Director Risk Advisory

Your role:

Zanders is an international consultancy specialising in Risk, Treasury and SaaS solutions. From our origins in the Netherlands we now operate across Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. Our Risk Advisory Group covers the full spectrum — credit, market, liquidity and interest rate risk, model risk, non-financial and operational risk, and the newer territory of ESG and AI risk — for banks, insurers, asset managers and corporates.

This role is built around the commercial side of that practice. You own client relationships and market development across the Swiss financial sector: you bring a network with you, open doors that are new to us, and take opportunities from first conversation through proposal to signed engagement. Switzerland is an important growth market for Zanders, and you will play a central role in expanding our Risk Advisory presence and client base.

You are not, however, a pure salesperson, and we are deliberate about that. You lead risk engagements yourself — scoping them, directing the team, owning the client relationship at senior level and staying close enough to the substance that a CRO takes you seriously in the room. What we are not looking for is a deep quantitative specialist. We need breadth: someone fluent enough across risk types and regulation to scope the right work and to know which of our specialists should do it.

You will be based in our Zurich office, with the flexibility to work in a hybrid model. The role involves regular interaction with clients across Switzerland and close collaboration with Zanders colleagues and specialists across Europe.

Your background will be in risk consulting, or in a senior risk, commercial or relationship role within a bank, insurer or asset manager.

Key Responsibilities:

· Build and own senior client relationships across the Swiss financial sector, and develop an established network into a sustained pipeline

· Take commercial opportunities end to end — qualification, proposal, pricing, negotiation and onboarding

· Expand Zanders’ Risk Advisory presence in Switzerland, in line with the wider group strategy and in close collaboration with our international experts

· Identify cross-sell and up-sell opportunities across the Zanders portfolio, including Treasury and our software solutions

· Contribute to the practice's commercial strategy: which propositions, which segments, which markets

· Lead risk advisory engagements, owning scope, planning, budget, quality and the senior client relationship

· Scope client problems accurately across risk types and direct the right specialists to them

· Act as trusted adviser to senior stakeholders, including CROs, risk directors and treasurers, on risk strategy, governance and Swiss regulatory and market developments

· Build Zanders' visibility in the market through speaking, publishing and industry presence

· Maintain a broad, current view of risk regulation and market developments, and share it across the practice

· Act as career coach to consultants, supporting their development beyond the engagements they are staffed on

· Safeguard workload and wellbeing in the teams you lead, and give clear direction on performance

· Contribute to internal initiatives that build the Risk Advisory practice and the wider One Zanders culture

Skills to be successful

Essential

· An established senior network within the Swiss financial sector, and a demonstrable record of converting relationships into won work

· Substantial experience in risk management or risk consulting — broad across risk types rather than deep in one

· Proven commercial ownership at scale: opportunities taken from first conversation to signed and onboarded client

· Experience leading client engagements and the teams delivering them, at a level where senior stakeholders are yours to manage

· The credibility to hold a strategic risk conversation with a CRO or risk director without a specialist alongside you

· Fluent English and professional proficiency in German or French, together with willingness to travel within Switzerland and occasionally across Europe

Also valuable

· Experience in both the Benelux and Swiss markets

· Proficiency in both German and French, or Italian in addition to either German or French

· Genuine depth in one risk domain alongside the breadth

· Familiarity with the Swiss regulatory environment (FINMA) as well as EU and ECB supervision

· Exposure to treasury as well as risk, or to risk technology and SaaS solutions

· Experience growing a consulting practice, proposition or senior client portfolio in Switzerland

· A relevant professional certification such as FRM or CFA