Risk Talent · Executive search

Executive search for heads of investment risk

A head of investment risk either reports to the chief investment officer or sits independent of the front office, and the two are different jobs. RiskTAE runs retained searches for the people who run independent risk oversight of the portfolios at asset managers, wealth managers and private banks.

A partner runs each search from the written brief to the first day, and every candidate is interviewed on the substance of your funds and mandates before you see a CV.

You meet people who have already told a chief investment officer that a fund had outgrown its market, and made it stick.

By Benn PopleUpdated 10 October 2026

Brief us on your risk role Or book a 30-minute call Looking for your next role?

24 April 2026FCA PS26/6 in force for solo-regulated firms

15 July 2025FCA target: half of senior manager applications within 35 days

The role

What does a head of investment risk do, and who should they report to?

A head of investment risk runs the second line over the portfolios: the risk budgets and limits, the tracking error and factor exposures behind each mandate, liquidity stress testing at fund level, counterparty and derivatives exposure, and the challenge to fund managers and the chief investment officer at the investment risk committee. In a wealth manager the same person also owns the risk in the model portfolios and the discretionary book, so they read the client side as well as the fund side.

The FCA’s rules set the frame: adequate risk management policies and procedures, and where proportionate a risk management function that operates independently. A MIFIDPRU investment firm must at all times hold own funds and liquid assets which are adequate, and its ICARA process must identify all material harms from its ongoing operation and from winding down. Where the firm holds a banking licence, as private banks do, the PRA’s Risk Control Part adds that the head of the risk management function must be an independent senior manager who must not be removed without prior approval of the management body.

The reporting line is the first thing we settle. A head of investment risk who reports to the chief investment officer is a risk manager for the front office, whatever the title says. Strong candidates ask about that line before they ask about the funds; the strongest ask who chairs the investment risk committee.

Sources: FCA Handbook, SYSC 7.1.2R and 7.1.6R; MIFIDPRU 7.4.1R, 7.4.7R and 7.4.13R; PRA Rulebook, Risk Control Part, rule 3.5.

Candidates

What does a strong candidate look like, and where do they come from?

The person you want has set a risk budget and held it when a star manager wanted it moved, run a liquidity stress on a daily-dealing fund and told the board what it showed, and explained a value-at-risk number to a fund manager without hiding behind the model. They know where their risk engine breaks: proxied instruments, stale prices, private assets marked once a quarter.

Where they come from depends on what you run. For a long-only equity or fixed income house, the independent risk teams at larger managers and the performance and quant teams beside them. For a multi-asset, liability-driven or alternatives business, people who have handled fund-level borrowing, collateral and derivatives, including at hedge funds and on the sell side. For a wealth manager, someone who has read a client book and a suitability file, not only a factsheet. For a mid-sized firm the best hire is often the deputy at a larger house who has written the committee papers for years and wants the top job.

The mismatch we see most is a bank market risk head, fluent in desk limits and daily profit and loss, hired into a firm whose real exposure is a redemption queue on a fund of small-company holdings. Our page on market and liquidity risk search describes that job; this one is different.

Process

How does a head of investment risk search run?

Stages of the search
Stage	What happens
Brief	A 30-minute call, then a written brief: the role, first-year success, the terms and the timetable, plus the fund range, the risk systems, who chairs the investment risk committee and whether the role is certified or approved.
Market map	The people who fit, most of them not looking, mapped by the assets they have overseen rather than by title, and approached without naming you until they are interested.
Technical screen	Each candidate is interviewed on the substance before you see a CV, by former chief risk officers and heads of risk, with quant specialists where the role owns the risk models.
Shortlist	A short list with our written view of each person: what they built, what they challenged and what happened next, then interviews and feedback both ways.
Offer, checks and start	Where the role is a senior management function we plan around the FCA’s approval; where it is certified, around the firm’s own fitness and propriety assessment. We stay close through notice and the first months, including the new head’s first investment risk committee.

