Job Summary

The Director, Complaints and Continuous Improvement is responsible for managing and overseeing the Bank’s end-to-end FIDReC complaint process, and FAA-related complaints. The role goes beyond complaint handling by ensuring issues identified from complaints are translated into clear actions to prevent recurrence, with relevant stakeholders engaged to own, deliver and evidence sustainable remediation. The role provides independent review and challenge, separate from frontline teams, to ensure client outcomes are fair, consistent, evidence-based and aligned with the Bank’s policies, regulatory expectations and client-centric standards.

The role is accountable for timely complaint resolution, strong governance over complaint handling and closures, quality assurance of case outcomes and communications, and driving continuous improvement by identifying root causes, escalating gaps to relevant stakeholders and ensuring sustainable remediation actions are delivered. The role is also accountable for governing good data management of FIDReC and FAA complaints, ensuring complaint records, management information and reporting are accurate, complete, consistent and able to support management oversight, regulatory engagement and continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities

End-to-End FIDReC and Wealth FAA Complaints Management
•    Manage and oversee the Bank’s end-to-end FIDReC complaints process, from case intake and assessment through to investigation, response, mediation, adjudication support and closure.
•    Manage and oversee Wealth FAA-related complaints, ensuring concerns relating to advisory conduct, fact-find, suitability, product disclosure and client outcomes are reviewed thoroughly and consistently.
•    Ensure FIDReC and FAA complaints are assessed, investigated and resolved in a fair, balanced, client-centric and evidence-based manner.
•    Oversee sensitive, complex or high-risk complaints, including those involving vulnerable clients, potential inappropriate sales, conduct risk, reputational risk or significant client impact.

Independent Review and Fair Client Outcomes
•    Provide independent review and challenge of complaint outcomes, separate from frontline teams, to ensure decisions are fair to clients and supported by clear facts, evidence and rationale.
•    Assess whether proposed complaint outcomes appropriately consider client circumstances, regulatory expectations, the Bank’s policies, relevant product or advisory standards and conduct risk considerations.
•    Challenge inconsistent handling practices, unclear outcome rationale or inadequate remediation proposals, and ensure appropriate management review where required.
•    Ensure client communications are clear, empathetic, balanced and sufficiently explain the Bank’s position and outcome.

Timely Resolution and TAT Discipline
•    Ensure FIDReC and FAA complaints are managed and closed within the Bank’s stipulated turnaround times, FIDReC timelines and applicable regulatory expectations.
•    Maintain strong case discipline, including clear ownership, case tracking, timely stakeholder follow-up, proper documentation, escalation of blockers and appropriate client updates.
•    Monitor complaint ageing, overdue cases, repeated extensions and potential breach risks, and drive timely corrective actions with relevant stakeholders.

Governance, Quality Assurance and Process Adherence
•    Maintain strong governance over FIDReC and FAA complaints handled by the team, ensuring adherence to the Bank’s complaints management framework, policies, standards and operating procedures.
•    Drive quality assurance over investigations, case analysis, outcome rationale, client communications, remediation decisions and closure documentation.
•    Ensure complaint closures meet internal process requirements, regulatory expectations and audit-ready documentation standards.
•    Identify and escalate process gaps, control weaknesses, policy inconsistencies or recurring handling issues to the appropriate stakeholders and governance forums.

FIDReC, Regulatory and Stakeholder Engagement
•    Oversee the preparation of timely, accurate and well-substantiated submissions, responses and case positions for FIDReC, regulators, senior management and internal governance forums.
•    Partner with Wealth, frontline, product, legal, compliance, risk, operations and process owners to ensure complaint reviews are comprehensive and actions are appropriately owned.
•    Provide clear management updates on material FIDReC and FAA complaint themes, high-risk cases, adjudication outcomes, remediation actions and emerging client outcome or conduct risks.

Continuous Improvement and Root Cause Management
•    Drive continuous improvement arising from FIDReC and FAA complaint insights, root cause analysis, case reviews, quality assurance findings, regulatory feedback and adjudication outcomes.
•    Ensure gaps identified from complaints are raised to relevant stakeholders, with clear ownership, actions, timelines and follow-through to sustainable remediation.
•    Translate complaint learnings into improvements to processes, controls, training, disclosures, advisory practices, client communications and client journey design.
•    Track remediation actions to completion and assess effectiveness in reducing repeat issues, improving client outcomes and strengthening complaint handling standards.

