Senior Corporate Media Relations Manager in London

As Senior Corporate Media Relations Manager, you will play a pivotal role in protecting and enhancing the reputation of the world’s largest building society. You will shape and deliver a high-impact corporate media strategy that positions Nationwide as a leading, purpose-driven financial institution with a distinctive mutual difference.

Operating at a senior level, you will advise executives, lead major media moments, and ensure our voice is clear, authoritative and aligned with our long-term strategic ambitions. You will lead proactive and reactive corporate media activity across UK business and financial media. This includes developing compelling narratives, anticipating issues and risks, identifying opportunities to strengthen Nationwide’s profile, and guiding senior leaders through complex or high-pressure situations. You will champion editorial excellence, ensure communications are insight-driven, and maintain a calm, solutions-focused approach when the external environment moves quickly.

Working closely with colleagues across Corporate Affairs, Customer & Communications and the wider leadership team, you will ensure our media engagement is rigorous, well-governed and reflective of Nationwide’s role in society. You will help shape how the organisation explains its purpose, its performance, and its commitment to members, and support the development of Nationwide’s reputation as a Modern Mutual delivering a fairer, more rewarding banking experience.

This role sits within Customer & Communications, the team responsible for strengthening Nationwide’s brand and reputation with customers, colleagues and society. Its purpose is to ensure Nationwide’s voice is trusted and firmly anchored in member interests. By providing expert counsel, shaping high quality media engagement and supporting senior leaders, this role directly enhances public trust and bolsters Nationwide’s standing as a major UK financial institution with a unique mutual mission.

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 spend at least two days per week, or if part-time, you'll spend 40% of your working time, based at our London office.

If your application is successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this works. You can also find out more about our approach to hybrid working here. 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.

If you’re a colleague on long-term absence (for example, on parental leave) or a temporary worker, please use your personal email address to submit an application.

Responsibilities

You will work with senior leaders to agree the right communications strategies, stories and messages to take to the financial and business media, providing clear and confident advice and you’ll use your existing media network and reach out to new contacts in financial and business media, to create storytelling opportunities for Nationwide. You will plan and deliver communications activity for key moments in the corporate calendar such as financial results, helping opinion formers and the public understand what the business stands for, the value it delivers to members, and how it is shaping the future as a Modern Mutual, including through its growing Business Banking proposition. Additionally, you will stay close to the news agenda and issues affecting our members, ensuring Nationwide’s perspective is heard and understood. You will respond quickly to new developments, helping teams stay focused while removing obstacles so work can progress effectively.

About you

As a minimum you will have/be:

• Proven experience leading large-scale corporate communications programmes with measurable impact
• Financially literate, with strong familiarity and confidence in interpreting and communicating financial and results reporting information
• News-savvy, with a strong instinct for what resonates with business and financial journalists and the ability to shape stories that will land effectively
• A strong ability to interpret data, identify trends and turn insights into clear actions
• Exceptional influencing skills, with the confidence to challenge constructively and secure senior-leader alignment
• A strong network across business and finance editors and journalists
• Outstanding editorial judgement and writing skills for senior audiences
• Experience managing complex, cross-functional work at pace and balancing competing priorities
• The ability to partner effectively with Finance, Strategy, Investor Relations, Secretariat, Legal, HR, Colleague Engagement, CEO Office and other key functions

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

There are all sorts of employee benefits available at Nationwide, including:

• 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

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 our own profit. We share our profits with them and put their needs first. Always there when they need us. Supporting them and their lives.

If you’re inspired by fairer finances, passionate about making a meaningful impact, and truly care about our 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. As a community we want our working lives to count. As a team, we celebrate what we achieve. As a standard-setter, we work for the good of customers, communities, and broader society. We are purpose-driven. Uncompromisingly customer. Unstoppably Nationwide.

What to do next

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.