Director of Credit Risk in Cardiff

As the Director of Credit Risk, a senior second-line role reporting directly to the Deputy CRO, you will shape and lead the Group's credit risk strategy at the highest level. Working closely with the Deputy CRO/Chief Credit Officer, you'll play a pivotal role in ensuring the Group makes robust, well-informed lending decisions and maintains a strong, sustainable credit risk profile across all business lines.

You will take ownership of the Group's credit risk management framework, setting the tone for how we identify, measure, manage, and report credit risk. This includes oversight of credit policies, lending strategies, risk measurement methodologies, and the delivery of clear, impactful reporting that ensures the Group consistently operates within its defined credit risk appetite.

This is a highly visible leadership position. You'll regularly engage with a broad range of influential stakeholders including FirstRand (our parent company), Group Executives, senior leaders across the business, regulators, investors, and credit rating and reference agencies. You will represent Aldermore's credit risk strategy and performance whilst providing expert insight on emerging trends and portfolio developments.

This position is designated as a Certified Role under the FCA's Senior Managers & Certification Regime (SM&CR).

• Oversight & Impact: Provide independent, expert challenge to 1LOD, ensuring credit risk is managed confidently within the Group's risk appetite, framework, and policies, as well as regulatory requirements such as MCOB and CONC. You will own and continually refine the Group's credit risk management framework, appetite, and associated policies, making sure they remain aligned to evolving industry best practice and deliver real value to the business.
• Strategic Partner to the Business: Act as a trusted strategic partner to senior leaders, influencing behaviours, shaping risk culture, and enabling safe, sustainable growth. You'll bring clarity on emerging risks, guiding the business to develop forward-looking strategies that quantify, manage, and monitor credit risk with precision.
• Leadership that Elevates Performance: Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team of Credit Risk professionals. You'll set direction and ensure the function delivers deep expertise and impactful support across the Group.
• Setting the Right Risk Appetite: Design and oversee appropriate risk limits across each business line, ensuring portfolios remain well-controlled and fully aligned with Board-approved risk appetite.
• Insight That Drives Decisions: Deliver high-quality insights into portfolio quality, performance, and concentrations across all segments, products, and markets. You will own the development of robust, industry-standard MI that enables senior stakeholders to make confident, informed decisions.
• Advanced Risk Measurement: Oversee the Group's impairment calculations and forecasting, stress testing, and the management of Credit Risk-Weighted Assets. You'll also be accountable for internal capital assessments under Pillar 2A and stress testing under Pillar 2B as part of the ICAAP.
• Systems Ownership: Own the production systems that power the Group's ECL and RWA calculation engines, ensuring they are accurate, effective, and future-ready.
• Model Risk Leadership: Lead the Group Model Development function and serve as Model Owner for all IFRS 9 credit models - driving strong governance and continuous enhancement of model performance and reliability.
• External Influence & Representation: Represent the Group with regulators, credit rating agencies, and reference agencies, articulating Aldermore's credit performance, strategy, and risk profile with authority and credibility.
• Governance & Executive Leadership: Serve as a member and Deputy Chair of the Executive Credit Committee and as a member of the Model Governance Forum. You will also deputise for the Chief Credit Officer as required - playing a key leadership role across the broader risk function.

• Proven Credit Risk leadership experience within banking
• Strong grounding in consumer & commercial credit risk, impairment/IFRS 9, ECL and RWA.
• Experience with ICAAP, Pillar 2A/2B and stress testing.
• Experience with credit risk model development and model oversight.
• Proven leader of multi-disciplinary hybrid working credit risk teams (c. 20-30 people), ability to develop and guide a seasoned team.
• Hands-on approach, able to step in and support technical work when required.
• Able to produce clear, high-quality MI and portfolio insight to support decisions.
• Sound digital literacy, with a good understanding of Tech/AI developments
• Confident, diplomatic communicator who is able to influence appropriately.
• Resilient, secure and comfortable in a challenging senior stakeholder environment.
• Pragmatic, commercially aware, and proportionate in risk judgement.
• Adaptable and collaborative, with strong problem-solving instincts.

About Aldermore: We're Aldermore - the award-winning bank, trusted and highly rated by over a quarter of a million customers for more than a decade. With our range of specialist mortgages, savings accounts and business finance solutions, we're backing more people to go for it.

We thrive by saying "yes" to our customers. We respect the ingenuity of entrepreneurs and their startups; we give first-timers a leg-up onto the property ladder; we open up the lending market to many; and thousands of customers chose Motonovo Finance every week to buy their next car, van or motorbike.

This is where you come in. We are on a journey. A journey defined by a destination; to deliver on our purpose.

A hybrid working policy, 3 days per week onsite in one of our offices.

A friendly and flexible culture, the same as how we work with our customers.

A growing organisation that means there's lots of opportunities to progress.

A drive for continuous improvement, which you will be empowered to get behind from day one.

And of course, you will be rewarded competitively, with a good range of core benefits and bonus potential.

Still curious? Join us and we'll make the same promises to you as a colleague, as we do to each of our customers. We're committed to building a working environment that values respect, diversity, and compassion. We welcome people regardless of age, disability, gender identity, marital status, race, faith or belief, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, and whether you're pregnant or on family leave.

Please note that we have a thorough referencing process, which includes criminal record checks.