Risk Manager Lead

A fantastic opportunity has become available as a Risk Manager Lead in our thriving Risk Decision Science & Analytical Innovation team – winners of the “Credit Modelling & Risk Team of the Year” at both the 2022 and 2020 Credit Strategy Awards, “Best Use of Technology” at the 2019 Credit Strategy Awards and winners at the Women in Credit Awards for “Rising Star of the Year” (2022 and 2023) and “Team Player of the Year” (2022).

The team develop the models which support lending decisions, detecting economic crime and ensure the society is safe and secure. 

As a Risk Manager Lead, with the support of a Senior Risk manager, you will be responsible for leading and shaping the development of risk scorecards and machine learning models in the team. Thus, enabling the delivery of cutting-edge analytical Risk decision tools that optimise decisions across our Retail Lending portfolios (Application, Behavioural and Collections/Recoveries) and Economic Crime.

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, at our Swindon or Cardiff 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.
If we receive a high volume of relevant applications, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so please apply as soon as you can.

What you’ll be doing

You’ll be leading the development, documentation and delivery of risk scorecards and machine learning models, employing relevant statistical techniques across Credit Risk, Economic Crime and Collections & Recoveries. You’ll also be leading a hybrid working team (working from home and in person), creating a working environment to promote a fantastic team culture alongside high-performance.

You’ll also need to effectively plan and prioritise team activities, pro-actively engaging and communicating with the wider business on model developments and how they will impact business decisions.

Furthermore you’ll be expected to present model performance to risk committees and senior management. You’ll also be expected to provide training, coaching and mentoring less experienced team members on Retail modelling.

About you

To be successful in this role you will:

• Have a PhD, MSc or strong quantitative degree ideally from a Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science or related subject
• Experience in delivering risk scorecards and/or machine learning models using coding in SAS/Python/R or similar
• Have hands-on experience of leading, motivating and mentoring a team to deliver risk models for the business
• Have strong knowledge of Retail lending products, ideally both Unsecured and Secured products
• Have strong knowledge of Economic Crime and Credit Risk models
• Be a highly motivated, creative and industrious individual capable of leading your team on a combination of different activities at once
• Be an effective planner, prioritising activities and energising your team to meet deadlines
• Have a proven track record of senior stakeholder management, with high quality communication and influencing skills

Our Customer First behaviours are all about putting customers and members at the heart of how we work together. You can strengthen your application by showing the behaviours that resonate with you, and how you might have already demonstrated these.

• Say it straight - This is about being honest and direct with good intent and saying what needs to be said in the room. It’s also about being clear, precise, and using language that we and, importantly, our customers and members can understand.
• Push for better - This is about aiming high and constantly looking for better in how we work together and serve our customers and members.
• Get it done - This is about prioritising what will have the greatest impact, being decisive and taking accountability for delivering on the end-to-end outcome.

We know applying for jobs can sometimes feel like you’re sending an application into a black hole. We review each application individually. So, it’s a good idea to call out your most relevant experience on your application to give yourself the best chance.

The extras you’ll get

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

• A personal pension – if you put in 7% of your salary, we’ll top up by a further 16%
• Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year
• Life assurance worth 8x your salary
• A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Access to an annual performance related bonus
• Access to training to help you develop and progress your career
• Wellhub– Access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness.
• 25 days holiday, pro rata

What makes us different

Nationwide is the world’s largest building society. With over 15 million customers, we have a relationship with almost a quarter of the UK’s population. We’ve got the scale to compete with the big banks, but we’re not a bank.

As a building society, we’re owned by our members – that’s our customers who have their current account, mortgage or savings with us. It means we can do things differently to deliver our Purpose – Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society.

When you work at Nationwide, you can experience that difference for yourself. You’ll be part of a high-performing, purpose-driven organisation that offers rewarding career experiences and a highly competitive range of benefits to match. You’ll also be joining us at an important time as we seek to reach more and more people in the UK. We want everyone in the UK to know that they don’t have to bank with a bank. They can choose a modern mutual instead.

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.

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