Senior Director - Growth Finance, Strategic Finance in Glasgow

Growth Finance is our UK-wide venture debt proposition, providing senior debt and transactional banking facilities to innovative, high-growth businesses. This Senior Director position is a relationship portfolio role where you’ll be responsible for driving value through proactive portfolio management, building deep and trusted relationships with existing customers, and working closely with management teams, investors and key stakeholders to support performance and navigate critical business milestones.

Using your commercial judgement and understanding of the venture debt market, you’ll lead the end-to-end management of client relationships, including ongoing credit stewardship, monitoring, restructurings where required, and identifying opportunities to deepen relationships and deliver additional income, all while operating within our risk and regulatory framework. This role sits within our Growth Finance team and is focused on managing and developing a portfolio of venture debt connections within Strategic Finance.

The successful candidate will be responsible for building deep, trusted relationships with existing clients, applying strong commercial judgement and market insight to support portfolio performance, identify emerging risks and deliver sustainable income in line with our credit and regulatory framework. We are a well-established and respected participant in the UK venture debt market, with a strong and proven track record of supporting high-growth businesses. Our portfolio comprises fast-scaling, innovation-led and technology-enabled companies, where our non-dilutive capital plays a critical role in enabling growth.

Through proactive portfolio management, we work closely with management teams, investors and wider stakeholders to help businesses navigate key inflection points, extend their cash runway and maximise long-term value while protecting founder and investor equity. We are happy to consider flexible working approaches to help you perform at your best. At Nationwide, we offer hybrid working wherever possible. More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK-wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working.

We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected. For this job you'll be located at our Glasgow hub. There will be a need to regularly connect with colleagues for collaboration events, this is anticipated to be weekly in Glasgow.

Responsibilities:

• You’ll lead and support the venture debt portfolio team, with people leader responsibilities, providing guidance and support in complex situations and helping to set clear priorities and ensure work is completed to a high standard.
• You’ll create a strong team culture where people feel supported but also accountable.
• You’ll be required to develop and build strong relationships with our portfolio companies, closely and diligently monitoring and controlling risk whilst also being proactive and alert to identify new lending opportunities within the portfolio.
• You’ll also be an advocate for the financial institution and provide superior standards and customer service to maintain our strong reputation in the market, positioning us well for warm referrals/introductions into new companies, relationships and lending opportunities.
• Additionally, you will look to open doors for our origination team with warm introductions to venture capital and private equity funds that are invested into our portfolio companies to develop relationships and enhance our origination activity.
• Alongside this, you’ll stay informed, knowledgeable and connected to the market, keeping up to date with trends and using this insight to find and shape new lending avenues and opportunities.

About you:

• Proven experience working within the venture debt market, with a clear track record of managing or supporting lending to high-growth businesses.
• The ability to analyse and interpret financial statements, including cash flow forecasts and key performance measures, to inform lending decisions.
• Demonstrated experience preparing credit applications and building financial models to support lending proposals.
• A solid understanding of loan documentation and complex lending structures, particularly in venture debt transactions.
• The ability to identify, assess, and manage risk within a lending portfolio to manage and minimise risk.
• Exceptional leadership, communication and relationship management skills, with experience working with customers, investors, and internal stakeholders.
• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver high-quality work under tight deadlines in complex situations.

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.

You can strengthen your application by showing how our customer first behaviours resonate with you, and where you may have already demonstrated these.

The extras you’ll get:

• 30 days holiday, pro rata.
• 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.
• Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year.

If this role is for you, please click the ‘Apply Now’ button. You’ll need to attach your up-to-date CV and answer a few quick questions for us. We respond to everyone, so we will be in contact shortly after the closing date to let you know the outcome of your application.