Business Support Manager to Grp Director of Retail Services

At Nationwide, we are navigating significant and ambitious change at an exciting time in our history. In Retail Services, enabling and delivering Simply brilliant service is what our teams do every day. Our channel of choice strategy underpins everything we do, making sure we’re available to customers whenever and wherever they need us.

This is a unique, newly created 12-month secondment opportunity to work within the office of the Group Director of Retail Services, who leads the Function. Reporting to Mandy Beech, you will work closely with the Exec PA and the Head of Channel Operations, overseeing and delivering activities. This is a fast-paced environment at the heart of the function, where no two days are the same! We are seeking someone who is curious, customer first and demonstrates a desire to make a difference, operating across a broad range of activities. You’ll have excellent relationship management, communication and organisational skills, and be able to deliver multiple streams of work simultaneously.

For this job, whilst we're flexible on base location, you will spend at least two days per week based at our London office, ensuring you stay close to the Director, maintain visibility of workload, build relationships, and remain connected to the team.

Nationwide is committed to the redeployment of our employees impacted by change, as such applications for redeployment candidates will be prioritised in this recruitment process.

Your role will be focused on supporting the Grp Director of Retail Services, ensuring the office runs effectively and that they’re consistently well prepared for the meetings, decisions and engagements that matter most. This will include managing the flow of comms and briefing materials in and out of the Director’s office, working closely with the Retail Services Leadership Team to coordinate clear, concise and well-structured inputs ahead of key forums including ExCo and CEO engagement. Being capable of managing deadlines and prioritising effectively will be essential in this role.

You’ll support the Director by creating and organising briefing packs ahead of internal and external meetings, ensuring they are sighted on key issues, risks and opportunities. A core part of the role will be looking ahead — identifying emerging concerns, joining the dots across the business, and ensuring the Director is prepared to respond. You will also oversee the tracking and delivery of actions from key meetings, ensuring outputs are delivered on time and to the right quality.

Another element of the role is ensuring the Director’s time is spent on the areas of greatest value. This will require strong judgement, the ability to work at pace, and confidence to challenge and prioritise where needed. You will support the planning and structure of 1:1s and leadership interactions, helping to ensure discussions are focused and outcomes-driven.

Colleague engagement is also an important part of the role. You will work closely with the Retail Services Communications and Engagement team to prepare the Director for key colleague-facing activity, including town halls, site visits and other engagement opportunities, ensuring strong briefing notes and clear messaging are in place.

This is a varied and high-profile role supporting a business of over 5,000 colleagues across the UK, requiring someone who is organised, proactive and able to operate effectively in a complex and fast-paced environment.

To be successful in this role, you’ll have/be:

• Excellent communication skills both in person and in writing, with demonstrable experience authoring and co-ordinating executive level briefing notes and materials
• Strong interpersonal and stakeholder management skills, with experience of working closely with senior leaders
• Able to successfully navigate varying degrees of ambiguity in a fast-paced environment
• Confident translating information into clear headlines and insight for senior audiences
• Strong judgement, with the ability to anticipate issues and look ahead to identify risks and opportunities
• A natural sense of responsibility and discretion
• Intuitive and capable of making sound decisions in a complex environment
• Excellent organisational skills, with experience of managing competing priorities and leadership cadence
• Effective, versatile and action-oriented, with the ability to plan, prioritise and manage both routine and ad hoc workload

Our customer first behaviours put customers and members at the heart of how we work together. They are the set of behaviours that every colleague needs to display, in every role:

• Feel what customers feel - We step into our customers’ shoes, using their feedback and insights to empathise with them and to understand their needs, so that every decision we make starts and finishes with our customers in mind
• Say it straight - We are brave in speaking out and saying what we think – we’re honest and direct with good intent, openly sharing diverse perspectives to reach the best conclusions and using language everyone can understand
• Push for better - We don’t settle for mediocrity, we challenge the status quo, taking responsibility for continuous improvement and personal development
• Get it done - We prioritise what will have the greatest impact, we are decisive, and we take accountability for delivering brilliant customer outcomes

We continually review and evaluate our offering to ensure we have a broad range of market competitive benefits available for our colleagues. When you put a lot in, it’s only fair to expect a lot out. So, when you help us do the right thing for our customers, we want to reward you. There are all sorts of employee benefits available at Nationwide, including:

• 25 days holiday
• Access to private medical insurance
• A highly competitive pension to help you build a strong foundation for retirement
• Access to an annual performance-related bonus
• Training and development to help you progress your career
• A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Life assurance to provide peace of mind for you and your loved ones in the event of your death
• Wellhub – access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness
• Flexible Benefits Scheme
• Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year

We also offer a generous range of family friendly policies to support you through important life events. Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society. We forge our own path at Nationwide. As a mutual, we’re owned by our members — those customers who bank, save or have a mortgage with us. We challenge the financial sector status quo. We don’t see customers as the engine of profit. We put their needs first. Always.

If you’re inspired by fairer finances, passionate about making a meaningful impact, and truly care about customers, you’re one of us. At Nationwide, you are challenged to grow and rewarded for doing so. Valued. Recognised. Inspired to be your best. We are purpose driven. Uncompromisingly customer. Unstoppably Nationwide.

To apply, simply click the ‘Apply Now’ button. Please ensure you attach your CV and complete a few short application questions. If you’d like to find out more about the role or have any questions, feel free to contact Johanna.Polzmann@nationwide.co.uk (Executive Resourcing) for a confidential conversation.