Operational Risk Senior Manager (Hybrid – 3 days in office – VA)

At Freddie Mac, you will do important work to build a better housing finance system and you’ll be part of a team helping to make homeownership and rental housing more accessible and affordable across the nation.

Position Overview:

The Legal Operations Department within the Freddie Mac Legal Division is seeking a strategic and experienced professional to lead our Legal Operational Risk Team. This role will be responsible for developing and implementing risk management frameworks, identifying and mitigating operational risks, and ensuring compliance with regulatory and corporate governance requirements. A key focus of this role will be administering the risk and security process for retaining outside law firms. The ideal candidate will proactively identify and mitigate risks that could impact the Legal Division’s operations and work closely with legal, compliance, security, and business partners to ensure the integrity and effectiveness of legal risk management practices.

Our Impact:

America relies on Freddie Mac to support the housing market and the nation’s renters, homebuyers, and homeowners. The Legal Division provides proactive, timely and efficient legal advice responsive to client needs on all legal matters affecting Freddie Mac. The Legal Operational Risk Team works with Legal Division leadership to effectively manage operational risk.

Your Impact:

Legal-Specific Operational Risk Management

• Lead the development, execution, and assessment of operational risk frameworks, processes, and controls that are tailored to the needs of an in-house legal organization.
• Identify and address risks related to legal technology, e-discovery, data retention, and information security within the Legal Division.
• Develop partnerships with Legal Division process owners to understand their work in order to identify, mitigate, monitor, and report on risks impacting their processes.
• Serve as the Division’s lead for external audits and reviews, as well as any resulting issue management and remediation activities.
• Oversee the Division’s privacy management activities, including coordinating all privacy compliance and reporting obligations.

Outside Counsel Risk & Security Management

• Lead the risk and data security assessment process for retaining outside law firms, ensuring adherence to company policies and industry standard processes.
• Collaborate with legal, procurement, and information security teams to ensure compliance with vendor risk management requirements.
• Oversee third-party risk management for legal vendors and outside counsel.

Policy, Standards, and Regulatory Change Management and Compliance

• Lead the Division’s impact assessment of changes to regulations, policies, and standards to determine applicability to the Legal Division.
• Establish processes and controls to ensure the Division is aligned with internal policies and external regulatory requirements, including updating Division procedures as necessary.

Partner Engagement and Leadership

• Cultivate and lead a high-performing risk team, fostering a culture of risk awareness, proactive management, and an understanding of the realistic application of risk principles in a legal organization.
• Develop and maintain a reputation as a trusted advisor to leaders in the Division and a collaborative colleague to counterparts across the company who is known for thinking critically, solving problems, and delivering results.
• Demonstrate the ability to demystify risk terminology, communicating complex information in clear plain language for ease of understanding for those outside of the risk space.
• Integrate risk activities into the work of the Division in a way that clearly demonstrates the practical, day-to-day value to the delivery of legal services.
• Take active ownership and full responsibility for all the portfolios within the Legal Operational Risk Team.

Qualifications:

• 10+ years’ work experience with progressive responsibility in operational risk management, with a strong preference for risk management experience in a legal environment. At least 2 years of this experience must include responsibility for leading a team and supervising employees.
• Demonstrated understanding of the unique operational risk environment within a legal organization, including outside counsel security assessments, third-party risk, as well as risks and controls in a legal environment.
• Knowledge of enterprise risk management principles and legal-specific risk management standard processes.
• The ideal candidate will be customer service-focused and thorough with exceptional judgment, skilled at translating risk management concepts to a legal environment.
• Ability to communicate clearly and work directly with process owners within the Legal Division and counterparts across the company with a high level of professionalism, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present complex technical information in a clear and concise manner to non-technical audiences.
• Attention to detail with excellent time management and multitasking/prioritization abilities; exceptional organizational skills and ability to meet deadlines while managing competing priorities with minimal supervision.

Keys to Success in this Role:

• Business smarts and curiosity – ability (and desire) to deeply understand how our business works and how risk management can enhance the delivery of quality legal services.
• Eagerness to go the ‘extra mile’ by taking ownership of an issue once aware of it and proactively seeking out answers to problems that may fall outside your area of expertise.
• A focus on being self-motivated, well organized, detail oriented, independent, and resourceful!
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate with partners in a manner that establishes credibility, builds trust, and cultivates positive working relationships.
• Excellent judgment and a commitment to professionalism and collegiality.

Current Freddie Mac employees please apply through the internal career site.

Today, Freddie Mac makes home possible for one in four home borrowers and is one of the largest sources of financing for multifamily housing. Join our smart, creative and dedicated team and you’ll do important work for the housing finance system and make a difference in the lives of others.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity and inclusion at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We will ensure that individuals with differing abilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

CA Applicants: Qualified applications with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.

Notice to External Search Firms: Freddie Mac partners with BountyJobs for contingency search business through outside firms. Resumes received outside the BountyJobs system will be considered unsolicited and Freddie Mac will not be obligated to pay a placement fee. If interested in learning more, please visit www.BountyJobs.com and register with our referral code: MAC.

Time-type:Full time

FLSA Status:Exempt

Freddie Mac offers a comprehensive total rewards package to include competitive compensation and market-leading benefit programs. Information on these benefit programs is available on our Careers site.

This position has an annualized market-based salary range of $149,000 – $223,000 and is eligible to participate in the annual incentive program. The final salary offered will generally fall within this range and is dependent on various factors including but not limited to the responsibilities of the position, experience, skill set, internal pay equity and other relevant qualifications of the applicant.

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