Risk Manager Lead Credit Risk Oversight - Secured in Swindon

As a Risk Manager Lead in Credit Risk Oversight, you will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of credit quality across all Nationwide Lending portfolios. You will work in a team of Credit Risk Professionals who will oversee the Credit Risk profile, strategy and ensure criteria and analysis is robust. You will be required to be an SME on the Secured portfolio across the Credit Management Lifecycle.

You will oversee the setting of Credit Risk Strategy, ensuring alignment with Nationwide strategic direction and ensuring credit risk is being managed in line with Risk Appetite. You will ensure credit risk strategies deliver the desired balance between caution, in order to protect our members' money, whilst delivering the necessary economic returns to further our financial strength. You will oversee the setting of credit policy and performance of the Credit Risk Profile. You will review and interpret analysis to ensure sound and robust credit risk proposals, as well as running independent insight to support challenges and shape proposals. Through this activity you will be able to provide an independent opinion on proposals to ensure a full understanding of end-to-end credit risk management.

You will be responsible for setting up a plan of and leading regular deep dives on credit policy, risk management and mitigants, ensuring these are appropriate to, and effective in managing, the risks identified, any new risks emerging as well as the opportunities and balance of risk and reward. You will oversee the assessment of IFRS9 provisions, reviewing proposals on provisioning and post model adjustments to ensure the provisions we are carrying are adequate and capture Nationwide’s exposure to present and future upcoming risks. This will include ensuring sensible forecast of provisions and risk profile are included in financial forecasts, both for Financial Planning and stress testing purposes.

This is a broad role, your span of influence will involve providing second line opinion input to key committees and forums including Group Credit Committee, Credit Risk and Model Management Forums as well as deputising for your Senior Manager as required. As an experienced credit risk professional, with a working knowledge of all facets of credit risk management, you will ensure model approvals are considerate of the operating and risk environment in which they are used.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a people leader and deep technical expert in all that is credit risk, to provide strategic direction and promote Nationwide Building Society for the benefit of its members, employees and third parties. 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 nearest regional office or hub. There will be a need to regularly connect with colleagues for collaboration and in some locations you’ll be expected to spend at least two days a week, or if part time you'll spend 40% of your working time, in the office. 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.

Responsibilities

In this role, you will operate at the centre of the Credit Risk function, acting as a subject matter expert across Secured portfolios while maintaining a holistic, group-wide perspective. You will connect detailed portfolio insights with the broader strategic agenda, ensuring that Credit Risk activities are aligned with the Group’s ambitions, financial plans, and risk framework.

You will take the lead in shaping and overseeing the Credit Risk Strategy, ensuring it remains robust, forward-looking, and aligned with business objectives. This includes overseeing both Board-level and Management Risk Appetite, ensuring risk-taking remains within agreed thresholds. You will review and analyse proposals across the full credit lifecycle, providing independent challenge, validating assumptions, and ensuring that risks and mitigants are clearly identified and well supported.

A key focus of your role will be to develop a strong understanding of the overall credit risk profile, including current performance and forward-looking trends. You will deliver independent analysis to support decision-making, highlight weaknesses, and ensure transparency for stakeholders. You will also provide formal opinions on credit proposals into governance forums such as the Group Credit Committee, ensuring recommendations are grounded in robust analysis and aligned with the Group’s strategy.

In addition, you will engage actively in credit model development and risk measurement, ensuring models are appropriate, their limitations are well understood, and any weaknesses are mitigated. You will oversee credit provisions under IFRS9, contributing to the assessment of provision adequacy, economic scenarios, and model outputs. You will also oversee financial loss forecasting across planning and stress testing, ensuring forecasts appropriately reflect economic and geopolitical risks.

Finally, you will lead deep dives into credit policy and strategy to ensure consistency across asset classes and proactive management of emerging risks. Through strong governance, analytical expertise, and stakeholder engagement, you will ensure credit risk is effectively measured, clearly reported, and well managed, supporting sustainable growth while maintaining strong risk discipline.

About you

You will have/be:

• Extensive experience in risk management roles within the financial sector, with strong exposure to managing and overseeing Secured portfolios. This includes expertise across policy, strategy, risk management, measurement (provisioning, forecasting, and stress testing), and key financial drivers.
• Credit risk experience across a range of portfolio (Unsecured/ Business), which will be highly advantageous.
• Proven track record in leading credit and financial analysis, with a strong understanding of how to develop robust and effective credit risk proposals.
• Demonstrate the ability to approach complex problems methodically, applying logical thinking to extract meaningful insights and inform decision-making.
• Analytical thinker, capable of objectively reviewing proposals and designing insightful analysis to understand and measure associated risks.
• Excellent communicator, with the confidence and ability to influence stakeholders at all levels of the organisation.
• Build credibility as a subject matter expert (SME) across Secured credit risk. Using your strong interpersonal and communication skills, you will ensure Second Line opinions are clearly understood, respected, and appropriately considered.
• Understand how to identify key stakeholders and proactively develop strategies to build, maintain, and strengthen effective working relationships.

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.

Qualifications

The extras you’ll get

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

• 25 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. The hiring manager for this role is Nisha Babbar, and the main recruitment contact is Sameena Rehman. Please note that should you be successful in securing this role, the job title on our internal systems will be Risk Manager Lead.