Operational Policy, Assurance and Compliance Officer

We are recruiting an Operational Policy, Assurance and Compliance Officer to be part of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).

You will be working as part of a small team providing policy, assurance and compliance services to all operational aspects of the Commission’s investigations process through the Support, Information Recovery and Findings stages. Reporting to the Senior Operational Assurance and Compliance Officer, you will be leading on policy review and development, producing high level reports for senior management on assurance activity and findings, working closely with investigatory and security colleagues on auditing compliance with policies, and making recommendations for any areas that could be improved.

You’ll need initiative, be able to work independently as well as part of a team and have the drive to deliver a high-quality service. You’ll need excellent stakeholder management skills, including an ability to build a profile across two locations, a good understanding of the work and objectives of the operational teams, and be able to function as the trusted expert on policy and process matters.

You will line manage an Assistant Assurance and Compliance Officer and support them in delivering their work, as well as undertaking more complex and strategic policy and audit work across the Commission. You will oversee and undertake reviews and other evidence gathering activities to a consistently high standard. You will need to collate, interpret and evaluate a wide range of information and produce and record accurate and robust evidence of 8 compliance and adherence to Commission policies and processes in operational casework.

You will drive, input into and assure delivery of a program of training for operational teams on operational policies and processes. There may be further resource/people management responsibilities including oversight of the secretariat responsibilities for the External Advisory Group.

• Taking a lead role in an overarching policy review, undertaking gap analysis and working closely with Investigations and Findings teams to gain a big-picture understanding of their activities and working effectively with them to achieve a new suite of fit-for-purpose and futureproof policies to achieve Commission goals.
• Development, testing and implementation of new operational policies and programmes in support of the new legislation in close collaboration with the operational teams and in a manner focussed on ensuring their needs are met.
• Supporting the Senior Operational Assurance and Compliance Officer in assuring that Case Support, Information Recovery and Findings teams adhere to the Commission’s promulgated policies, reporting individual areas of non-compliance to senior leadership for immediate rectification, and ensuring consistency across teams and locations.
• Devising, developing and implementing new systems of audit and compliance in support of the new legislation in close collaboration with operational stakeholders, ensuring their views and perspectives are brought together and effectively fed in.
• Evaluating and identifying thematic and systemic compliance and adherence issues promptly and minimising risk by providing a decisive mitigation response.
• Oversight and management of manual Working Groups to ensure operational manuals are up to date, reflect best practice, and are effectively communicated to operational staff.
• Develop and deliver training on policies and keep training, including training materials, up to date. Provide independent impartial assessments and reviews of casework, including from the perspective of users of the Commission, providing clarity where necessary, and making robust recommendations taking into account wider context.
• Undertaking assurance work, including case reviews and other evidence gathering activities/data collection processes in support of specific and general assurance, based on up-to-date knowledge of operational contexts and recognising when to involve and engage stakeholders.
• Working with all team members in the collection of information for quality assurance reporting.…