Business Development Manager

Virgin Money; Crawley; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial institution in Crawley seeks a Credit Risk Manager to oversee the design and implementation of credit standards for the Business Banking portfolio. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in business banking lending, a strong understanding of credit risk, and excellent communication skills. Responsibilities include maintaining compliance with credit policies and building relationships with stakeholders. This role offers a unique opportunity to significantly influence credit risk management in a collaborative and inclusive environment.

Benefits

Inclusive culture

Flexible working environment

Continuous improvement initiatives

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in business banking lending.
• Strong track record in credit risk and lending standards.
• Deep knowledge of business banking products and customer needs.
• Ability to translate complex regulatory requirements into clear lending criteria.
• Strong leadership and people management skills.
• Experience engaging with regulators and auditors.

Responsibilities

• Manage credit standards for the Business Banking portfolio.
• Lead development and maintenance of business banking credit standards.
• Oversee credit standards design and governance initiatives.
• Monitor adherence to credit policies and frameworks.
• Build relationships with stakeholders across the organization.

Skills

Business banking lending experience

Credit risk understanding

Lending standards knowledge

Regulatory environment familiarity

Excellent communication skills

Leadership skills

Attention to detail

Collaborative approach

Stakeholder engagement

Simplification and streamlining

Education

Experience in business banking

Experience writing lending criteria

Job description

Business Credit Risk Insight & Innovation supports key activity across the organisation to ensure end-to-end credit risk is managed effectively. Our function covers business credit automation decisioning, lending standards, credit strategy, and portfolio analysis and insight. We work collaboratively across the 1st and 2nd Lines of Defence, supporting robust credit risk management and standards compliance.

What You'll Be Doing

• Reporting to the Head of Business Credit Insight and Innovation, you’ll manage, maintain, and support the design and implementation of credit standards for the Business Banking portfolio.
• Lead the development, maintenance, and review of business banking credit standards and delegated authority frameworks, ensuring alignment with risk appetite, strategic objectives, and regulatory requirements.
• Oversee credit standards design, governance, and related education initiatives through CCO, Credit, and relevant committees and forums.
• Drive the effective implementation of credit standards changes, ensuring clear communication and consistent application.
• Monitor adherence to credit policies, frameworks, and standards, escalating gaps or control weaknesses as needed.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders across Risk, Business Banking, and Operations.
• Act as a key contact for regulatory bodies and internal audit, supporting responses to reviews and audits.
• Regularly assess and update credit policies and education programmes to reflect changing requirements.
• Prepare and present standards updates, compliance insights, and trend analysis to governance forums.
• Contribute to the simplification of credit policies and decisioning authorities, supporting digital transformation and operational efficiency.
• Design and deliver bank-wide credit education and training strategies.
• Ensure controls and risk log are maintained for all matters relating to Business Credit Insight & I&I, working across the function and organisation to ensure adherence to the enterprise-wide control framework.
• Support governance adherence within the agreed governance framework as required for all BC I & I matters.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in business banking lending, ideally with direct responsibility for developing, implementing, or maintaining lending criteria across a range of sectors and customer segments.
• A strong track record in roles focused on credit risk, lending standards, or credit policy – demonstrating a clear understanding of how lending criteria underpin sound credit decisions.
• Deep knowledge of business banking products, customer needs, and the regulatory environment affecting lending criteria.
• Proven ability to translate complex regulatory and strategic requirements into clear, actionable lending criteria and standards.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to engage, influence, and educate stakeholders at all levels on the rationale and application of lending criteria.
• Strong leadership and people management skills, with experience building high-performing teams and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• A collaborative approach, working effectively across functions to ensure lending criteria are consistently applied and understood.
• High attention to detail and a commitment to maintaining robust controls and governance in all aspects of credit risk management.
• Experience writing or overseeing lending criteria for multiple business banking sectors and segments, including specialist or complex lending areas.
• Demonstrated success in simplifying and streamlining lending criteria and related processes, supporting digital transformation and operational efficiency.
• Experience engaging with regulators, auditors, and industry bodies on matters relating to lending criteria, credit policy, or standards.
• Familiarity with delegated credit authority frameworks and their application to business banking portfolios.

At Virgin Money, we celebrate everyone. We have fun, think big, and relentlessly include each other, all in pursuit of our purpose: Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society. 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 at [e-mail].

Now the legal bit: We're in the process of bringing Virgin Money and Nationwide together which, subject to Court approval, will happen on 2 April 2026. You can find out more about what this means at https://uk.virginmoney.com/nationwide-transfer. If you’re successful in securing a role with us, your employment will move automatically to Nationwide when this transfer goes ahead. Although some of our roles allow you to be based anywhere in the UK, 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.