Risk Manager Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a risk manager. Feel free to use our risk manager job description template to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a risk manager.
Who is a Risk Manager
A Risk Manager, sometimes known as a Risk Assessment Manager, is in charge of identifying potential threats to a company’s financial health, legal compliance, or reputation. Communication with firm leadership, Department Managers, or legal staff is one of their responsibilities, as is reviewing operational procedures, employee statistics, or market trends, and reporting their findings to senior management.
A risk manager’s responsibility is to figure out what could go wrong and what the consequences or impact on the company would be if it did.
The risk manager must understand not just the severity of the multiple threats facing the company, but also the possibility of a certain hazard occurring.
Risk Manager Job Description
What is a risk manager job description? A risk manager job description is simply a list of duties and responsibilities of a risk manager in an organization. Below are the risk manager job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a risk manager job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
- Performing in-depth risk evaluations.
- Examining data market trends, reports, and other pertinent documentation is examined.
- Gathering and analyzing data and information on the organization, its policies, and legal duties.
- Examining the rules and procedures in place for risk management.
- Observing and assessing internal operations.
- Assessing risk levels and their ramifications.
- Controlling and limiting risks and liabilities, policies and contingency plans must be developed and implemented.
- Presenting and preparing reports and proposals on risk assessment.
- Analyzing risk, which entails comparing predicted risks to organizational criteria such as expenses, legal requirements, and environmental variables, as well as evaluating previous risk management.
- Determining and quantifying the organization’s ‘risk appetite,’ or the amount of risk it is willing to take.
- Reporting risk in an appropriate manner to various audiences, such as the board of directors so that they are aware of the most significant risks, business heads so that they are aware of risks relevant to their parts of the business, and individuals so that they are aware of their responsibility for individual risks.
- Presenting external risk to stakeholders as part of corporate governance
- Limiting risks and preparing by completing activities such as obtaining insurance, establishing health and safety precautions, and creating business continuity plans.
- Preparing to limit risks and if things go wrong, carry out actions such as obtaining insurance, establishing health and safety precautions, and creating business continuity plans
- Conducting policy and standard compliance audits, as well as liaise with internal and external auditors.
- Raise risk awareness inside the organization, providing support, education, and training to employees.
Qualifications
- Requires a bachelor’s degree in business administration, economics, finance, or a related discipline.
- Certification as a Professional Risk Manager (PRM) may be advantageous.
- 2+ years of risk management or equivalent experience is required.
- Risk management, financial analysis, and related software expertise.
- Strong problem-solving and analytical abilities.
- Excellent communication and organizing abilities.
- Strong focus on the details.
- A thorough awareness of the goals and values of the company or organization.
- Computer, data entry, and Microsoft Office skills are required.
- Ability to effectively handle private, sensitive, and confidential information.
- Working knowledge of risk management and prior risk management experience (i.e. risk assistant or risk analyst).
- Strong online research and first-person interviewing skills.
- Working knowledge of insurance policies.
Essential Skills
- Analytical abilities and a keen eye for detail are required.
In our experience, risk managers must have analytical abilities and a keen eye for detail, regardless of the type of risk they manage. However, as described throughout this essay, if you want to advance up the corporate ladder and, for example, become a CRO, you must extend your horizons and be able to shift between the trees and the forest on a regular basis. As you advance in your profession, you will have more directing responsibilities, managing larger programs, and, most importantly, managing people. It is therefore critical that you maintain attention on both the broad features of your work (e.g., your firm’s business objectives, your department’s P&L, and the firm’s prospective top executives) and the specific components of your work (e.g., your department’s P&L and the firm’s potential top executives). It is also critical that you maintain attention on both the broad components of your work (for example, your firm’s business objectives, your department’s P&L, and the firm’s potential top risks) and the minor issues that occur on daily basis. You’ll largely delegate, but your keen analytical skills and a keen eye for detail, combined with the necessary abstraction to see the broad picture, will enable you to spot urgent smaller situations where you’ll need to intervene.
- Ability to work and survive under duress
Why do some people thrive under duress while others can’t seem to keep up? The main point is how a person reacts to stress. When confronted with a stressful circumstance, some people become overly emotional, while others maintain their composure and reply rationally. It is true that two people with the same training who are put in the same stressful scenario might have very different reactions and, as a result, completely different results.
- Financial know-how
Even if your Risk Management concentration is not on market or credit risk, you will be exposed to numbers to some extent. The more acute you are and the more comfortable you are with financial instruments and data, the better. Financial savvy, on the other hand, entails more than just knowing how to add and subtract. The ideal risk manager must also be familiar with and adept at interpreting various financial indicators related to the company’s assets, business lines, platforms, regions, markets, legislation, and stakeholders. The risk manager may also be responsible for the department’s P&L, time, resources, and funds, depending on their level of seniority. Furthermore, risk managers must occasionally translate less-than-objective concepts and hazards into particular and measurable elements, such as critical risk indicators. Furthermore, risk managers must occasionally translate less-than-objective concepts and hazards into particular and measurable elements, such as critical risk indicators. A risk manager’s ability to master numbers allows them to make sound and timely judgments. Pursuing financial education and abilities is becoming an increasingly important criterion for success in your Risk Management job as well as for your company.
- Technical abilities, negotiation skills, and the capacity to persuade others are all important.
Many times, this is a tricky and wishful blend. How many experts have you met who have outstanding technical abilities but are a catastrophe when it comes to interacting with people? Or maybe it’s the other way around; they’re excellent individuals with a constant pleasant aura surrounding them; everyone likes them and even feels special when they’re around. When things grow more technical in meetings, however, they go silent or even humiliate you by their lack of understanding on topics with which they should be familiar. In general, we’ve discovered that technical abilities are easier to learn than soft skills, which are most likely tied to personality and are more difficult to change.
