Managing Director Asset Class Lead - Lending

Location: Hybrid, London EC1Y and homeworking

Reporting To: Co-Chief Investment Officer

Contract: Permanent, full time

Date Closes: Thursday 24th September

About Better Society Capital (BSC)

Better Society Capital (BSC) is the UK's leading social impact investor. Our strategy is to positively impact 15-20 million lives by mobilising £20-30 billion of capital into investible solutions that tackle some of the UK's biggest social and environmental challenges - across housing, economic opportunity, climate & energy and health. Investing BSC's capital is an essential tool for delivering those goals, using our leading impact investment approach to identify social issues and business models that can tackle inequality and change millions of lives.

The Opportunity

This is an opportunity to play a leading role in shaping markets for impact and to contribute to the success of one of the leading impact investors in the UK, while furthering your career in impact investment. Lending is one of the three core asset classes that BSC invests in, connecting £bns of capital with thousands of enterprises throughout the UK, while contributing to BSC's sustainable portfolio returns. It is led by a dedicated team whose remit comprises five sub-asset classes: Bank Equity, Direct Lending, Blended Finance, Outcomes and Renewables. The team is focused on mobilising capital for key priorities in BSC's strategy - what we call our "Opportunity Areas", including the UK government's flagship Better Futures Fund - as well as leading on several market wide initiatives such as the Blended Finance Collective.

As Asset Class Lead for Lending, you will own how this capability achieves BSC's mission: setting and delivering an investment strategy that serves BSC's strategic priorities and portfolio returns; building the market of the future so that more capital flows to the opportunities with the greatest potential to tackle inequalities for millions of people in the UK; and leading a high-performing team that both executes a leading impact investment process with excellence and acts as an agent of change in the system. You'll report to one of BSC's Co-Chief Investment Officers and sit on BSC's Senior Management Team.

This is a role for someone who combines the discipline and judgement of an excellent investor with the desire and drive to change systems so that more capital is deployed for impact. You have the vision, relationships and expertise to devise strategies that shift how government, investors and enterprises think about lending for impact, and to find, execute and manage the deals that deliver this ambitious vision.

What Success Looks Like

By the end of year one:

• You have a clear, ambitious investment strategy for Lending that your team, your peers on the Investment Leadership Team, and the Investment Committee understand and that aligns with the overall strategic and investment objectives of BSC.
• You are making investment decisions that balance financial return, systems change and social impact, with a pipeline of deals you have helped originate, drawing on BSC's track record, market insight and investment process.
• Your team is clear on expectations, feels supported to grow, and executes with pace and rigour.
• You are a trusted voice on the Investment Leadership Team, contributing beyond your own remit to building a world class impact investment team.
• You have established yourself as a credible and influential voice in the lending sector, building relationships with the key institutions and fund managers.
• Lending at BSC continues to have a rigorous investment process that supports excellence in investment decision making and execution, portfolio performance that meets BSC's return and impact objectives and a high quality future opportunity set.
• You have deepened your external relationships - with government, institutional investors, co-investors and enterprises - that genuinely shift how capital flows to your sub-asset classes; policymakers and investors seek your view.
• Your team has grown in capability, confidence and ambition; people want to work with you because they know they'll be stretched and developed.
• BSC, and the wider market, can point to lending models or partnerships you've built that others replicate at scale, contributing meaningfully to BSC's strategic goals.

Key Responsibilities

Investment strategy and delivery:

• Set the investment strategy and approach for Lending, defining how it delivers systems change, social impact and financial return in line with BSC's strategy, supported by a high quality investment process.
• Build and deliver a pipeline of compelling and aligned investment opportunities across the lending sub-asset classes.
• Own and present investment recommendations to the Investment Committee, supporting your Investment Directors and Investment Managers.
• Manage portfolio performance with Impact Investment Management, Middle Office and Finance, including borrower/fund relationships and special situations.
• Contribute a portfolio-wide perspective to BSC's annual strategic asset allocation process.
• Participate in Investment and Performance Committee, Valuation Committee and other investment governance forums.

Market building and external leadership:

• Be the voice of Lending at BSC - building a compelling narrative, internally and externally, that positions BSC as the partner and thought leader of choice.
• Be an agent for systems change, working with Policy, Investor Partnerships & Advisory and Communications to shift market conditions, influence policy and unlock capital at scale.
• Build and steward strategic relationships with government, institutional investors and the social sector.
• Lead significant cross-organisational projects that contribute to BSC's 2030 strategic goals, combining investment with BSC's other capabilities such as policy and investor advisory.
• Represent BSC through speaking, writing and industry engagement that builds your and BSC's credibility and influence in the field.

Team leadership:

• Lead your team to deliver BSC's goals and your investment strategy, with clear priorities that connect daily work to mission.
• Design your team's structure and ways of working, and own resource allocation and budget for the Lending Asset Class.
• Develop your team's skills and careers through long-term development plans, strong performance management and intentional talent development.
• Contribute to Investment Leadership Team decisions on development planning, talent standards, and succession across the investment team.
• Build a diverse team where different perspectives and backgrounds are a genuine strength.

Organisational leadership and partnership:

• Participate as a full member of the Investment Leadership Team and BSC's Senior Management Team, contributing to decisions and culture beyond Lending.
• Partner with Policy, Investor Partnerships & Advisory, Communications, Legal, Finance and People & Talent to deliver organisational goals.
• Lead or contribute to cross-organisational initiatives that advance BSC's mission.
• Model the behaviours we expect of leaders at BSC: sharing information proactively, giving and receiving feedback as a habit, and treating collective decisions as genuinely collective.

Qualifications

Skills and Experience

Essential Qualifications & Experience:

• A strong track record and understanding of credit investment, ideally with some exposure to one or more of: lending to social purpose organisations including social enterprise and charity lending, blended finance, impact private credit, renewable energy lending or social outcomes partnerships.
• Experience leading and developing a team of investors, with accountability for portfolio performance and originating new opportunities in an area of investment.
• A demonstrated ability to build relationships that shift outcomes in the system - with government, institutional & mission driven investors and social sectors - even if you haven't held all of these at once before.

Desirable Qualifications & Experience:

• Experience operating across the public, private and social sectors, and translating complex or technical points for different audiences.
• Experience navigating investment governance and committee processes at a senior level.
• A track record of structuring deals or partnerships that have shifted market conditions beyond the transaction itself - by unlocking follow on capital, building infrastructure or proving a model that changed what others were willing to fund.
• Direct experience in social impact investment is an advantage but we are also open to strong candidates bringing relevant experience from an adjacent background, for example, development or sustainable finance, public finance and institutional investors with a strong interest in impact.

Skills, Abilities and Attributes:

• Strong alignment to BSC's Values & Behaviours.
• A genuine connection to BSC's mission - tackling inequality and unlocking capital for lasting social and environmental impact in the UK.
• Motivated by systems change - and strong strategic thinker who thinks in systems, not only transactions: you consider the wider system and its key actors, understand the barriers to change, and find the inflexion points where investment can shift the whole market.
• Comfortable holding both ends of the job: rigorous.