Head of Group Compliance and Ethics

Location: This role is offered on permanent basis. It is a hybrid role, offering a combination of being able to work remotely and from our London (Kings Cross) office two days a week. 

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Head of Ethics and Compliance to join our Group Legal & Compliance team. Reporting into the General Counsel, this is a standalone role which requires knowledge of regulatory frameworks, exceptional ethical judgement and the ability to influence and inspire a culture of compliance across all geographies and parts of the Group.  

What you will be doing: 

• Working with the General Counsel to deliver and maintain the Group compliance and ethics strategy, managing a global compliance framework to deliver organisation-wide assurance of adherence to Group standards.    
• Communicating and influencing business culture and behaviours to be compliance-aware, this includes the ownership of and embedding the Group Minimum Standards, the Code of Conduct, other topic specific policies and third-party risk management, using a risk-based approach to identify, prioritise, and implement effective global solutions.  
• Designing an appropriate compliance policy framework, providing tools and procedures to enable the business to adhere to them in a day-to-day context.  
• Alongside setting strategy and frameworks, the role is required to support the commercial business on day-to-day ethics & compliance queries and issues. 
• Developing and delivering a robust reporting framework to enable transparency and clarity in the Group’s compliance efforts. 
• Supporting incident response and crisis management on compliance issues across the Group, including leading on the Group’s Whistleblowing scheme. 

About you: 

• Experience of leading ethics and compliance programmes in a multi-national context, including project management experience. 
• Knowledge of regulatory environments and associated risks, including experience of crisis and incident response. 
• Ability to build collaborative relationships inside and outside of the organisation. 
• Ability to analyse and recommend practical solutions to compliance issues, balancing commercial needs of the business on a risk-intelligent basis.  
• Ability to communicate complex concepts in plain, simple and easily understood language, with strong written and oral communication skills adaptable to audiences at varying levels. 

The extras you’ll get: 

At RS, as well as the usual employee benefits, you’d expect from a FTSE listed company, including an annual performance bonus, private healthcare, and generous holiday, in the UK, we’ve just introduced several new Family Friendly Policies including:  
  

Help for people to take control of ongoing Health conditions such as diabetes or asthma with £500 a year available for monitoring & consultation.  

Support for Neurodiverse colleagues and families with neurodiverse members with needs assessment, diagnosis and post-diagnostic support for autism spectrum, ADHD and Tourette’s syndrome.  

Support for Women at different life stages from streamlined fertility support to diagnosis and monitoring of both endometriosis and menopause.  

Helping our LGBTQ+ community through enhanced coverage for trans colleagues, including voice coaching, facial surgery and gender confirmation surgery.  

We are RS Group: 

RS is a global solutions partner for industrial customers and suppliers. Our business has operations in three geographical regions – the Americas, EMEA and APAC, supported by global organisations for supply chain, corporate functions, marketing, and product & supplier management. 

Our market today is large, fragmented, local in nature and digitally immature. Only a few international distributors serve it, with many regional and local providers, who largely trade offline. We stock over 2,500 supplier brands, 500k products and 61% of our sales are digital. 

We are committed to Making Amazing Happen for a better world and our Vision is to become first choice for customer, suppliers, our people, and communities. 

RS is committed to creating an inclusive environment where people thrive. We recognise that a diverse and representative workforce is critical to our success, and our aim is to create a business where people can be their true selves. Our employees expect this as a matter of course and it is fundamental to how we attract, develop, and retain the best talent. 

In line with our D&I policy, we recruit and develop employees who are the best suited to the requirements of the job role, regardless of gender, ethnic origin, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. 

Are you ready to explore the possibilities?