programmes.

• Youllget exposure to a broad range of issues and will contribute to both Enforcement and Market Oversights and the wider FCAs senior leadership team helping to shape and influence the organisations strategy.

The main responsibilities of the post holder will include:

• Lead and motivate a diverse multi-disciplinary department of investigators.

• Build a strong and inclusive department that attracts and develops diverse talent in support of the FCAs diversityequalityand inclusion commitments.

• The active management and delivery of a varied caseload of on-going investigations at a variety of stages and to tighttimeframes. Ensuring those cases are delivered fairly effectively and efficiently with an emphasis on delivering anddemonstratingvalue for money.

• Act collaboratively with other enforcementHoDsto support the Director in the delivery of Retail enforcementexpertiseto the FCA.

• Be accountable for divisional budget and resource management decisions as part of the senior divisional leadership team.

• Drive a culture of high performance relying on coaching influencing and negotiating skills with a range of internal and external stakeholders.

• Setting the strategic direction of the department (and with other senior management contributing to the strategic direction of the Division).

• Leading negotiations in high profile and sometimes controversial cases.

• Contributing to the strategic development of the FCA including through participation on programme and project boards across the organisation.

Skills/Experiencerequired

Wereproud to be aDisability Confident Employer and therefore people or individuals with disabilities and long-term conditions who best meet theminimumcriteria for a role will go through to the next stage of the recruitment cases of high applicationvolumeswe may progress applicants whose experience most closely matches the roles key requirements. (To learn more about the Disability Confident SchemeClick Here)

Minimum

• Strong people management and leadership experience - proven ability to lead motivate and inspire large teams as well as experience in tackling performance issues to build high performing teams.

• Extensive experienceleadingcomplexinvestigations.

• Excellent stakeholder management skills with evidenced experience influencing internally & externally/

• Ability to drive change and process efficiency/improvements delivering value for money and innovation.

• Demonstrates an understanding of the regulatory and political environment in which the FCA operates.

Essential

• Good technical understanding of the overall regulatory framework in the UK and the FCAs place within it with knowledge of the FCAs powers and policies in relation to investigation and enforcement activity including criminal investigations and prosecutions.

• Negotiation and influencing skills - to deploy internally and externally.

• Budget management experience and experience of managing external resources and multi-disciplinary teams.

• Ability to form strong working relationships across different business areas and to set joint goals for delivery

• Robustness in the face of challenge ability to make decisions in a rapid and balanced way.

• High levelof personal resilience witha track recordin delivering results against business priorities.

The FCAs Values & Diversity

Application Support

We want to remove anypossible barriersand are committed toprovidinga wide range of reasonable adjustments so that you can keep the focus on your conversations and be at your best.

If you have an accessibility requirement disability or condition that means you might require changes to the recruitment process please contact your recruiter to discuss thisfurther. Our aim is to make you application as easy as possible and your recruiter will be happy to work with you to make any necessary arrangements where possible.

Benefits

Our competitive benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package tailored to suit your lifecycle. You can thisthis allowance topurchaseadditionalbenefits such as dental or cycle to work or you have the option to top up your base salary by taking this as cash.

Core benefits that you will receive as standard are:

• 30 days holiday per year plus bank holidays

• Private healthcare with Bupa

• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age- up to 12% a month once you reach age 35)

• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary

• Income protection

Conflicts of interest

All applicants to the FCAare required todemonstratethat they do not have other interests likely to conflict with their responsibilities as an employee of the FCA. You should declare any potential conflict of interest as early as possible in the selection processand alsodiscloseinformation or personal connections that if appointed might be open to misperception.

Anypotential conflicts of interestwill not prevent candidates going forward to interview but may ifappropriate be explored during the interview toestablishhow the candidate would address the issue(s) should they be successful in their application.

Useful information

• The closing date for this role is 23:55 onSunday15thFebruary2026

• Selectionwill be via a two-stage interview and psychometric assessment

• This rolecan be London Edinburgh or Leeds based.If the successful applicant is based in Edinburgh or Leeds regular travel to the London office will beas the team is primarily London based.

• The salary range for the rolefor London130000 to 165000 and National 118000to 148500.

• If successful you willbe requiredto obtain andretainSC Clearance.

• We currentlyoperatea hybrid working model working a minimum of 40% in the office each month (50% for senior leaders). This way of working applies in our StratfordLeedsand Edinburgh offices.From September 2026 FCA employees willbe requiredto spend a minimum of 50% of their working time in the office. Our Executive Director and Directors will be expected to be in a minimum of 60% per month.

• This recruitment campaign may also serve to pipeline for future talent.