Most searches at this level are retained and exclusive, which lets us approach people who are not on the market; terms and fees are agreed in writing before any work starts. Where the search shows a wider gap, the same firm can provide interim advisory cover or train the new head’s team.

The regulator’s timetable

How long does the FCA’s approval take, and what if the role is not a senior management function?

24 April 2026FCA PS26/6 SM&CR changes in force

Which senior management functions apply to your firm is set by the FCA’s table at SUP 10C Annex 1. In most of the searches we run, the head of investment risk sits one level below the approved function, reporting to a chief risk officer or chief executive who holds it. The firm then certifies the person itself and nothing goes to the regulator, though it must clearly record that the person is fit and proper, and annual assessments are required by statute.

Where the role does carry a senior management function, the FCA has a statutory three months from a properly completed application; the clock stops when it asks for more information and restarts when the answer arrives. In July 2025 the FCA set itself a target of deciding at least half of senior manager applications within 35 days. Its April 2026 changes to the regime, PS26/6, apply to every solo-regulated firm already in scope.

Two things move the start date more than the regulator does. The criminal record check must be obtained before the application and be no older than six months when it is submitted. Regulatory references over six years apply to this role too; our guide to regulatory references after PS12/26 sets out the timetable. We plan the start around both, and the notice period, in the brief.

Sources: FCA Handbook, SUP 10C Annex 1, SUP 10C.10.16R, 10C.10.26G and 10C.10.28G; FCA PS26/6, 22 April 2026; FCA, faster targets for authorisations, 15 July 2025; PRA PS12/26, 22 April 2026, paragraphs 2.20, 2.79 and 2.92.

Failure points

What usually goes wrong when you hire a head of investment risk?

The line to the chief investment officer. The role is drawn inside the investment team to keep it close to the portfolios, and the new head’s first hard call is against the person who writes their appraisal. Put the line to the chief risk officer or chief executive in the brief, with a route to the board’s risk committee.
A limits person for a liquidity problem. Investment risk teams are built around tracking error and factor models, while the losses that reach the board come from a redemption queue in a fund whose holdings take weeks to sell. Ask every candidate for a fund they said was too big, and what happened next.
Systems before judgement. A candidate who ran a large team on a large risk engine may never have built a stress from a portfolio up. In a mid-sized firm the head is the engine for the first year, and the shortlist should show who has done that.
The ICARA left to finance. A MIFIDPRU firm must identify all material harms from its ongoing operation and from winding down, and many of them start in the portfolios. A head of investment risk who has never read the firm’s own capital and liquidity assessment cannot feed it.

Sources: FCA Handbook, SYSC 7.1.6R; MIFIDPRU 7.4.13R.

FAQ

Questions about head of investment risk search

Do you search for heads of investment risk at wealth managers and private banks as well as asset managers?

Yes. The title covers different jobs: fund-level oversight at an asset manager, model portfolio and discretionary book risk at a wealth manager, and at a private bank a function that also sits under the PRA’s Risk Control Part. The brief says which job it is before we approach anyone.

Can you cover the role on an interim basis while the search runs?

Yes. We can place an interim while the permanent search runs, and where the role is a senior management function we plan the interim’s start around the regulator’s approval from the brief. Our interim chief risk officer page shows how we run an interim and a permanent search together.

Do you work with our in-house talent acquisition or HR team?

Yes, often. HR, talent acquisition and RPO teams own the process and the offer; we bring the market map and a technical screen a generalist team cannot run, for one hard-to-fill role or a whole programme. See our page for talent acquisition teams.

I run investment risk and am looking at asset management risk jobs myself. Can you help?

Yes. Book a confidential career call or message us on WhatsApp on +44 7537 159269. We will tell you how the market sees your experience and which firms are building their investment risk teams, and we never put your name forward without your agreement.

Next step

Tell us about the head of investment risk role

In 30 minutes we will agree the brief, say how the market is likely to read it and tell you whether a retained search is the right route.

Or book a 30-minute call

Brief us on a role

Tell us about the role and a partner will come back to you. Treated in confidence.

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