Zia Basit
London,United Kingdom
Summary
Strategic A.I. Governance Lead with extensive experience in financial services, specialising in the design and implementation of Responsible AI frameworks, AI governance programmes and regulatory compliance. Expert in EU AI Act and ISO 42001 implementation, model risk management and third-party AI oversight, while maintaining full alignment with DORA, GDPR, CCPA and BCBS 239. Leverages deep IT governance, SDLC standards and cyber security frameworks across Azure, AWS and GCP to embed secure-by-design, privacy-by-design and model-risk controls into generative AI and MLOps environments. Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams through RegTech transformation and agile delivery (Jira, Confluence), delivering board-level reporting, risk mitigation and sustainable innovation that balances business value with ethical and regulatory standards.
Overview
12
12
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work history
Head of Transformation
Kaizen Reporting - Cybernetic Controls
London
2025.03 - 2026.03
- Directed enterprise-wide AI governance gap analysis in the Head of Transformation role, benchmarking existing AI tooling, usage patterns and risk practices against the EU AI Act, ISO 42001 and DORA.
- Identified critical weaknesses in tooling and approach, extended existing SDLC and cyber security frameworks to AI model lifecycles, and delivered actionable recommendations that established the foundation for a new Responsible AI framework with embedded secure-by-design controls.
- Launched and led the High Cadence transformation programme, embedding responsible AI governance and automated controls to improve delivery speed, quality, and platform agility.
- Delivered £280k direct cost savings through Agile team re-organisation and BAU offshoring; introduced first-ever financial transparency via cost-per-scrum and losses-per-scrum analysis, equating to average savings of circa £1.5m across five scrums.
- Supported delivery against DORA, MiFID II, and emerging EU AI Act requirements while strengthening operational resilience and regulatory oversight.
- Delivered immediate operational leverage and multimillion-pound efficiency gains through improved delivery structures, automation, and offshore capability build-out.
Interim Consultant – DevSecOps, AI & Experimentation
Kaizen Reporting - Cybernetic Controls
London
2024.03 - 2025.02
- Designed and governed a multi-agent autonomous AI system for an Ethereum-based DeFi looping leverage strategy; developed Order Management Agent for execution management, Looping Management Agent for strategy management and a dedicated Risk Manager Agent with embedded governance guard rails, real-time risk monitoring and comprehensive data lineage tracking, ensuring model transparency, audit-ability and full alignment with Responsible AI principles, EU AI Act high-risk requirements and ISO 42001 controls.
- Proposed, designed and executed global offshore scaling strategy, establishing a dedicated AI and RegTech Centre of Excellence with 70 specialist resources across data science, data engineering and regulatory domains; embedded governance-by-design into all client AI initiatives and successfully implemented the full suite of ISO standards, including ISO/IEC 42001:2023 (AI governance) and ISO/IEC 27001 (cybersecurity frameworks and physical/office security controls), delivering Responsible AI maturity, model risk management and regulatory alignment for financial institutions.
- Delivered an estimated £9 million in operational savings through process optimisation, offshore/nearshore redesign and improved operating models; directly supported AI governance maturity and risk mitigation across client portfolios.
- Designed and deployed the full set of 38 Annex A controls under ISO/IEC 42001:2023 for financial institutions; completed comprehensive AI impact assessments and embedded model-risk enhancements for process decisioning and quality assurance AI systems, achieving full regulatory alignment.
- Designed and implemented scalable data pipelines for 7 AI-driven risk models in alignment with BCBS 239 Principles 1–7, automating data aggregation and lineage controls that improved timeliness by 58% and accuracy by 41%, enabling full supervisory compliance for credit and market risk reporting.
- Established and led a DevSecOps and AI Centre of Excellence focused on responsible AI innovation, technical controls, and scalable transformation.
- Established and led DevSecOps and AI Centre of Excellence focused on Responsible AI innovation, technical controls and scalable transformation; designed and deployed AI agents that strengthened regulatory and technical control environments in line with ISO-aligned standards.
- Introduced Agile Ceremonies and DevOps DORA metrics across client teams, achieving an average 300% improvement in deployment frequency, lead time for changes, mean time to recovery, change failure rate and service reliability — all underpinned by embedded AI risk and security controls.
Interim Head of DevSecOps
HSBC
London
2022.10 - 2024.02
- Transformed global DevSecOps processes and introduced DevOps metrics across the bank, delivering an average 300% improvement in deployment frequency, lead time for changes, mean time to recovery, change failure rate and service reliability while embedding enhanced governance and risk controls.
- Defined and implemented a cyber experimentation strategy that automated manual toil, reduced operational costs and increased engineering throughput; innovated secure-by-design approaches to Cyber Security Scanning and SDLC processes, laying critical foundations for secure MLOps and AI model governance.
- Challenged and strengthened existing cyber controls to accelerate delivery cadence while maintaining full alignment with enterprise security policies and standards across a £15m+ programme portfolio.
