Business Unit: Commercial
Salary Range: Up to circa £52,500 per annum DoE

Your life more Virgin starts here

Join Virgin Money as we transform our team into one that is ready to meet the challenges of the future, setting us up to support our ambition to disrupt the status quo and turn traditional banking on its head. We’re on the lookout for like-minded individuals and innovators to help drive our strategy forward. We’re also transforming how we work, offering our colleagues more choice, control and flexibility to live and work how they choose with A Life More Virgin.

We’re on the search for a talented Existing Customer Strategy Specialist to join our Unsecured Credit Strategy team.

What do YOU get when you join Virgin Money… Red Hot Rewards of course!

• 38.5 days annual leave for all colleagues (including bank holidays and pro rata if part-time).
• Up to five extra paid well-being days per year.
• A 35 hour working week.
• 20 weeks paid, gender neutral family leave (52 weeks in total) for expectant parents and those looking to adopt.
• Market leading Pension.
• Private Medical Insurance.
• Flexible benefits including Cycle to Work, Wellness & Health Assessments and Critical Illness.
• A digital-first colleague experience.
• Ability to work anywhere in the UK (where the role allows).

All these benefits are available to colleagues from their first day. Have we got your attention?

So, tell me some more…

You’ll report into the Senior Manager for Unsecured Credit Strategies and provide input to the Portfolio Strategies Leadership Team, Commercial routines and the wider business as required, including the Risk, Finance and Customer Experience teams. No day will be the same as you collaborate with a range of stakeholders to ensure analysis is providing true insight into risks and opportunities.

As an Existing Customer Strategy Specialist, your core responsibilities are; Analysing credit data, present findings from your analysis, and solving problems by creating solutions from the analysis of data. You’ll be a self-starter, using your own initiative to drive enhancements, bring new ideas, and provide ongoing challenge.

Our Strategy team is responsible for – Proactive management of Strategies covering Unsecured Existing Customers (Limit management, Persistent Debt, Profitability and Commercial Optimisation) and managing approvals with key stakeholders. You’ll consider risk and reward of credit strategies and policies to ensure performance meets Risk and Reward guardrails, leveraging data to optimise segmentation and strategies & policy rules. Pursue growth opportunities to support and drive business growth including the execution of complex projects as required.

Day to day you’ll:

• Use your experience and expert judgement in the design and setting of appropriate 1LOD Portfolio Strategies for the unsecured portfolios (credit cards, personal loans, overdrafts and asset finance), ensuring they adhere to the Risk Appetite Statements and applicable regulations whilst allowing safe, profitable unsecured lending growth;
• A solid understanding of the P&L, including application of commercial outcomes to drive success including profitable balance growth;
• Work collaboratively with Risk and Operational colleagues to identify improvements that maintain regulatory compliance, improve efficiency, or provides additional value to the business;
• Lead, on behalf of the Unsecured Credit Strategies manager, the provision of meaningful insight and making recommendations for Senior Management and through representation at relevant meetings and committees;
• Demonstrate a collaborative approach with Risk Appetite Statement working across other teams in Credit, Risk, and the Commercial areas;
• Develop and maintain a relationship with the Credit Risk teams at an operational and senior level to ensure that best practice is shared, challenges are raised in a timely manner to constructively shape outcomes and all requests are met;
• Demonstrate maintenance of our internal Governance frameworks, policies and Regulatory guidelines and ensure this framework is embedded in the business to ensure sound risk practices are adopted;
• On behalf of the Unsecured Credit Strategies manager lead the delivery of internal department culture and processes that drive the right customer outcomes;
• Deliver high-quality customer service, including implementation of a culture to continuously improve and rationalise processes and related complexity.

There are a few essentials you need…

• Strong analytical experience and a proficient SAS (statistical analysis software) user. Must also be an expert user of the MS Office suite;
• Extensive experience in the development of credit strategies, policies and procedures;
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to condense and simplify complex information to brief and influence senior stakeholders;
• Capability to operate effectively with senior leaders, and represent Virgin Money with external stakeholders and stand up to robust challenge;
• Ability to prioritise effectively and manage various management expectations, supporting Senior Analysts and Analysts to do the same, delivering multiple deliverables in a fast-changing environment;
• Deputise for senior colleague (Unsecured Credit Strategies manager) as required;
• Extensive experience in influencing change in a positive and collaborative manner and turn ideas into practical solutions;
• Proven experience in challenging other teams work through meetings and discussion forums, using strong influencing skills to deliver Commercial ways of working;
• Excellent understanding of data structure and credit strategies;
• Knowledge, experience and understanding of the wider commercial and risk functions and insight requirements;
• Proven ability to build strong networks and relationships with internal and external parties.

We'd love you to have (but not essential)...

• Understanding of the Legal and Regulatory framework and agenda;
• Understanding of Credit Models and Scorecards.

We really need you to have the skills and experience listed in the ‘There are a few essentials you need’ section above, but the rest is just our wish list, so please don’t let that put you off applying, we’d love to hear from you!

Feeling insatiably curious about this role? Apply as soon as you can. 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.

Inclusion at Virgin Money

Inclusion is at the heart of everything we do here at Virgin Money. It’s good for you, it’s good for us and it’s amazing for our customers. We know that great minds don’t think alike, so we rely on your diverse thoughts, feelings, beliefs and backgrounds to be the best we can possibly be. Got any questions about this or need some support with your application? We’d love to hear from you so get in touch with our careers team at careers@virginmoney.com.

Now the legal bit…

Please note that some of our legacy contracts are non-flexible therefore, if you move to a new role or make a change to your existing terms, you’ll move onto our standard flexible contract, 8am - 8pm Monday to Saturday.

If you successfully secure a new role, the salary and notice period you'll be offered will be in line with our reward and policy guidance. Not sure what this would mean for you, and want to know more? Contact Careers on careers@virginmoney.com

If the role is part of the Senior Manager and Certification Regime, it requires enhanced pre-employment checks – we’ll ask for 6 years' of regulatory references and once in role, you’ll be subject to periodic employment checks.