Director, Digital Assets Risk
Job Description
Requisition Number:
57653
Job Location:
Dubai, ARE
Global Grade:
Band 5
Work Type:
Office Working
Employment Type:
Permanent
Posting Start Date:
11/07/2026
Posting End Date:
20/07/2026
Job Description:
Job Summary
We are seeking an experienced Director, Digital Assets (DA) Risk to serve as the Group’s second-line risk Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Digital Assets. This role will lead the evolution of the Digital Assets Risk Management Approach (DARMA), providing oversight, challenge, and expert guidance across key risk types including Reputational, Traded/Market, Treasury/Capital & Liquidity, Operational, Technology, Cyber Security and Credit Risk. The successful candidate will help shape the Group's Digital Assets strategy, ensure compliance with regulatory expectations, and strengthen the risk framework governing Digital Asset activities.
Key Responsibilities
Strategy
- Influence the Group’s Digital Assets strategy, ensuring alignment with risk frameworks, policies, standards, risk appetite and governance requirements.
- Provide regulatory interpretation and risk assessments for Digital Asset initiatives, products and investments.
- Engage with industry stakeholders and emerging technologies to enhance risk understanding and support innovation.
- Assess risks associated with blockchain technologies, tokenomics and Digital Asset ecosystems, ensuring effective mitigation strategies.
Business
- Guide the ongoing development of the Group’s Digital Assets Risk Management Approach (DARMA).
- Advise stakeholders on Digital Asset activities, client engagements and business initiatives within approved risk parameters.
- Support stress testing and scenario analysis related to Digital Asset exposures.
- Provide timely risk guidance to ensure compliance with legal, regulatory and internal requirements.
Processes
- Oversee the identification, governance and effectiveness of processes within the Digital Assets Risk Management function.
- Review and challenge the Digital Assets risk profile and related control environment.
- Ensure appropriate oversight of risk management activities and reporting frameworks.
People & Talent
- Promote a culture of continuous learning, innovation and collaboration.
- Lead by example and foster an inclusive, high-performing team environment.
- Partner closely with risk and control stakeholders to strengthen risk awareness and accountability.
Risk Management
- Lead Digital Assets risk assessments and provide expert challenge across key banking risk disciplines.
- Review and challenge enhanced due diligence assessments for Digital Asset clients, products, partnerships and investments.
- Evaluate blockchain platforms, Digital Asset infrastructure, custodians, exchanges, staking providers and related third-party arrangements.
- Oversee Digital Asset risk appetite considerations, monitoring, reporting and escalation of breaches where required.
- Drive the development of infrastructure and governance needed to support effective Digital Asset risk oversight.
Governance
- Maintain governance forums and committee structures that provide effective oversight of the Group’s Digital Assets risk profile.
- Conduct regular effectiveness reviews of the risk control environment.
- Monitor emerging and evolving Digital Asset risks and assess management actions to address them.
- Ensure ongoing compliance with established risk frameworks and standards.
Regulatory & Business Conduct
- Champion the Group’s Values and Code of Conduct.
- Ensure adherence to all applicable laws, regulations and supervisory requirements.
- Proactively identify, escalate and resolve risk, conduct and compliance matters.
Key Stakeholders
Internal
- Digital Assets Centre of Excellence
- Cluster Management Teams
- Business Heads
- Group and Country Risk Framework Owners (RFOs)
- Digital Assets SMEs
- Group Internal Audit
External
- Home and host regulators including the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
- External auditors
Skills and Experience
- Digital Assets Risk Management
- Traded Risk
- Credit Risk
- Operational & Cyber Security Risk
- Reputational Risk
- Compliance
- Treasury Risk
- Risk Governance and Frameworks
- Stakeholder Management and Influencing
- Programme and Project Management
Qualifications
- Strong academic background.
- Over 15 years' experience in banking or financial services with expertise in Capital, Liquidity, Traded and Credit Risk.
- Experience in emerging digital technologies and Digital Asset ecosystems.
- Strong knowledge of blockchain technologies, tokens, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), stablecoins and cryptocurrencies.
- Proven understanding of Digital Asset risks across multiple risk types including Reputational, Traded/Market, Treasury/Capital & Liquidity, Operational, Technology, Cyber Security and Credit Risk.
- Experience across banking, fintech and complex financial services environments.
- Strong risk management, governance and Board-level communication capabilities.
- Understanding of global regulatory and supervisory frameworks impacting Digital Assets.
- Excellent stakeholder management, communication and leadership skills.
- Experience preparing papers for senior leadership and governance committees.
About Standard Chartered
We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents and we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.
Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion.
Together we:
- Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do
- Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well
- Are better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term
What we offer
In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.
- Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
- Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
- Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
- Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits
- A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.
- Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.
Information at a Glance