- Enhanced cyber risk management and governance processes, pragmatically identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities; increased organisation-wide cyber risk awareness and collaborated with Information Assurance teams and communities of security experts embedded in product teams.
- Led on-time, standards-compliant delivery of critical programmes and products while reducing defects and strengthening overall cyber risk posture, directly supporting regulatory readiness for emerging AI-specific controls.
Interim Head of Automation & Transformation (Tech / Cloud Operations)
UBS
London
2019.01 - 2021.12
- Led cross-functional teams of robotics engineers, data scientists and process specialists to deploy AI and RPA across business-critical operations while embedding governance, risk and compliance controls; strengthened operational resilience and regulatory readiness in line with DORA and emerging AI risk standards.
- Delivered an ITIL-aligned service catalogue and automation roadmap that generated multimillion-pound savings; applied secure-by-design principles to support future AI governance and MLOps environments.
- Built CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, AWS and CloudBees to support group-wide automation for RBPnL, payments and core functions, incorporating automated risk and compliance testing.
- Executed successful AWS proof-of-concept for global payment controls that progressed to production and laid foundations for scalable, governed AI-driven processes.
- Migrated core processes into the Azure cloud environment, improving scalability, operational resilience and alignment with BCBS 239 data governance standards.
Contract DevOps Program Manager (GALM, Collateral Management, Basel)
UBS
London
2018.01 - 2018.12
- Rescued a failing collateral data visualisation programme by implementing stronger governance, delivery controls, and automated processes.
- Delivered data-driven insights that improved PnL visibility, reduced operational cost, and identified critical data quality issues across repos and bonds.
- Introduced automated data controls that enabled senior MD stakeholders to monitor core asset and liability indicators in real time.
Senior Project Manager – Market Risk, PnL Equity Derivatives
UBS
London
2015.03 - 2017.12
- Rescued a Risk and Finance PnL programme spanning eight workstreams, improving delivery control and strengthening regulatory reporting feeds for trading desks, finance, and risk teams.
- Delivered a fully automated PnL feed process with embedded data quality checks and controls.
- Helped protect the firm from an estimated £10 million to £50 million in potential regulatory fines.
- Delivered approximately £2 million in savings through test automation and process improvement.
Senior Dev Project Manager (Risk Control Framework for Regulatory Reporting)
HSBC Kaizen
London
2014.03 - 2016.01
- Delivered a Risk Control Framework for trade and transaction reporting across all asset classes.
- Implemented more than 3,000 automated regulatory tests and 60 reconciliations to strengthen reporting completeness and control effectiveness.
- Improved reporting quality across Dodd-Frank, EMIR, MiFID II, MAS, ASIC, and HKMA regulatory regimes.
- Supported migration of a core equities risk engine to the cloud.
Education
HND - Information Technology
Teesside University
Skills
- Responsible AI & Governance: Responsible AI, AI Governance Frameworks, Agentic AI, EU AI Act, AI Risk & Compliance, Regulatory Intelligence, ISO 42001, NIST AI RMF
- AI & Technology: Generative AI, Prompt Engineering, AI Agents, DevSecOps, MLOps, DORA Metrics, CI/CD, TDD, Automated Testing, Azure, AWS, GCP, SAST, DAST, MAST
- Regulatory & Risk: DORA, MiFID II, EMIR, SEF, Dodd-Frank, FRTB, BCBS 239, GDPR, CCPA, PCI DSS, NIST, ISO 27001
- Leadership & Delivery: Strategic Programme Management, RegTech Transformation, Offshore Centre of Excellence, High-Cadence Delivery, Agile, Scrum, Jira, Confluence, Change Management, Risk Management, Team Leadership
Websites
Certification
- PRINCE2, refresher in progress
- Investment Management Certificate, ongoing
- Artificial Intelligence and Data Science
- FFI Foreign Exchange and Money Markets
- Securities and Derivatives
Languages
English: Fluent
Fluent
Spanish: Conversational
Elementary
Additional Roles
- 2010 – 2014
- Consultant, FX Regulatory Front Office – Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Barclays Risk Solutions
- Senior Business Analyst / Project Manager – Lloyds Bank, NYSE, LMAX, Rabobank
Timeline
Head of Transformation
Kaizen Reporting - Cybernetic Controls
2025.03 - 2026.03
Interim Consultant – DevSecOps, AI & Experimentation
Kaizen Reporting - Cybernetic Controls
2024.03 - 2025.02
Interim Head of DevSecOps
HSBC
2022.10 - 2024.02
Interim Head of Automation & Transformation (Tech / Cloud Operations)
UBS
2019.01 - 2021.12
Contract DevOps Program Manager (GALM, Collateral Management, Basel)
UBS
2018.01 - 2018.12
Senior Project Manager – Market Risk, PnL Equity Derivatives
UBS
2015.03 - 2017.12
Senior Dev Project Manager (Risk Control Framework for Regulatory Reporting)
HSBC Kaizen
2014.03 - 2016.01
HND - Information Technology
Teesside University