Model Validation Manager

About us
Vida Bank provides competitive savings products through Vida Savings and specialist mortgage solutions through Vida Homeloans.

Our mortgage business supports Buy to Let (BTL) and residential borrowers (ROO) who find themselves underserved elsewhere. Our mortgage customers range from Buy to Let investors to the self-employed and customers with multiple jobs.

Our savings proposition is delivered online via our website and is focused on providing savers with fair, transparent, and competitive rates. Our typical customers are active savers, who tend to look beyond their current account provider for savings accounts.

Our business model and strategy are underpinned by our core purpose to ‘Help More People Find a Place to call Home’.

We are here to help the under-served, especially those with more nuanced personal circumstances or borrowing needs who are not able to access a mortgage from a mainstream mortgage lender. Working exclusively with intermediary partners, we combine cutting-edge technology with skilled and caring underwriting expertise to solve complex customer problems.

As a fully regulated UK-based bank with ambitious growth aspirations, we recognize the importance of having a clearly articulated culture strategy and the need to actively manage how it embeds in the business together with the behaviors that exemplify it.

As a recognized Best Companies Top 100 mid-sized company to work for in the UK and a finalist at the Financial Reporter Women’s Recognition Awards, we take pride in our diverse workforce, championing both ethnic and gender diversity through our EDI commitments.

Having met the target set by being a member of the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter, we have 50% of senior management roles filled by women.

With offices in London, Newcastle, and Skipton, we bring our teams together regularly to collaborate and empower our colleagues to have more choice around when and where they work on the days they are not in the office, with colleagues working remotely in various locations across the UK.

Our Culture
We are proud to have built a culture founded on an ethos of caring, which sits at the heart of our Vida Values, driving the way we run our business, support our customers, and other stakeholders daily.

By joining Vida, you will have a sense of belonging in what is a diverse and collaborative environment, where you will be empowered to take responsibility for driving delivery.

Role Overview:
The Model Risk team is an expert 2nd line risk management function supporting Vida Bank with all aspects of Model Risk. The team actively manages the second line validation function of a wide range of risk models ranging from Credit Risk, Finance, Treasury, and Operations.

This is a hands-on position, providing the opportunity to contribute towards enhancing the firm’s model risk management framework. The role consists of the validation of new models and the periodic review validations of existing ones as part of the validation plan.

This is a key role within the Model Risk team, giving you exposure to presenting validation outcomes in the Model Risk committee as well as developing relationships with key stakeholders across the business. The role will also involve contributing to analytical projects across the business.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Assist the Director of Model Risk in enhancing the Model Risk Management framework, providing recommendations to create additional internal standards documents and/or to update the Model and Calculator policy.
2. Validate internal models against industry-leading standards to support risk management and decision-making in Vida as per the model risk plan.
3. Develop and maintain a strong working relationship with all internal and external stakeholders, being an active member of the Model Risk Committee and supporting the Director of Model Risk in producing the Model Risk pack.
4. Engage with Model Owners to ensure that the Model Register has the most up-to-date data.
5. Deliver risk modelling and wider business validation projects within agreed plans as per the Model Risk validation plan.
6. Ensure that validation actions for all models within the business are well logged and engage with model owners to ensure that they are addressed and closed within agreed timelines.
7. Assist the Director of Model Risk in ensuring that all internal audit actions raised in relation to Model Risk are closed within the agreed timelines.

Requirements:

1. Use high-level negotiation, communication, and influencing skills to gain consensus and approval of validation outcomes and/or development stages.
2. Strong communication and collaboration skills.
3. Act as a role model for Vida’s values and behaviors and have a customer and risk-centric mindset.
4. Deputize for the Director of Model Risk when required.
5. Degree with quantitative content or equivalent skills derived from experience.
6. Experienced in design, development, and validation of risk models.
7. Significant experience validating credit risk models including IFRS 9 models.
8. Knowledge of statistical modelling techniques and technical methods.
9. Strong programme and project management skills and track record of delivering complex projects.
10. Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills.
11. Excellent knowledge of the wider industry, current and future regulation, and economic and political factors affecting Vida.
12. Excellent stakeholder management skills, building strong relationships across the business.
13. High level of analytical and technical skill.
14. Experience identifying process improvement opportunities.

Technical Requirements:

1. Highly proficient in the use of coding/analysis software languages (SAS/SQL).
2. Knowledge of Python and/or R and their applications would be beneficial.
3. Highly proficient in the use of Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, SharePoint).
4. Proficiency in manipulating large data sets and excellent understanding of risk-related data.

Other skills and attributes:

1. Taking a rigorous approach to each project, delivering to the highest possible standards.
2. Ability to work without supervision.
3. Able to work under pressure and to tight deadlines.
4. Able to operate in a focused & flexible manner.
5. Positive 'can do' attitude, being flexible and adapting to the needs of the business, having the ability to deliver analytical projects at short deadlines.

Our Values
Our values are well established and recognized throughout our organization. They provide a frame of reference for the behaviors expected from our colleagues every day.

We find ways to break old conventions, especially those which cause exclusion or customer harm. We look for these qualities when hiring new talent into the organization, and they underpin our approach to personal development and performance management for all our people. At the heart of this is the fact we care about our Customers, Our Colleagues, and our Communities. We are:

1. Visionary - We innovate and break old habits, thinking big and pushing boundaries together as one team.
2. Inclusive - We value each other’s differences and work to see people for who they really are.
3. Dynamic - We are flexible and fast, cutting through complexity and never accepting second best.
4. Authentic - We are honest and genuine, what you see is what you get.

Benefits
We offer a comprehensive benefits package to support our employees’ professional and personal needs. Further details can be provided upon application.