Senior Manager - Customer Vulnerability

We are navigating significant and ambitious change at Nationwide, the world’s largest building society, including the recent acquisition of Virgin Money. It is an exciting time, as we evolve to a new future that sees us accelerate delivery of value to our millions of members and culturally engage colleagues in new ways of working. Delivering good outcomes for customers in vulnerable circumstances is at the heart of that. 

As a senior manager in the Customer Vulnerability team, you’ll be responsible for defining, developing, and delivering vulnerability and inclusion strategies that will have a meaningful positive impact on our customers, colleagues, wider stakeholders, and our risk & control environment. You will help identify, build and manage internal and external activities to support our vision of delivering banking that is fairer and more inclusive for society. This role will bring to life vulnerable-customer-centricity that is core to our overarching purpose and values as a modern mutual.
 

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 Swindon, London or Northampton office. 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 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. 

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 the design and delivery of strategies that improve outcomes for customers, with a particular focus on those in vulnerable circumstances. This will involve building a deep understanding of customer needs, identifying potential risks of harm, and shaping effective treatment approaches, while enabling colleagues across the organisation to deliver these consistently and confidently.

You’ll define and lead complex change initiatives and portfolios, bringing together a wide range of stakeholders to shape both what we do and how we do it. In doing so, you’ll carefully balance customer needs with commercial viability and operational feasibility, working within a regulatory environment that places a strong emphasis on delivering good customer outcomes.

Working within a centre of excellence model, you’ll build strong cross functional relationships, aligning teams, improving workflows, and creating the conditions for others to succeed through your leadership. You’ll bring a customer first, curious mindset, using structured problem solving to navigate challenges and continuously improve outcomes.

With responsibility for both people leadership and a broad change portfolio, you’ll drive prioritisation and decision making across Nationwide and the Virgin Money brand. You’ll secure stakeholder buy in, develop robust business cases, and deliver improvements to customer journeys that also meet operational, commercial and regulatory requirements.

You’ll also play a key role in regulatory and compliance activity, including responding to internal and external reviews, coordinating organisation wide actions to address issues, and ensuring risks are effectively mitigated. Alongside this, you’ll define clear objectives and key results, using insight into customer needs to shape priorities, drive continuous improvement, and ensure robust reporting and communication that supports senior decision making through high-quality papers and recommendations.

About you

The following should describe you:

• As an experienced Senior Manager, you will have a broad range of relevant experience in change and risk management, governance and reporting, alongside strong evidence of delivering customer experience improvement initiatives

• Your skills as an authentic leader, with exceptional communication, organisation and influencing ability, strategic focus and a strong track record of delivering complex change programmes through collaboration, will ensure Nationwide delivers end-to-end market defining outcomes for our customers and creates competitive advantage

• You’ll have knowledge and experience of the issues and opportunities impacting essential services like banking, including a good understanding of the regulatory environment, including the Consumer Duty (FCA)

• You are abreast of the latest industry activity, consumer trends, government priorities and emerging technologies, as it relates to vulnerability and its adjacencies

• You have first-hand experience of designing solutions that are customer-centric through research, insight and user testing with a variety of audiences

• You are able to evaluate insight and data from multiple sources, quickly identify key themes and join dots to solve problems where there is no clear right or wrong answer and are able to articulate recommended solutions effectively to leadership, including ExCo

• You can provide leadership, oversight and strategic direction to the vulnerability team and wider business

• You have a well-developed network and experience of successfully managing relationships both internally (up to ExCo level) and externally

• You have previous experience in a role responsible for translating a complex, ambiguous, rapidly evolving environment into clear requirements for an organisation

• You are a succinct storyteller who has advanced paper writing and presenting skills

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:

• 30 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.