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Finance, Legal & Property

Operational Risk Leader

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  • Tempe, Australia
  • Risk & Compliance

Job Description

  • Job ID: 356523

  • Date posted: 22/07/2026



    • Are you a strategic thinker with a passion for risk management, driven to protect people, assets, and brand while enabling responsible business growth? Do you thrive in a dynamic environment where you can build meaningful relationships, influence risk culture, and make a real difference across an entire organisation? If so, we would love to meet you!

    About this work area

    As the Operational Risk Management Leader for IKEA Australia & New Zealand, you will be at the heart of our risk and compliance journey, ensuring a holistic and proactive approach to risk management across the country. Reporting to the Country Business Risk & Compliance Manager, you will be a performance-driven, solution-oriented professional with a broad interest in safeguarding our co-workers, customers, assets, and the IKEA brand. You will be someone who:
    • Create country-specific operational risk and compliance insights to identify and act on risks and business opportunities.
    • Maintain the Country Strategic Risk Register, proactively reviewing emerging trends and risk intelligence to identify, assess, and challenge strategic risks at country level. Work with stakeholders to evaluate risk exposure, oversee mitigation activities, and provide insights and reporting to Country Management and the Country Matrix Leader.
    • Conduct and facilitate tactical and operational risk assessments, developing and monitoring risk mitigation strategies.
    • Facilitate risk workshops, and provide feedback on risk assessments, assisting the business to evaluate risks and understand risk appetite.
    • Define and conduct compliance verification activities to evaluate operational effectiveness of controls and identify opportunities for improvement.
    • Apply process mapping skills to analyse end-to-end people, process, and systems risks and translate findings into practical improvements.
    • Provide feedback to risk and control owners on risk assessments and control effectiveness, and follow up on actions
    • Monitor and analyse operational risk incidents and compliance data to identify trends, act on insights, and improve data quality to support informed decision making across the organisation.
    • Prepare Board reporting on Operational Risk activities
    • Build and maintain strong business partner relationships across key functions, engaging with subject matter experts to understand and assess risks across the business and follow up on outstanding actions.
    • Implement standardised and automated ways of working to create efficiency and alignment across the country.
    •Lead and inspire a risk and compliance performance mindset, raise risk awareness, and promote a risk culture that supports growth and maximises business value.



    You are a passionate and motivated professional who combines strategic thinking with practical action. You bring a thorough understanding of risk assessment and mitigation in a business environment, and you are energised by driving business growth through collaboration and co-creation. You are comfortable navigating ambiguity, championing new digital systems and processes, and building strong networks across a complex, multi-dimensional organisation. You are a natural relationship builder who works collaboratively and positively with others, taking the time to understand risks from a people, process, and systems perspective. You engage confidently with subject matter experts and business partners, and you communicate with clarity and efficiency, whether in writing or in meetings. You bring comprehensive knowledge in profiling, modelling, analysing, and reporting on data to generate insights for business decision making, and you are motivated by finding new ways of working and by sharing and living the IKEA culture and values.

    To be considered for this role you will need to have
    • University-level education or proven knowledge in the area of risk management, providing the theoretical foundation required to operate and validate risk and compliance frameworks effectively.
    • A minimum of three years of experience in risk management and/or business operations, demonstrating the ability to identify, assess, and treat risks in a complex business environment.
    • Excellent stakeholder management and relationship-building skills, including experience engaging with senior business partners across diverse functions such as finance, digital, procurement, and sustainability.
    • Highly effective communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to convey complex risk information and risk methodology clearly and efficiently to a range of audiences.
    • Strong process mapping capability, with the ability to analyse end-to-end people, process, and systems risks and translate findings into practical improvements.
    • The ability to make well-balanced decisions that consider business, people, and ethical perspectives, ensuring outcomes that are both commercially sound and values aligned.
    • A strong sense of integrity and high ethical standards, reflecting IKEA’s commitment to doing the right thing in all situations.

    Additional information

    • Permanent, full-time, 76hrs/fortnight.
    • The location for the role is Service Office, Tempe NSW, with a minimum of 3 days a week on-site.
    • Internal role title is Operational Risk Management Leader.
    • If you are successful for this role, you will be required to obtain a national police check.
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