Impress employers and recruiters.
Choose from hundreds of resume examples.

Target Resume Now

About the Role

At NOVA, we've built a regulated advice business delivering holistic advice across investments, pensions, protection, and mortgages digitally. We view strong compliance and risk management as essential for confident scaling. We seek a commercially minded leader to own and evolve our compliance and risk framework. This role requires a senior leader who can balance risk and opportunity, enable business growth, and ensure customer protection and operational license. The Head of Compliance will collaborate with founders, advisers, marketing, and product teams to embed good customer outcomes and strong governance.

Responsibilities

Own and evolve the firm's compliance, risk, and financial crime framework as the business scales.
Act as a commercial partner to management, enabling safe and rapid growth, and finding pragmatic, risk-based routes for new propositions.
Embed Consumer Duty and a good-outcomes mindset across advice, product, and operations.
Maintain the relationship with the FCA and ensure regulatory preparedness through horizon scanning.
Oversee advice quality and monitoring framework to maintain high standards during scaling, supported by Compliance Managers and specialists.
Advise the board on risk appetite, controls, and emerging risks with commercially grounded judgment.
Build and lead the compliance function (people, processes, tooling) and foster a culture of excellence and continuous improvement.

Requirements

Commercial mindset to balance risk and opportunity, enable growth, and find solutions.
Proven ability to design and run a risk and controls framework in regulated financial services.
Track record in a compliance and/or risk leadership role at a UK FCA-regulated firm (scaling or scaled).
Experience holding or readiness to hold an SMF.
Strong working knowledge of the FCA Handbook (COBS), Consumer Duty, SMCR, and financial crime/AML.
Startup mentality: hands-on, adaptable, and able to build from scratch in a fast-moving environment.
Preferred: Experience in or close to regulated financial advice, or qualified as an adviser, or designed advice propositions.

Skills

Helpful
Straightforward
Bold

Location

20 Farringdon Street

Work Type

Hybrid remote working
Flexible working hours

Experience Level

Senior compliance experience
Track record in a compliance and/or risk leadership role
Experience holding (or readiness to hold) an SMF

Salary/Compensations

Competitive salary

Benefits

Bonus
Pension
Private medical
Income protection
Death in service
Potential for company equity
Access to Wellness / mental health support (Headspace App)
Mental health support through private medical
Budget for additional learning / cost of exams
Electric vehicle leasing through salary sacrifice
Cycle to work scheme

About the Company

NOVA Wealth is a fast-growing startup changing financial advice delivery in the UK.
Leverages technology to empower human advisers, delivering higher service levels and reducing admin.
Aims to build a game-changer in the advice industry for better customer outcomes at lower cost.
Empowers customers to make smarter financial decisions and live their dream lives through customer-centric advisers and Lifeline technology.
Exceptionally open and diverse, multinational team.
Entrepreneurial, creative environment.
Firm with genuine purpose and impact on customers, along with a strong moral code.