Operations Manager - Operational Excellence

As an Operations Manager – Operational Excellence, you’ll play a pivotal role in how we consistently deliver brilliant customer experiences across Business Banking. Leading a team of Operational Excellence Coaches, you’ll focus on embedding “The Standard” through strong leadership rhythm and routines, high‑quality coaching, and continuous performance improvement.

This role is about setting clear expectations for what great looks like, supporting leaders and Relationship Managers to build the right habits, and ensuring customer experience sits at the heart of how we run the business. If you’re passionate about coaching, operational excellence, and enabling leaders to perform at their best, this is a role where you can make a real and lasting impact.

This role sits within Business Banking, supporting teams across Business Direct to deliver consistently strong customer outcomes. The Operational Excellence function exists to raise capability, improve performance, and embed a shared standard of excellence across leaders and teams.

As the Operations Manager – Operational Excellence, you’ll be responsible for leading a specialist coaching team and working closely with senior leaders, team managers, Business Managers, and Relationship Managers to embed effective leadership rhythm and routines, strengthen coaching capability, and ensure The Standard is lived every day. The impact of this role is seen directly through clearer expectations, simpler ways of working, and more consistent customer experiences.

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 Northampton office. If you are aligned to our Glasgow or Edinburgh 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 monthly in Glasgow. 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.

Virgin Money is now part of Nationwide

Nationwide acquired Virgin Money in October 2024. Virgin Money continues to serve customers on the high street, and there will be a phased and considered integration over the coming years.

You’ll be employed by Nationwide from day one, delivering real impact and benefitting from a highly competitive range of benefits. We’re a workplace where you’re rewarded, recognised and celebrated.

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 lead and coach a team of Operational Excellence Coaches, setting clear direction and supporting them to raise performance and capability across Business Banking. Working closely with senior leaders and team managers, you’ll help embed effective leadership rhythm and routines that drive clarity, accountability, and pace.

You’ll spend time observing how teams operate, coaching leaders and Relationship Managers, and using insight from performance, quality and customer experience to turn observation into meaningful improvement actions. A core part of the role is ensuring ‘The Standard’ is consistently understood, coached, and applied so customers experience the same high level of service every time.

About you

For this role, we are looking for:

• A professional certification or qualification in coaching, training and/or learning and development

• Proven experience leading a team focused on performance improvement, coaching or operational excellence

• Demonstrable experience coaching leaders or managers to improve performance and capability

• Strong understanding of how leadership rhythm and routines drive performance and customer outcomes

• Experience working in a customer‑focused operational environment

• The ability to use performance data, insight, or trend analysis to identify improvement opportunities and measure impact

• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills across teams and senior stakeholders

   

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:

• 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. 

Please note that should you be successful in securing this role the job title on our internal systems will be Ops Manager Small Business Relationships.