Proposition Development Lead - Mortgages in Cardiff

About us

Vida Bank provides competitive savings products through Vida Savings and specialist mortgage solutions through Vida Homeloans.

Our mortgage business supports Buy to Let (BTL) and residential borrowers (ROO) who find themselves underserved elsewhere. Our mortgage customers range from Buy to Let investors, to the self-employed and customers with multiple jobs.

Our savings proposition is delivered online via our website, and is focussed on providing savers with fair, transparent and competitive rates. Our typical customers are active savers, who tend to look beyond their current account provider for savings accounts.

Our business model and strategy are underpinned by our core purpose to ‘Help More People Find a Place to call Home’.

We are here to help the under-served, especially those with more nuanced personal circumstances or borrowing needs who are not able to access a mortgage from a mainstream mortgage lender. Working exclusively with intermediary partners, we combine cutting-edge technology with skilled and caring underwriting expertise to solve complex customer problems.

As a fully regulated UK based bank with ambitious growth aspirations, we recognise the importance of having a clearly articulated culture strategy and the need to actively manage how it embeds in the business together with the behaviours which exemplify it.

As a recognised Best Companies Top 100 mid-sized company to work for in the UK and a finalist at the Financial Reporter Women’s Recognition Awards, we take pride in our diverse workforce, championing both ethic and gender diversity through our EDI commitments.

Having met the target set by being a member of the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter we have 50% of senior management roles filled by women.

With offices in London, Newcastle and Skipton, we bring our teams together regularly to collaborate and empower our colleagues to have more choice around when and where they work on the days they are not in the office, with colleagues working remotely in various locations across the UK.

Our Culture

We are proud to have built a culture founded on an ethos of caring, and that sits at the heart of our Vida Values, driving the way we run our business, support our customers and other stakeholders on a daily basis.

We genuinely care about delivering the right outcomes for all our stakeholders who we consider through the cultural framework as our customers, colleagues, company and communities that we operate in.

By Joining Vida you will have a sense of belonging in what is a diverse and collaborative environment, where you will be empowered to take responsibility for driving delivery.

We embrace a diversity of backgrounds and experiences in our people, in the deeply held belief that better outcomes are achieved for customers when our colleagues are better placed to empathise with and understand their unique circumstances. From application to interview, we place inclusion at the heart of all we do.

Role Overview:

The primary role of the Proposition Development Lead – Mortgages is to lead the development of new mortgage propositions from ideation to launch, ensuring the propositions deliver Commercial objectives and achieve great outcomes for customers.

Key Responsibilities:

• Oversee the design, development and implementation of new mortgage propositions, ensuring alignment with the company strategy, financial goals, and regulatory and internal frameworks.
• Proactively engage in and influence the strategic planning process to establish the priorities for new proposition development going forward.
• Develop, propose and ultimately gain approval for the design of each new proposition, including credit criteria and product structure.
• Drive innovation by identifying emerging opportunities and designing unique mortgage solutions to differentiate Vida from competitors.
• Ensure that all new propositions deliver a strong customer experience throughout the product lifecycle, from application to redemption.
• Size the opportunity for any new proposition identified, including both the potential volume and profitability.
• Analyse competitor offerings and market insight to identify opportunities to deliver market leading and innovative new propositions.
• Engage mortgage intermediaries to gather insight and advice and incorporate into new customer propositions.
• Collaborate with internal teams including Change, Credit Risk, Compliance, Operations, IT and Marketing to deliver customer centric and financially viable new propositions.
• Ensure constructive and positive partnerships are built and maintained with business stakeholders.
• Ensure full compliance with the internal Product Governance Framework.
• Manage all new propositions through internal governance committees including Change, Credit and Customer Committees as applicable.
• Work closely with Compliance and Legal teams to ensure adherence to all legal and regulatory rules and guidance including Consumer Duty.
• Ensure all new proposals have full consideration of vulnerable customers.
• Provide support to the remainder of the Commercial mortgages team as required.

Requirements:

• At least 5-10 years of product management experience working in financial services, retail banking or related space.
• Experience of leading the development of new mortgage propositions from concept to implementation.
• Good knowledge of the key segments of the mortgage market. Experience of working in the specialist mortgage market is desirable, but not essential.
• Strong understanding of mortgage lending criteria.
• Excellent leadership and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to take complex topics and ideas and present them concisely in PowerPoint and word.
• Experience of working with senior management.
• Comfortable working in a fast paced, ever changing, and growing environment.
• Customer focused with strong working knowledge of Consumer Duty.
• Strong research and analytical skills. Can effectively search for key relevant information and summarise core findings.
• Commercial acumen. Can build business cases, with good excel proficiency.
• Ability to innovate, adapt to market changes and think outside the norm.
• Structured and organized.
• Expertise in regulatory requirements and risk management.
• Encourages a culture where high standards of performance, timely delivery, an appropriate balance of speed and quality are expected and where great performance is recognised and celebrated.
• Fosters and openly champions a culture of exceptional customer care and focuses on a positive internal & external customer experience.
• Confident in providing balance of support and challenge, whilst maintaining and building productive, professional relationships with colleagues.

Our Values

Our values are well established and recognised throughout our organisation. They provide a frame of reference for the behaviours expected from our colleagues every day.

We find ways to break old conventions, especially those which cause exclusion or customer harm. We look for these qualities when hiring new talent into the organisation, and they underpin our approach to personal development and performance management for all our people. At the heart of this is the fact we care about our Customers, Our Colleagues and our Communities. We are:

Visionary- We innovate and break old habits, thinking big and pushing boundaries together as one team

Inclusive - We value each other’s differences and work to see people for who they really are

Dynamic - We are flexible and fast, cutting through complexity and never accepting second best

Authentic - We are honest and genuine, what you see is what you get

Benefits

We offer a comprehensive benefits package to support our employees’ professional and personal needs. Further details can be provided upon application.