Saujanya Dara

Risk Management professional with 13 years of experience in Operational and Compliance risk, Internal audit and RCSA across leading BFSI institutions and Big 4 consulting. Deep expertise in end-to-end Risk & Control Self-Assessment (RCSA), Control Testing, Internal Audit and Governance framework implementation. Proven ability to establish risk profiles for Global Capability Centre (GCC), manage enterprise-wide risk registers across 11+ risk types and lead cross-functional workshops with senior stakeholders.

Adept at identifying control gaps, driving remediation, and ensuring alignment with the 1st and 2nd Lines of Defence model and applicable regulatory standards. Actively seeking a Senior Risk or Controls Assurance role.

Risk Specialist – RCSA at Lloyds Technology Centre (2024-06 – 2025-12)

RCSA programme, led end to end RCSA program covering 11 distinct risk types including Sourcing & Supplier, Business Continuity, People & Places, Anti-Bribery, and Data & Privacy risk etc, ensuring full alignment with enterprise risk management.

• Facilitated cross-functional RCSA workshops, with senior management and business owners across multiple units, identifying control deficiencies and developing corrective action plans with tracked closure.
• Aligned the enterprise risk register, across 11 risk types, streamlining risk identification and classification activities in coordination with Group Risk teams.
• Delivered risk awareness session, across functions, improving risk identification capability and embedding a risk-aware culture within the GCC.
• Detected critical control gaps and evaluated residual risk exposures across enterprise operations, escalating material findings with actionable recommendations to senior management.

Deputy Manager – Risk Advisory at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP (2023-01 – 2024-04)

Regulatory Reporting process, conducted end-to-end internal audit reviews for clients, ensuring accuracy, consistency and in compliance with applicable Laws and global regulatory standards.

• Led assurance reviews, across client engagements, identifying control gaps in business processes and implementing corrective measures to mitigate misreporting risk.
• Standardised risk monitoring, methodologies and control effectiveness metrics, enhancing clients' overall risk posture and audit readiness.
• Performed root cause analysis on operational risk incidents and led implementation of corrective action plans, reducing repeat incidents across business units.
• Audit Trail, maintained comprehensive audit trails and testing work papers supporting both internal governance and external regulatory reviews.

Controls Assurance Manager at HSBC Electronic Data Processing (India) Pvt. Ltd (2022-06 – 2022-12)

As a part of Second Line of Defence conducted end-to-end control assessment, ensuring adherence to internal control and compliance with HSBC's global control assurance standards and Group policies.

• Designed tailored control testing scripts, assessing both design effectiveness and operational efficiency of controls.
• Performed root cause analysis for material control gap, implementing timely remediation with end-to-end tracked resolution.
• Prepared and escalated detailed reports, on control gaps, breaches and incidents to senior management, ensuring timely validation and remediation within SLA.

Control Management Specialist – RCSA at Wells Fargo International Solutions Pvt. Ltd (2021-04 – 2022-05)

Risk Framework, evaluated internal policies, procedures, operational controls to ensure alignment with organization's risk framework and regulatory obligations.

• Executed control testing programme, to validate effectiveness of risk mitigation strategies, producing rigorous evidence-based documentation for governance reviews.
• Stakeholder engagement, partnered with business owners to fortify control environments and ensure consistent adherence to enterprise risk standards.

Independent Testing Specialist – Quality Control at Wells Fargo International Solutions Pvt. Ltd (2019-02 – 2021-03)

Executed independent QC reviews for second line of defence, for control testing and issue validation across all operational lifecycle phases, assessing completeness and conformance against Independent Testing and Validation (IT&V) policies.

• Delivered coaching and actionable insights, to testing teams to enhance control effectiveness and testing quality standards.
• Trend Analysis, produced trend analysis and risk report driving continuous improvement and performance optimisation across multiple concurrent testing engagements.

Quality Assurance Analyst – Complaints at Wells Fargo International Solutions Pvt. Ltd (2017-01 – 2019-01)

Reviewed high-risk customer complaints, related to Auto Loans, ensuring full regulatory compliance across EFTA, FDCPA, UDAAP, SCRA, FCRA, TILA, Fair Lending Act, and Privacy Act.

• Complaint monitoring review, monitored and ensured risk and internal controls were in place to mitigate complaint-related risks.
• Identified trends, in customer complaints to effectively manage regulatory, compliance and operational risk and provided oversight of monitoring systems to facilitate identification and mitigation issues.

Financial Analyst – Default Accounts Payable at Wells Fargo International Solutions Pvt. Ltd (2012-08 – 2016-12)

Invoice review, conducted in-depth analysis of attorney invoices for Bankruptcy and Foreclosure cases across 52 US states

• Authenticated invoice, details using multiple resources and documentation provided by attorneys.
• Researched and processed, invoices accurately to prevent operational losses.

MBA in Finance