Head of Growth and Innovation Hub

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) mission is to serve the public interest by setting high standards of corporate governance, reporting and audit and holding to account those responsible for delivering them. We are the UK Competent Authority for audit. We also set the UK Corporate Governance and Stewardship Codes as well as UK standards for accounting, auditing and actuarial work, and monitor and take action to promote the quality of corporate reporting and operate independent enforcement arrangements for accountants and actuaries. Further information about our role can be found at www.frc.org.uk.

The role of the Head of the Growth and Innovation Hub is to ensure the FRC can deliver on its strategic commitment to transform the FRC’s current Audit and Assurance Sandbox Initiative. The Hub will cover all aspects of the work of the FRC, expanding beyond audit and assurance into corporate and financial reporting, actuarial, thematic work on sustainability and technology and the overall stakeholder experience of our regulatory model.

The Growth and Innovation Hub will focus on key priority challenges that are consistent with the FRC’s strategic themes, our overall strategy and the UK’s economic growth agenda.

The role involves:

• Establishing the FRC’s Growth and Innovation Hub in the market as a trusted and effective regulatory enabler for growth and innovation.
• Working pro-actively with the FRC’s Board, Executive Committee and Senior Leadership Team to align the work of the Hub to the FRC’s Strategic Objectives and priorities.
• Maturing the Hub’s approach to inviting Hub applications from a wide range of system participants
• Managing logistics, internal and external communications in close collaboration with our Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Affairs Team (SECA).
• Delivering output in the form of policy outcomes, revised standards and/or guidance or regulatory approaches.
• Developing metrics to measure the success of the Growth and Innovation hub and reporting these regularly to senior internal and external stakeholders.
• Working closely with FRC wide strategic theme leadership in areas such as sustainability and technology.
• Building strong internal and external networks to leverage the impact of the Hub in the market. This would naturally include identifying opportunities to work with other UK regulators on cross-cutting issues.
• Developing and maintaining knowledge of external developments relevant to the objectives of the FRC.
• Active involvement in cross-FRC initiatives and working with other FRC teams as appropriate.
• Leading work to support for market innovation in the FRC and supporting economic growth in the UK by:
• Transforming the sandbox concept to the work of the whole of the FRC
• Increasing market awareness and participation
• Engaging internal stakeholders in a matrix manner to build robust workstreams, utilising appropriate technical expertise across relevant teams.
• Facilitating the development and implementation of innovative approaches for the FRC, which could include targeted guidance, influencing the development of new standards, and improved operating processes.
• Responding with pace to address market needs by identifying and where appropriate, addressing regulatory issues which undermine the contribution the FRC’s work can make to UK economic growth.

The Person:

An individual with demonstrable experience in delivering innovation and change in a regulatory setting. The ideal candidates will have:

• Significant experience within the corporate reporting ecosystem.
• Experience in developing regulatory policy or developing and drafting technical material.
• An awareness and understanding of technologies used in audit, assurance and corporate reporting.
• Understanding of the external economic and regulatory landscape
• Self-starter with an entrepreneurial mindset
• An established, wide-reaching network, with a proven ability to develop networks further
• Experience engaging with senior stakeholders at the highest levels, both locally and internationally
• Compelling public speaker
• Ability to work in collaboration with others but also to make professional judgements when required
• Track record of creating an environment which fosters innovation
• Capacity to understand and balance the needs of different stakeholders
• The ability to challenge established ways of thinking
• Comfortable operating within a matrix structure with minimal direct line management influence.
• The ability to utilise internal and external partners to leverage the impact of the Growth and Innovation Hub
• Strong commitment to the FRC’s public interest purpose, Values & Behaviours and SLT Leadership Commitments.
• A CCAB qualification, or other relevant experience in areas of the FRC’s policy and regulatory work is preferred.
• To significantly expand the scope of the FRC’s sandbox initiative, supporting delivery of the FRC’s proportionality, improvement regulator and UK economic growth objectives.

Please apply by following the link our website https://www.frc.org.uk/frc-for-you/careers and uploading a copy of your CV and covering letter as a single document upload. In the covering letter, please set out, by reference to the person specification above how you meet the required skillset.

• How you meet the required skillset
• Tell us where you heard about this job

Rewards and benefits

• The FRC offers remuneration packages, including 30 days annual leave, ability to buy extra leave.
• Generous employer pension contribution of 10%.
• Staff Employee Assistance Programme including confidential counselling and work life services.
• The FRC offers staff the opportunity to save at least 25% on the purchase of a new bike through the Cycle to work scheme.
• The FRC has a strong work/life balance ethos.

The FRC believes that equality of opportunity and diversity is important in the work that we do and we are strongly committed to being an inclusive employer. Our values of being fair and independent supports this commitment. We're a signatory to the Government's Disability Confident scheme, which means that we guarantee an interview to any disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.

Equal opportunities monitoring is an important means of demonstrating and implementing our commitment to promoting equality of opportunity and diversity. Completing our diversity form will assist the FRC to identify any barriers that prevent access to employment and career development for certain groups of people, and to develop solutions, such as action plans, new policies and practices.

The role is based in our central Birmingham office. The post holder should be able to work flexibly to support the team’s activities and also provide cover within the FRC as necessary. The FRC operates a hybrid working arrangement with its workforce. The FRC operates a hybrid working arrangement, with a expectation that 40% of a person's working time will be located at one of our offices per week, with precise arrangements to be agreed between the employee and the line manager.