Keep in mind that as your risk management job progresses, you’ll need to become increasingly proficient at dealing with people, negotiating on a daily basis, and persuading individuals to work toward a common goal.
The capacity to influence others is also a valuable skill, but not everyone possesses it. Above all, the ideal risk manager or chief risk officer must be able to listen and inspire others. These are two qualities that any excellent leader should strive for.
- Knowledge of the industry and the market
Aside from having a wide understanding of business concerns, the ideal risk manager is at ease and informed about the area in which he works, whether it’s finance, insurance, energy, or retail, to mention a few. The risk manager will be considerably more positioned to detect the posing threats if he or she has a thorough awareness of the industry and market in which the company works. Most importantly, the risk manager has to know how to rate, score, and group any potential risk for the company at any given time. In the financial services industry, it is now commonplace for an experienced risk manager or CRO to be familiar with issues such as:
enterprise risk management; information and security risk; market and credit risk; corporate governance, Regulatory risk, operational and technological risk, and business continuity management are all things to consider.
Experience in a certain industry, on the other hand, can be beneficial if it corresponds to the sector in which you want to specialize your risk management function. In conclusion, an experienced risk manager or potential CRO should be skilled in a specialized discipline, such as market risk, credit risk, or operational risk, while also having a wide understanding of risk challenges and regulatory trends.
- Communication and presenting abilities are important.
Firms have established that risk managers should preferably be schooled in quantitative finance throughout the previous decade. They should, however, have prior trading experience or exposure to a front-office position. They must also be able to communicate complicated financial products and risk management concepts, techniques, and processes to non-technical audiences, such as front office directors, senior management, and the board of directors. Risk managers are frequently called upon to summarize the many risks to which the company is exposed, and to produce actionable recommendations, as the board of directors strives to include Risk Management as a regular issue on the agenda. Risk managers are frequently called upon to summarize the various risks that the firm is exposed to and produce actionable outcomes that can be followed up at the executive committee level by order of the board of directors or the risk committee, as the board of directors makes an effort to have Risk Management as a regular topic on the agenda. Risk managers must have excellent interpersonal and communication skills to be effective.
How to Become a Risk Manager
Employers require a bachelor’s degree in risk management, business administration, finance, accounting, or computer science at the very least. A master’s degree in this or a related field was required for the majority of job vacancies. A risk manager should hold a bachelor’s degree in risk management at the very least. More companies are looking for candidates with a master’s degree.
An MBA in risk management is allowed, but an MBA in economics, accounting, or finance is also acceptable. These degrees demonstrate that you possess the necessary analytical skills as well as a working knowledge of software and financial analysis.
Risk managers are required by certain firms to be certified or licensed, and there are a variety of certifications available, including operational risk management certificates, risk manager credentials, and international enterprise risk management certificates.
Where to Work
- Healthcare institutions
Health-care risk managers are prepared to deal with a variety of ongoing or unforeseen public relations, personnel, operations, and financial issues. They are members of the upper medical administration staff, but their particular responsibilities vary depending on the position and the organization. They could, for example, participate in clinical research or assist hospitals in emergency preparedness. In order to speed claims management, they may interact directly with insurance and financial businesses. Almost all healthcare risk managers, on the other hand, will help with incident management covering minor, everyday issues as well as significant, unforeseen events.
- Banks
A bank risk officer used to analyze bank loans to ensure they were sound. Risks, on the other hand, are extremely complicated and diversified in today’s society. There are a variety of fascinating risk management positions available, including:
credit evaluation, Currency risk, interest rate risk, and trade risk are all examples of market risk.
Avoiding operational errors, guaranteeing the security of IT systems, and maintaining operations in a crisis, such as a pandemic, are all examples of operational risk.
Regulatory risk, which involves ensuring that the bank follows the law, as well as financial crime prevention.
They work in the risk management department, which serves as the bank’s nervous system, identifying and responding to threats as they develop.
The risk management department is overseen by the chief risk officer (CRO), who reports to the board, the regulator, and the chief executive. Because a bank’s risk management team works closely with other departments, you’ll be collaborating with coworkers to detect, assess, and respond to threats.
- Insurance companies
An insurance risk manager is responsible for understanding the critical causes of accidents or losses, recommending and implementing preventative measures, and designing plans to reduce cost and damage in the case of a loss, which may include the purchase of insurance. To put it another way, an insurance risk manager’s primary role is to use his or her knowledge, abilities, and expertise to detect potential risks that could result in a cash flow shortage and higher insurance rates for the company.
- Military
ORM (Operational Risk Management) take into consideration a three-part approach when dealing with risks associated with military operations or mission:
Risk assessment, risk decision-making, and the implementation of effective risk controls are all steps in the risk management process.
It’s a decision-making tool that improves the ability to make well-informed decisions while also lowering risks to manageable levels. ORM’s purpose is to improve operational capability and preparedness by controlling risk so that the mission may be completed with minimal loss.
Risk Manager Salary Scale
As of December 27, 2021, the average risk manager compensation in the United States is $116,607, however, the range frequently ranges between $101,087 and $133,467. Salary ranges depend on many factors which include schooling, certifications, supplementary talents, and the number of years you’ve worked in your field.
In Nigeria, a Risk Manager normally earns roughly 635,000 NGN per month. Salary ranges from 292,000 NGN (the lowest) to 1,010,000 NGN (the highest) (highest).
This is the monthly paid average, which covers housing, transportation, and other perks. Risk Manager salaries vary greatly depending on some factors such as experience, skills, gender, and region.