Reporting, Insights and Management Information
•    Develop and maintain meaningful reporting on FIDReC and FAA complaints, including volumes, turnaround time performance, themes, substantiation trends, outcome quality, root causes and remediation progress.
•    Use complaint data and case learnings to identify emerging risks, recurring issues, conduct themes and opportunities to improve products, advisory practices, processes and client communications.
•    Support relevant committees and governance forums with concise, data-led updates on complaint performance, significant matters and progress of improvement actions.

Capability Building and Culture
•    Build complaint handling capability across relevant teams by sharing lessons learnt, quality observations, FIDReC outcomes and FAA complaint themes.
•    Promote a culture of fairness, accountability, constructive challenge, client-centricity and continuous improvement in the handling of FIDReC and FAA complaints.
•    Support training and awareness initiatives to strengthen investigation quality, documentation standards, outcome rationale and client communication quality.

Risk, Compliance and Audit Readiness
•    Ensure all FIDReC and FAA complaint handling activities are conducted in line with the Bank’s risk management framework, conduct standards, regulatory obligations and internal policies.
•    Escalate material risks, systemic issues, potential client harm, control gaps or reputational concerns through appropriate governance channels.
•    Maintain audit-ready case documentation and support internal reviews, audits, inspections and regulatory queries relating to complaint handling and client outcomes.

•    Lead the management of complex and escalated complaints, including matters referred by regulators, senior management and FIDReC. 
•    Ensure fair, consistent and client-centric complaint outcomes, with independent review and challenge separate from frontline teams. 
•    Oversee timely complaint resolution, ensuring cases are progressed within internal turnaround times and regulatory expectations. 
•    Maintain strong complaint governance and case discipline, including clear ownership, documentation, escalation and closure rationale. 
•    Drive quality assurance over complaint handling, client communications, remediation decisions and closure documentation. 
•    Manage high-risk or sensitive complaints, including cases involving vulnerable clients, conduct risk, fraud/scam issues, potential inappropriate sales or reputational concerns. 
•    Prepare and support regulatory, senior management and governance updates, ensuring responses are accurate, balanced, evidence-based and well-substantiated. 
•    Identify root causes and recurring complaint themes, and translate insights into process, product, control and client experience improvements. 

•    Partner with frontline, product, operations, risk and compliance teams to resolve systemic issues and improve client journeys. 
•    Track remediation actions to completion, ensuring agreed improvements are implemented sustainably and effectively. 
•    Develop complaint reporting and insights for management and governance forums, including trends, turnaround time performance, root causes and action progress. 
•    Lead and build team capability, strengthening investigative judgement, writing quality, stakeholder management and client outcome assessment. 
•    Ensure risk and compliance standards are met, with audit-ready documentation and appropriate escalation of material risks or control gaps.
People and Talent
•    Set direction and drive high performance by translating strategy into clear direction, aligning individual goals to team outcomes and providing regular, constructive feedback.
•    Develop talent and capability through coaching and career conversations that build critical skills, stretch potential and prepare individuals for future opportunities.
•   Lead by example by role-modelling the Bank’s valued behaviours, upholding strong risk and conduct standards, exercising sound judgment, and creating an inclusive team culture that supports wellbeing, values diverse perspectives, and drives accountability.

Motivations

•    Creating fair and client-centric outcomes — energised by resolving complex complaints in a way that is balanced, empathetic, evidence-based and defensible.  
•    Improving how the Bank serves clients — driven by using complaint insights to fix root causes, simplify processes, strengthen controls and improve client journeys. 
•    Learning from feedback and failures — energised by identifying lessons learnt from complaints, QA reviews, audits, regulatory feedback and FIDReC outcomes to continuously improve.  
•    Maintaining high standards under scrutiny — motivated by working in an environment where complaint handling must withstand regulatory, audit and senior management review.

Our Ideal Candidate

•    10+ years of experience working in a regulated, client-facing or risk-sensitive environment, where decisions need to be fair, well-documented and able to withstand review.
•    Familiarity with complaint trends, root cause analysis, remediation tracking or continuous improvement would be advantageous.
•    Experience supporting or coaching others on case handling quality, communication standards or client outcome assessment would be beneficial.
•    Ability to use data, insights or management information to support decision-making, prioritisation and process improvements.
•    Experience handling complex client complaints, escalations, service recovery, investigations, conduct matters, audit, compliance, quality assurance, operations, product governance or process improvement.
•    Main core – Business Communication

Role Specific Technical Competencies

• Familiarity with AI, preferably MS Co-Pilot to drive analytics and improvements
• Continuous Improvement and Root cause management/analysis
• Quality Assurance
• Complaint management

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.

Recruitment Assessments

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