Group Head of Risk and Compliance

We’re Gravita: the accountants fuelling ambitious businesses. We’re a full service, tech-enabled firm, working with entrepreneurs and businesses to help them achieve their goals, and make an impact in the world.

We’re growing fast and are bringing like-minded advisors together to form a full-service tech-enabled accounting partner for thousands of SMEs. Our team use their incredible expertise alongside intuitive technology to help businesses and entrepreneurs plan better and grow faster.

Our mission is to become the UK’s leading tech-enabled accounting firm for SMEs. We have ambitious goals and our high-calibre team work hard to achieve them. We are one team with one agenda, working collaboratively in a respectful environment to deliver a great service to our clients. So if you join us, you’ll not only be working on exciting client challenges, you’ll also be helping us shape the future of accounting .

The Role

We’re looking for a bold, forward-thinking Group Head of Risk and Compliance to take the reins of our governance and risk strategy. This newly created position offers a rare chance to reshape the function from the ground up. You’ll have the freedom to challenge existing processes, introduce fresh frameworks, and build a best-in-class compliance culture that supports innovation and growth.

You’ll be working closely with technical experts in our Audit team, coordinating across both regulated and non-regulated areas of the business. While the Audit side brings deep technical compliance expertise, this role offers broader autonomy across the wider organisation, giving you the scope to influence, adapt and elevate compliance practices firm-wide.

Key Responsibilities:

You’ll lead Gravita’s risk and compliance strategy, including:

Governance & Strategy

• Develop and embed a firm-wide Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework. Advise the Board on emerging regulatory and geopolitical risks, and produce detailed performance reports.

Regulatory Compliance

• Ensure full compliance with key regulations including ISQM (UK) 1 and 2, ICAEW Practice Assurance, UK Money-Laundering Regulations, and GDPR.

Quality & Independence

• Build and oversee a system of quality management (SOQM) across the organisation, ensuring robust independence and ethics controls.

Monitoring & Remediation

• Lead monitoring activities to evaluate and enhance the effectiveness of our SOQM annually.

Stakeholder Management

• Support Partner-level engagement with regulators such as the FRC and ICAEW.

Training & Culture

• Design and deliver impactful compliance training programmes, fostering a culture of accountability and integrity.

Incident & Claims Management

• Oversee investigations into complaints, PII claims, and data breaches, ensuring swift and effective resolution.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Lead a team of compliance professionals and work closely with technical specialists across Audit and other departments. Champion Gravita’s values and drive a culture of excellence and accountability.

Qualifications, Knowledge & Experience:

We’re after someone who combines deep technical expertise with commercial acumen and leadership skills:

• Ideally, ACA or ACCA qualified with 10+ years in audit, risk, quality or compliance within a UK-regulated accountancy firm.

• Proven experience leading a risk or compliance function in a mid-to-large firm (200+ headcount).

• Strong knowledge of FRC Ethical Standard, ISQM (UK) 1, Companies Act 2006, ICAEW Code of Ethics, UK MLR 2017, GDPR and UK data-protection regime.

• Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to advise senior stakeholders.

• A pragmatic approach to regulation that enables growth while safeguarding standards.

• A change-maker mindset ready to challenge legacy systems and build something better.

• A collaborative leader who thrives in cross-functional environments and values technical expertise.

Y our Career with Gravita

When you join Gravita, we’ll support you on your own growth journey. We want to be the place you learn, grow and unlock your true potential.

We’ll work with you to build a progression plan to outline how you’ll grow at our company and everything we’ll do to help you get there. We’re also passionate about learning and development, to help you focus on your future.

The Nitty Gritty

• Our standard working week is a 37.5-hour week on a hybrid basis
• Core working hours are 10am - 4pm Monday to Friday
• Flexible working and happy employees are at the top of our list here at Gravita and we have been working hard to support our teams through the fast-paced changes.
• Your development won’t be forgotten, our development support is extraordinary for a firm of our size.
• It's a busy, fast-paced environment here at Gravita. Feel free to check out our social media channels (Instagram, X, LinkedIn and Glassdoor).