Operational Risk Manager Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Our Company
Oaktree is a leader among global investment managers specializing in alternative investments, with about $200 billion in assets under management. The firm emphasizes an opportunistic, value-oriented, and risk-controlled approach to investments in credit, private equity, real assets, and listed equities. The firm has over 1400 employees and offices in 25 cities worldwide.
We are committed to cultivating an environment that is collaborative, curious, inclusive and honors diversity of thought. Providing training and career development opportunities and emphasizing strong support for our local communities through philanthropic initiatives are essential to our culture.
For additional information please visit our website at www.oaktreecapital.com
Position Overview
The Vice President will design and implement an enterprise-wide risk event and issue management program from the ground up. This role focuses on program design, governance and organizational change, covering risk events, issues and technology-related incidents, and is not a tactical Technology operations or incident response position. The role requires strong leadership and influencing skills to drive organizational change, establish accountability across functions, and build a scalable framework aligned to Oaktree's operational and regulatory expectations. This role will report directly to the Head of Operational Risk Management (ORM) and is initially structured as an individual contributor position.
This role will enhance the firm's approach to risk event and issue management by establishing a more unified framework, governance model and reporting structure across the enterprise. Given that risk events can arise across the full operational spectrum - from technology failures to business process breakdowns and operational errors with potential financial or regulatory impact - this position will establish a unified framework to support more consistent capture, coordination, escalation and executive reporting.
This role will orchestrate the development of a centralized risk event management framework and program, define roles and responsibilities across the organization, and establish a scalable operating model. This includes workflow design: structured intake, classification, prioritization, escalation and reporting, supported by strong governance and stakeholder alignment and cross-functional accountability.
The role will deliver:

• Enterprise risk event and issue management framework, and governance model.
• Defined roles and responsibilities across the event lifecycle.
• Executive-level roadmaps, business cases and maturity assessments.
• Severity and prioritization framework (e.g., P1/P2/P3 or H/M/L or S1/S2/S3).
• Communication and escalation protocols.
• Structured coordination with risk event and issue owners.
• ServiceNow implementation strategy for risk events and issues, in partnership with Technology Services.
• Consistent risk event capture and classification within the firm's ServiceNow environment, in partnership with Technology Services.
• Audit-ready documentation aligned to regulatory control expectations.

This role is structured in two phases: an initial program build phase focused on framework design and implementation, followed by a transition to a steady-state BAU function embedded within the ORM team, providing ongoing ownership, oversight and continuous improvement of the program.
Key Responsibilities:
Program Design & Governance

• Drive organizational alignment and adoption across teams through influence, governance and stakeholder engagement.
• Assess current state across technology, business and operational teams.
• Design and implement a harmonized enterprise event management framework.
• Define clear roles, responsibilities and ownership across the event lifecycle.
• Establishing governance structures, including steering committees and decision-making protocols.

Event Lifecycle Design & Oversight

• Design, own and maintain structured frameworks liaising with internal teams, covering:
  • Event identification (what occurred).
  • Root cause (how / why it occurred).
  • Systems, processes and environments impacted.
  • Severity prioritization (e.g., P1/P2/P3) aligned to escalation and response expectations.
  • Impact assessment (e.g., financial exposure, operational disruption, regulatory implication, client impact).
  • Escalation paths and communication requirements (who needs to know and when).
• Provide oversight from identification through closure, ensuring workflow consistency and accountability.
• Ability to lead structured root cause analysis to identify underlying drivers across systems, processes, data and vendors.
• Provide oversight and coordination to ensure framework is following during major events, including structured responses, clear accountability and effective communication across teams.
• Partner with teams (e.g., Security, IT, Business Continuity, Risk) to harmonize processes.

Data, Reporting & Platform Integration

• Establish consistent reporting and dashboards to track trends/themes.
• Create runbooks and playbooks.
• Evolve process in phases as ServiceNow platform matures.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in operational risk management, enterprise risk management, or business process design in complex organizations; financial services experience preferred (investment management experience a plus).
• Experience designing and implementing enterprise-wide frameworks and operating models.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate areas of risk and issues to senior leadership in clear, actionable manner, and to influence stakeholders and drive organizational change across complex, cross-functional environments.
• Experience in regulated environments.
• Familiarity with ITSM, IRM/GRC platforms (specifically ServiceNow) preferred, sufficient to engage effectively with Technology teams.
• ITIL familiarity preferred but not required.
• Familiarity with investment operations, trading workflows, and front-to-back office processes a plus.
• Proven ability to coordinate across business and technology stakeholders, particularly during time-sensitive events.
• Backgrounds in operational risk, management consulting, or business operations encouraged to apply.

Personal Attributes

• Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence decision-making and drive accountability across teams.
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills with the ability to partner across technical teams and business stakeholders, including senior leadership.
• Self-initiated with a proven ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment.
• Thrives in roles that require outside of the box thinking, solving problems and navigating through ambiguous and /or complex issues, ability to balance technical details and strategic business priorities.
• Passion for improving systems and processes, ability to act as a change agent with a focus on innovation.
• Highly detail-oriented and a natural problem solver; have the resolve to independently research problems and offer solutions.
• Works well under pressure and with time constraints; and
• Possesses strong integrity and professionalism.

Education
Bachelor's degree and or equivalent work experience
Base Salary Range
$160,000 - $200,000
In addition to a competitive base salary, you will be eligible to receive discretionary bonus incentives, a comprehensive benefits package and a flexible work arrangement. The base salary offered will be commensurate with experience and/or qualifications, industry knowledge and expertise, as well as prior training and education.
Equal Opportunity Employment Policy
Oaktree is committed to diversity and to equal opportunity employment. Oaktree does not make employment decisions on the basis of race, creed, color, ethnicity, national origin, citizenship, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, past or present physical or mental disability, HIV status, medical condition as defined by state law (genetic characteristics or cancer), pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, veteran status, military service, marital status, familial status, genetic information, domestic violence victim status or any other classification protected by applicable federal, state and local laws and ordinances. This policy applies to hiring, placement, internal promotions, training, opportunities for advancement, recruitment advertising, transfers, demotions, layoffs, terminations, recruitment advertising, rates of pay and other forms of compensation and all other terms, conditions and privileges of employment. This policy applies to all Oaktree applicants, employees, clients, and contractors. Staff members wishing to report violations or suspected violations of this policy should contact the head of their department or Human Resources.
For positions based in Los Angeles
For those applying for a position in the city of Los Angeles, the firm will consider for employment qualified applicants with a criminal history in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law.