Emea Risk Manager - Bucuresti, Romania

Join our Global Risk Management Group, where you’ll play a key role in safeguarding the company, ensuring we deliver on our commitments to customers and stakeholders, and driving responsible growth. As part of our team, you’ll identify, monitor, and mitigate both financial and non-financial risks across the organization. Leverage your expertise as the second line of defense to advise our business on effective risk management strategies. This means challenging ideas, implementing robust controls, and enforcing guardrails to foster responsible business growth. Join us in advancing MetLife’s legacy of trust through exemplary risk management practices.

• Drive the strategic development and oversee the consistent implementation and ongoing enhancement of the EMEA Non‑Financial Risk Management (NFRM) framework. 
• Coordinate, review and challenge Non‑Financial Risk Assessments (NFRAs) across countries and functions, ensuring consistency, completeness and quality.
• Provide guidance to first‑line teams on risk identification, assessment, control environment effectiveness and risk acceptance.
• Identify and drive regional thematic analysis, identifying systemic risks, emerging threats, and control weaknesses, and ensuring actions are prioritised and escalated appropriately 

• Act as a second‑line risk partner, providing independent challenge and constructive advisory support to the to business and functional leadership.
• Assess alignment of operational risk exposures with approved risk appetite, escalating material issues where necessary.
• Lead deep-dive reviews and thematic risk assessments on critical operational risk areas (e.g. data quality, outsourcing, resilience).
• Escalate material issues to senior governance forums, influencing decisions and ensuring timely remediation.

• Support end‑to‑end operational risk governance across EMEA, from local risk committees to regional Executive and Board Risk Committees.
• Prepare, review and coordinate high‑quality risk materials, papers and presentations for senior management and committee forums.
• Contribute to governance consistency and effectiveness across countries and legal entities.

• Produce and coordinate EMEA operational risk reporting, including qualitative insights, trend analysis and key risk indicators.
• Support regional and Group reporting requirements, including inputs into ORSA and other regulatory or management reporting.
• Provide clear, concise risk insights tailored to senior stakeholders and decision‑makers.
• Promote data-driven and insight-led risk management practices across the region

• Build strong working relationships with country risk officers, functional risk leads and senior stakeholders across EMEA.
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders, including CRO, country leadership, and functional heads
• Promote a strong risk culture by encouraging ownership, transparency and informed risk‑based decision‑making.
• Influence and challenge first-line accountability for risk ownership, reinforcing clear roles between first and second line

• Provide strategic oversight and challenge of material change initiatives across EMEA, ensuring operational risks are appropriately identified, assessed, and managed throughout the change lifecycle (including transformation programmes, new products, outsourcing, and technology initiatives).
• Define and maintain risk expectations and standards for change management, ensuring consistent application of NFRM principles and clear first-line accountability across countries and functions.
• Oversee cross-country and regional initiatives, ensuring alignment of risk approaches, consistency in implementation, and effective identification of systemic risks and interdependencies across markets.
• Lead second-line review of key programmes and initiatives, providing independent challenge on risk assessments, control design, readiness, and residual risk acceptance.
• Ensure timely escalation of material risks arising from change activities to EMEA governance forums, influencing decision-making and ensuring appropriate mitigation actions are in place.
• Drive continuous improvement of change risk practices across the region, incorporating lessons learned from events, reviews, and regulatory expectations.
• Promote strong collaboration between central, local, and functional teams, ensuring effective coordination and visibility of risks across complex, multi-jurisdictional initiatives.

•  Solid experience (10+ years) in Operational Risk, Non‑Financial Risk within financial services or insurance (preferred).
• Very good verbal and written communication skills; Ability to translate risk concepts into clear, practical guidance for business stakeholders.
• Fluent English, with the ability to communicate complex risk topics clearly and confidently to senior stakeholders across EMEA.
• Strong understanding of Non‑Financial Risk Management frameworks, including risk assessments, controls and issue management.
• Strong critical thinking skills, with the confidence to apply independent judgement and provide effective second‑line challenge in a complex, multi‑country environment, influence senior stakeholders, and drive change.
• Experience working in a multi‑country or EMEA environment, with exposure to different regulatory and business models.
• Presentation skills, including preparation of communication materials for different audiences or committees.
• Experience with risk reporting, dashboards or data‑driven analysis (e.g. KRIs, thematic analysis).

• Prior experience in insurance or financial services, particularly life insurance.
• Exposure to Board, Executive or Senior risk committee reporting and governance forums.
• Familiarity with regulatory frameworks affecting non‑financial risk (e.g. operational resilience, outsourcing, ICT risk).
• Project or change management experience related to risk frameworks, governance or process improvement.
• Additional European or EMEA languages.

The expected salary range for this position is 300.000-334.200 RON gross annually. This role may also be eligible for annual short-term incentive compensation. All incentives and benefits are subject to the applicable plan terms.