Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) Risk Lead

Requisition Details and Talent Acquisition Contact

REQ: 137830- Lerato Sithole

Cluster: Group Strategic Risk

Location: 135 Rivonia Road Sandton, Nedbank Head Office

Ways of Work: Hybrid

Closing Date: 31 January 2024

Job Family

Risk, Audit and Compliance

Career Stream

Enterprise-Wide Risk Management

Leadership Pipeline

Job Purpose

• To actively support the management of Environmental (Climate & Nature Risk), Social and Governance risks and opportunities across the Bank and Group by providing sound leadership, advice , monitoring and oversight within the risk governance framework.   
• Lead and deliver projects on ESG risk assessment and management by aligning to global best practices including, inter alia, the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD), the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD, the Taskforce on Inequality-related Financial Disclosures (TIFD), the Taskforce on Social-related Financial Disclosures (TSFD – once published) and the International Sustainability Standards Board ISSB, IFRS S1 & S2.
• The ESG Risk Lead will play a pivotal role in advancing Nedbank's strategic goals by integrating robust ESG risk management practices, thereby ensuring the bank's leadership in sustainability and enhancing its reputation as a responsible financial institution committed to long-term environmental, social, and governance excellence.
   

Job Responsibilities

• To actively support the Risk Management function in the ESG Risk team in the management of ESG risks and opportunities across the Bank and Group by providing sound leadership, advice , best practice, monitoring and oversight within the risk governance framework 
• Actively support the integration from a lead/guidance perspective of ESG Risk into the traditional risk types (i.e., credit risk, operational risk, market risk, liquidity risk, funding risk, capital risk etc.) and assist in leading ESG specialist technical knowledge and experience, and the transition engagement with various individuals across Nedbank
• Develop and implement best-practice approaches/methods/models/tools to support the implementation of the ESG Risk Management Framework and the Climate Risk Management Framework (e.g for risk identification, assessment and monitoring; tracking of physical/transition risks, social risks, governance risks; climate and nature materiality assessments, climate and nature-related scenarios analysis).Create a ESG risk-related centre of excellence in the bank and support the development of ESG risk expertise in the bank
• Manage a team of ESG risk specialists and mentor junior staff
• Absolute and constant focus on ensuring Nedbank remains the leader in the SA banking industry with regards to ESG risk-related matters
• Keep abreast of regulatory and industry trends around energy and climate change to develop strategies to ensure climate-relate risks are appropriately addressed and emerging risks and issues identified
• Build and deliver ESG-related training and education programs to staff to promote and entrench ESG-related knowledge across the group
• Translate technical topics into terms that are meaningful to more general audiences across the enterprise
• Establishing processes to monitor and disseminate transition/physical risk management best practices and market expectations across the group
• Conduct and publish unique research outputs and integrate substantial quantities of complex and constantly evolving information of ESG risk related matters on individual assets, portfolios and markets
• Understand the link between ESG-related risks and financial performance and the interrelationship and impact between Environment Risk, Social Risk and Governance Risk
• Ability to engage professionally and confidently with a wide variety of stakeholders in the private, public, and non-profit sectors, and to build partnerships and manage collaborative initiatives
   

Minimum Experience Level

• At least five years of experience in ESG, sustainability, or risk management roles
• Proven track record in managing ESG risks and opportunities within a financial institution or similar environment
• The ability to integrate the various risk types with specific reference to ESG-related Risks
• Awareness and knowledge of climate related frameworks, best practices and industry bodies among others 
• Leadership, networking and influencing skills – with a history of working internally across different business functions and with subject matter experts and subject matter leaders at a corporate and regional level.
• Banking experience, inclusive of client facing experience across various functions
• Implementation of IT systems and Digitalisation (e.g. process automation)
• Execution abilities and capabilities
• Agile methodology and experience

Technical Skills

Financial Acumen: Strong understanding of financial concepts, markets, and analysis techniques
ESG Knowledge: Familiarity with ESG frameworks and standards such as the:

• Taskforce on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
• International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)
• Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS)
• Paris Agreement Capital Transition Assessment (PACTA)
• Basel Committee on Banking Supervision – Principles for the effective management and supervision of climate-related financial risk
• United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)
• Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)
• Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosure (TNFD
• The Taskforce on Inequality-related Financial Disclosures (TIFD)
• The Taskforce on Social-related Financial Disclosures (TSFD – once published) etc.

Data Analysis: Proficiency in analyzing large datasets and extracting meaningful insights.
 

Essential Qualification NQF level

• Professional Risk Qualification/Honour’s Degree (advantage)
• Environmental Science or Science (Geography) or related qualification
• Sustainability degree
• Sustainability and Climate Risk Qualification (GARP)

Type of Exposure

• Managing a team 
• Coaching and mentoring of others
• Conduct ESG Training 
• Building a community of leaders
• Identifying/select talent
• Conducting benchmarking exercises to identify improvement opportunities
• Executing major organizational change
• Networking and building relationships

Technical / Professional Knowledge

• Customer/client awareness and maintaining service
• Providing value add reporting to drive business decisions
• Communication Strategies: excellent communication, business writing and presentation skills
• Informed about the latest acceptable trends in language use and report writing
• Dedicated to continual development and learning to develop self and others
• Align performance for success in an agile working environment
• Interpersonal awareness and relationship building (excellence orientation and high standards)
• Embrace and facilitate change across the enterprise
• Programme/project management skills - effective planning, organizational and time management skills to coordinate work and resources and manage processes
• Values-based (especially Integrity, Respect, Accountability, Client-driven, People-centered) and strong Ethics
• Inspiring Excellence (Constant enhancement and improvement)
• Driving Execution
• Business administration and management
• Diversity management
• Governance, risk and controls
• Operations planning
• Management information and reporting principles, tools and mechanisms
• Aligning performance for success
• Earning trust
• Guiding team success
• Staff retention

Behavioural Competencies

Disclaimer

Preference will be given to candidates from the underrepresented groups

Please contact the Nedbank Recruiting Team at +27 860 555 566