Senior Associate, Regulatory Reform Unit-1

Senior Associate, Regulatory Reform Unit

Division – Consumers and Competition

Salary: London from £58,000 - £75,000 per annum & National (Edinburgh and Leeds) – ranging from £53,000 - £70,000. Salary offered will be based on skills and experience

About the FCA

The FCA regulates the conduct of 45,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. Follow this link to find out more About the FCA.

We’re looking for Senior Associates to join the Regulatory Reform Unit, the team responsible for our growth and competitiveness secondary objective.

This is an exciting, high-profile and fast-paced opportunity to shape how the FCA embeds growth and competitiveness in all aspects of its work, and engage with the intense interest in this area from a wide range of stakeholders.

What will you be doing?

Our growth and competitiveness secondary objective is a top-priority, fast-moving and cross-cutting area that affects nearly every aspect of the FCA’s work. You will work on:

• How the FCA embeds growth and competitiveness in all of its work, including providing consistency across the approach in rule-making, supervision, authorisations and through Strategy25
• The FCA’s policy positions on growth and competitiveness, and coordinating new growth ideas for the FCA, including tracking intelligence received throughout the FCA on proposals for potential reform
• External engagement on SICGO, including drafting responses to ministers, the government’s remit letter, the FCA’s second SICGO report and metrics, and TSC/House of Lords briefings for the CEO and Chair, as well as engagement with trade bodies and FCA statutory panels

What will you get from the role?

You will have:

• A unique chance to be at the heart of high-profile work, a small team of talented and committed people, and on a topic with significant and longer term impact for the UK.
• Regular exposure to senior leadership in the FCA and cross-FCA working – you will work closely with Executive Director offices, and with colleagues in Comms, Economics, MAPs, Auths and DTI.

The skills and experience you’ll have

We are a Disability Confident Employer; therefore, disabled people or individuals with long-term conditions who best meet the minimum criteria for a role will go through to the next stage of the recruitment process.

Minimum

• Prior regulatory or public policymaking experience. This could be gained through a policymaking role in a regulator, government department or industry trade body, or through experience in a related role such as public affairs
• Prior experience drafting and presenting to a wide range of stakeholders

Essential

• Excellent judgement under ambiguity and very tight deadlines. Ability to analyse complex information or issues, think creatively where needed, cut through complexity to see the bigger picture, and reach robust and practical conclusions under time pressure
• Strong influencing skills, with significant experience in building relationships and persuading with well-reasoned arguments
• Experience of delivering a variety of competing high-profile tasks with challenging targets under pressure, prioritising appropriately and escalating where necessary. Taking ownership for key deliverables, ensuring outputs are delivered on time and to a high standard
• Good understanding of how the SICGO should operate. Strong interest in thinking about growth and competitiveness, and how regulation can influence it
• Compelling drafting and presenting skills for senior audiences internally and externally. Experience of writing papers and briefings, including an ability to distil complex issues into succinct messages
• Demonstrate a real growth mindset, be curious and proactive. This role supports teams on the most difficult FCA questions of the day – across retail, wholesale and cross-cutting issues. Build own network and identify effective self-management techniques
• Knowledge of a range of financial services sectors advantageous but not essential
• Knowledge of macroeconomics advantageous but not essential

Our Values & Diversity

We are proud to be an inclusive employer and our ambition is to cultivate a culture for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.

The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisation. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, minority ethnic, disabled, and neurodivergent candidates for our Senior Associate role.

Benefits of working at the FCA

• 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays
• Hybrid working (work from home up to 60% of your time)
• 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

We also have a competitive flexible benefits scheme which gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifestyle.

We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements. Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we can explore what might work best for both sides.

Application Support

We are dedicated to removing barriers and ensuring our application process is accessible to everyone. We offer a range of adjustments to make your application experience as comfortable and straightforward as possible.

If you have an accessibility need, disability, or condition requiring changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter using the details below and they will be happy to discuss this further with you.

Useful Information and Timeline

Applications for this role close at 23:59 on Wednesday 16 April.

This role is graded as Senior Associate – Regulatory.

What to expect from our interview process

The process will involve one case study and up to two rounds of interviews.

• First round of interviews from 23 April
• Final round potentially from w/c 12 May

Please make the recruiter aware if you are going to be unavailable for any date during this time.

Got a question?

If you are an internal candidate and you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact Yusuf Agloria on yusuf.agloria@fca.org.uk, for any external candidates please contact Tahir Khan on tahir.khan1@fca.org.uk.

Please note that all applications must be submitted through our online portal before the closing date, applications sent via email will not be accepted.