Credit Risk Senior Specialist

Business Unit:  Chief Credit Office
Salary range: £45,600 - £57,000 per annum DOE + red-hot benefits
Location:  UK Remote
Contract type: Permanent

Live to challenge the status quo. Live a life more Virgin.

Our Team

Our team plays a key part in the shaping of credit strategies within our Unsecured lending portfolio. You’ll join at an exciting time with projects underway to completely redevelop those strategies. You will get considerable exposure to stakeholders across the business and, as part of our small team, plenty of opportunities to own projects from inception to execution.

What you’ll be doing

• Leading the development and implementation of innovative unsecured credit strategies to support Virgin Money’s growth through sustainable lending practices, whilst ensuring it remains within our risk appetite framework.
• Continuous optimisation of credit strategies for new and existing customers to stay ahead of the competition, whilst also responding to an ever-changing regulatory landscape.
• Leveraging technology and new data sources to streamline lending processes and provide insight into the portfolio, driving efficiency across the business.
• Driving a culture of continuous improvement, rationalising processes, improving sophistication and addressing complexity across all aspects of the credit risk lifecycle.
• Working closely with internal stakeholders such as Credit Modelling, Commercial, and Technology to ensure ideas and solutions are driven to tangible outcomes.
• Providing reasonable and appropriate insight of our credit strategies to a variety of internal and external stakeholders.
• Liaising with Technology teams to see a proposal through the implementation phase, ensuring all credit strategies are implemented and executed as expected.
• Deputising for the Credit Risk Manager as required, supporting all aspects of managing unsecured lending strategies.

We need you to have

• Significant analytical experience working in unsecured credit risk strategy roles or notable experience in a similar analytical role within the financial sector.
• Advanced technical skills in data analysis and summarisation, with detailed knowledge of SAS/SQL.
• Excellent communication skills with ability to take complex and detailed findings and present these effectively and succinctly to stakeholders at all levels.
• Extensive experience in influencing change in a positive, ambitious, and collaborative manner and turn ideas into practical solutions.
• Experience in building trusted relationships with key stakeholders, both internally and externally.

It’s a bonus if you have but not essential

• Understanding of the Legal and Regulatory framework and agenda, operations of Risk and the wider business.
• Some understanding of the VMUK business model and commercial strategy.
• Technical skills in other data management tools / coding languages used for conducting portfolio analytics, such as Python or R etc.

Red Hot Rewards

• Generous holidays - 38.5 days annual leave (including bank holidays and prorated if part-time)​ plus the option to buy more.
• Up to five extra paid well-being days per year​. 
• 20 weeks paid, gender-neutral family leave (52 weeks in total) for expectant parents and those looking to adopt. 
• Market-leading pension.
• Free private medical cover, income protection and life assurance.
• Flexible benefits include Cycle to Work, wellness and health assessments, and critical illness. 

And there's no waiting around, you'll enjoy these benefits from day one.

Feeling insatiably curious about this role? If we’re lucky to receive a lot of interest, we may close the advert early and would hate you to miss out.

We're all about helping you Live a Life More Virgin, so happy to talk flexible working with you.

Say hello to Virgin Money
We’re making great strides towards achieving our ambition of becoming the UK’s best digital bank.  As a full-service digital bank with a heritage stretching back over 180 years, we’re a workforce to be reckoned with, and we're putting the full power of our experience behind disruptive ideas that reinvent the role a bank plays in people's lives. We're customer-obsessed and work tirelessly to deliver on our purpose, ‘Making You Happier About Money.’ This means we're able to do banking differently, and by innovating and working together we can make a real difference by creating memorable moments and red-hot experiences for our millions of customers. Join us and Live a Life More Virgin that empowers you with choice and flexibility in how you work. 

Be yourself at Virgin Money
Our purpose is to make people happier about money, this means seeing and feeling the world as our customers do by creating a workforce that reflects the rich diversity of our customers and communities.  We’re committed to creating an inclusive culture where colleagues feel safe and inspired to contribute, speak up and be heard.  

As a Disability Confident Leader, we're committed to removing any obstacles to inclusion.  If you need any reasonable adjustments or support making your application, contact our Talent Acquisition team careers@virginmoney.com

It’s important to note that there may be occasions where it’s not possible to interview all candidates declaring a disability who meet the essential criteria for the job. In certain recruitment situations such as receiving a high-volume of applications, we may need to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled and non-disabled applicants. 

Now the legal bit
Living A Life More Virgin allows our colleagues to be based anywhere in the UK (if the role allows it), but we'll need you to confirm you have the right to work in the UK.

If you're successful in securing a role with us, there are some checks you need to complete before starting. These include credit and criminal record checks and three years' worth of satisfactory references. If the role is part of the Senior Manager Regime and Certification Regime, it requires enhanced pre-employment checks – we'll ask for six years of regulatory references, and once in the role, you'll be subject to periodic employment checks.