Senior Consultant – Portfolio Management & Operations in London

We’re looking for someone who brings experience in talent management and skills development, and who thrives on building strong, trusted relationships with early careers colleagues, their line managers and senior stakeholders across the Society. You’ll be a confident communicator with a proven track record of delivering results, and you’ll bring experience of working in change and technology environments, including IT design, learning delivery, testing learning platforms and partnering with third-party suppliers.

Our Chief Operating Office Early Careers team plays a key role in delivering both our Early Careers and STEM and Change outreach strategies. We help build a strong and sustainable talent pipeline for our technology and change teams, and in this role you’ll support the attraction, development and progression of talent across one of Nationwide’s largest functions. 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 spend at least two days per week, or if part time, you'll spend 40% of your working time, based at either our London or Swindon offices. If you are aligned to our Glasgow hub (as this is your nearest location), there will be a need to regularly connect with colleagues for collaboration events. This is anticipated to be weekly in Glasgow.

If your application is successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this works. 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.

The extras you’ll get:

• 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

What you’ll be doing:

You’ll support a diverse range of early careers talent, including career changers, graduates, apprentices and interns, from those just starting out to those taking a new direction in their career. This is a varied role that combines day‑to‑day pastoral support with the opportunity to help shape and continuously improve the overall programme. You’ll build strong relationships with colleagues at all levels, managing communications with internal and external stakeholders and working closely with partners and suppliers. You’ll also help deliver and refine development materials and key talent processes, from attraction and onboarding through to development, readiness and deployment. Alongside this, you’ll coach and support individuals to build their skills, grow their confidence and make informed decisions about their career path.

About you:

• Proven experience of designing and delivering training, teaching or development solutions in a change, technology or IT environment.
• Proven experience of supporting early careers or emerging talent programmes, including attraction, recruitment, onboarding, development or deployment.
• Experience of coaching, line managing or providing pastoral support to emerging talent, with clear evidence of helping individuals develop and progress.
• Strong understanding of the external early careers market, including outreach activity, recruitment routes and talent pipelines into technology and change roles.
• Experience of creating, facilitating and improving development events, workshops or learning interventions.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with experience of influencing and building credibility with stakeholders at different levels.
• Experience of working with third‑party suppliers and supporting or testing learning platforms or digital learning solutions.

Our customer first behaviours:

• 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.

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. The hiring manager for this role is Liz Carter, and the main recruitment contact is Bhavit Panchmatia.