Our mission in the Risk and Compliance team is to provide assurance, advice and challenge with a view to driving risk awareness and accountability in our global business.

It requires people with strong analytical skills, and a passion for problem solving. An ability to build relationships and communicate effectively, whatever the situation. And a desire to collaborate, so you can make the most of your strengths.

From the start of my program I was given responsibility, and pushed to gain experience in areas I wanted to improve in."


Fraser Harle

From day one, you’ll contribute to our ambitions whilst developing your skills and knowledge in the industry. Over the 10 week Summer internship you will be given real work with tangible outputs, allowing you to gain exposure to real business situations, with real responsibility.

Regardless of which team you join you will gain a depth of experience; getting the opportunity to work with seasoned professionals across our business and engage in development activities with your peers on the Summer internship programme.

You will be based with the same team throughout the Summer internship placement.

On completion of your Summer internship you will be considered for a position on our 24 month rotational graduate programme. Details of the graduate programme are below.

Summer internships

Applications for Summer internships within Risk and Compliance are filled for 2021.

The graduate programme

During your four placements, you’ll gain first-hand experience of both how the business operates and the different teams that make up the Risk & Compliance (R&C) department. This could be in roles relating to emerging and existing regulations, operational risks, anti-financial crime, risk reporting, risk analytics and investment risk oversight to name just a few different R&C teams.

These placements will give you a great understanding of the big issues and challenges that our business faces as well as developing your technical and interpersonal skills.

There’s great support along the way too, with placement managers providing on the job guidance, a R&C graduate stream head focused on your personal development, and a R&C stream sponsor focused on your longer-term development. 

  • Duration: Two year graduate programme
  • Structure: Four placements lasting six months
  • Development: Support to work towards a professional qualification
  • Location: Edinburgh

All graduate positions for 2021 have been filled.

The culture at abrdn is one of the main reasons why I returned as a graduate after undertaking an internship the previous summer. From my experience, during the working day I can be myself and my opinion is listened to and valued. Although the work can be challenging, I have an excellent support system and I am yet to meet a colleague who is anything other than pleased to answer my questions, no matter how small."