AVP, Operational Risk Mgmt

Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. is the nation's leading independent residential lender. When you bring your career to Countrywide, you will enjoy the stability, advancement, compensation and benefits that only a solid, growth-oriented company like ours can deliver. We currently have the following opportunity available in West Hills, CA.

Assistant Vice President, Operational Risk Management
This is an outstanding opportunity for a strong candidate to have a real impact at Countrywide in this relatively new field and emerging discipline. The individual will be expected to add value by moving the company forward in its understanding and measurement of the existing level of Operational Risk (Basel II, COSO, Sarbanes-Oxley) by working closely with the businesses and infrastructure and using all available data including control assessments, key risk indicators, internal and external events, certification results and loss data. Operational Risk Management will work with the businesses to develop operational risk tolerance levels and help the Business mitigate unacceptable risks and make optimum risk/reward decisions.
This position will be responsible for developing detailed project plans, prioritizing project issues, monitoring project status, and ensuring successful project completion to create and support ongoing operational risk oversight reviews of Countrywide's risk management processes.
Primary responsibilities:
- Identify, assess, measure and monitor the effectiveness of management?s operational risk assessment and control procedures, tools, key risk indicators, systems and reports.
- Drive company implementation of Operational Risk Management framework including implementation of polices, processes, tools and systems to identify, assess, measure and monitor operating risk in the business lines.
- Work closely with the business units and infrastructure to continually provide Operational Risk Management control processes that support business growth.
- Assess the probability and severity of potential future losses.
- Manage the loss data collection and validation process.
- Monitor timely implementation of risk mitigation action plans.
- Develop/design and implement metrics that will perform as leading indicators of the firm's operational risk (Key Risk Indicators).
- Continually monitor, track, and prepare reports for management.
- Develop policies and procedures, risk limits and approval authorities.
- Monitor major and critical operating risk issues.
- Create management reporting, including reporting to senior management Forums and the Board Audit Committees, etc.
- Assist with developing and improving management reporting through the development of dashboard/scorecard reporting tools enabling Executive Management to make critical and timely decisions.
- Assist in the development of identifying and evaluating business areas' operating risks and risk and control self-assessments.
- Monitor industry trends and internal risk culture shifts.
- Identify and incorporate best practices into the organization's operational risk methodologies and systems.
- Perform on-going risk assessment for the company at the corporate and business unit levels.
- Assist with the coordination of user-training sessions for Operational Risk systems.
A successful candidate will have:
- Strong analytical skills and demonstrated ability to work effectively with and influence people up, down and across organizations.
- Be a confident team player with a good understanding of the mortgage/financial services business, the roles of infrastructure and control/audit functions and possesses a strong awareness of operational risk management, including a good understanding of the legal and regulatory framework.
- 3+ years of relevant work experience in a consulting, process/performance improvement, business intelligence reporting, control management or audit background allowing for skills to identify key risks and controls and analyze various types of controls, such as financial and operational controls.
- Familiarity with assessment of Operational Risk components to include, but not limited to: loss management technology, business process, vendor, regulatory, compliance, change management and business continuity.
- Effective multitasking skills; clear prioritization of projects/tasks; successful coordination amongst various groups; and the ability to move projects forward to completion quickly.
- Strong quantitative and integrative analytical skills and conceptual thinking (putting the pieces together into a coherent picture of the issues and solutions, including process, controls, gap analysis, technology implementation, etc.).
- Be a resourceful and innovative team player and problem solver, comfortable in the absence of formal structure. Able to think "out of the box".
- Strong understanding of mortgage operations or financial services is preferred (origination, servicing, operations work flow, etc.)
- Bachelor degree in Economics, Finance, Business or Accounting, or related discipline or an equivalent combination of education and experience from which comparable knowledge and skills may be acquired.
- Highly motivated.
- Be detail oriented with the ability to interpret language and numbers correctly.
- Effective verbal, listening, writing and presentation communication skills.
- Ability to collect data by one-on-one interviews, group interviews, Internet, phone, viewing and interpreting data produced in various departments.
- Ability to communicate in a manner that will promote the cooperation of various levels of employees in various departments.
- Ability to prepare professional and concise reports, spreadsheets, visuals and presentations to communication to upper management allowing Executives to make proper and well informed decisions.




602122