Connecting Technology and Risk Management: A Path to a Strategic Career

Risk management in India is a growing career. New opportunities abound for those seeking a profession that assesses and addresses risk as part of a business’ overall strategy. For those with technology skills, the future may be even brighter.

In a recent global survey of more than 2,100 members, the Global Association of Risk Professionals found that 73% of respondents in India expect to see increased hiring for risk management jobs, compared to 54% globally.

One reason for this is COVID-19. The pandemic shined a spotlight on the need for enhanced risk management, as it dramatically increased reliance on technology.  Remote work resulted in increased cyber, operational, and other technological risks, and has required firms to speed up plans to develop a more digitized organizational workplace.  As a result, it’s unsurprising that hiring managers in India and globally are looking for risk management candidates with technology skills.

In the GARP Risk Careers survey, 13% of India respondents with hiring duties reported that in 2021 they will be recruiting for technology skills. That number is likely to continue to rapidly grow as tech use accelerates in Indian industries.

India is the second-fastest digital adopter among major digital economies according to a McKinsey Global Institute study. And though companies in India trail consumers in adopting technology, they are quickly catching up. Growing high-speed internet connectivity and falling data costs are providing opportunities for companies to adopt more advanced technology.

As the use of advanced technology in businesses grows, so too will the potential for cyberattacks and misuse of technology. Already, India ranks as the country with the second most cyberattacks in Asia, according to a recent IBM report.

All these factors open the path to powerful strategic careers in risk management in India by combining technology and risk management skills. Some options are outlined below.

1. Technology specialist in IT. Risk management will be a key component of any technology role. For instance, with cybersecurity such a challenge for organizations, managing and/or reducing cyber risk makes those professionals risk managers in the purest definition of the word.

For those in development and architecture, being on the IT team means being a risk manager. To build or maintain platforms and systems requires an in-depth understanding of the organization’s processes and its strategy.  That understanding leads to technology solutions that help the business find, reduce, and/or eliminate areas of risk, while creating opportunities to innovate.  Ensuring IT works is also a key risk function – systems that break down or can be breached are risks for the business.

2. Risk management generalist. Risk managers view the world in a broader way – surveying the organization’s landscape, markets, and suppliers to assess risks that could impact the company’s   Then they work with business leaders to set the organization’s risk appetite.

For a commercial bank, a risk manager will work with the business heads to determine the organization’s appetite for making certain types of loans. An institution may make thousands of loan decisions on a regular basis. Increasingly, those decisions are being made by using big data and artificial intelligence – with risk managers writing and/or vetting the models that underly the decision-making process.  This is just one example of the use of technology in risk management and points out why a risk manager who understands technology is increasingly important.

3. Risk management technology specialist. For those who want to specifically focus on technology and risk management, new specialties are arising and growing rapidly. In our Career Trends survey, 33% of hiring managers in India noted that their biggest challenge in finding talent was a lack of technical skills, including technology backgrounds, compared with 31.2% globally.

What does a technology specialist do in a risk management team?  He or she may support many of the efforts discussed here. For instance, they may help monitor the security landscape for the company’s platforms, working closely with the CISO, CIO, or CTO. They may help write and code risk models. And, they may be data analysts – helping the risk management team comb the organization’s data to reveal and address risk.

The interconnection between technology and risk management will continue to grow as organizations become more and more reliant on platforms and systems to conduct core operations. Knowledge of both disciplines will not only lead to interesting, strategic careers, it will help organizations in India and around the world meet their strategic goals.

About the author

Richard Apostolik is the President and CEO of the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP), the leading professional association for risk managers, dedicated to the advancement of the risk profession through education, research, and the promotion of best practices globally. For more information, please visit www.garp.org.