Head of Delivery

Atom bank; Newcastle upon Tyne; Hybrid; GBP 108,000 - 132,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Salary up to £120k

Hybrid working in Newcastle

Car Allowance

4‑day work week

Discretionary cash bonus

Pension scheme

22.5 days annual leave

Private Medical Insurance

Health Cash Plan

Life Insurance & Critical illness

All about me fund

EV Scheme

Job summary

Atom bank in the UK is seeking a Head of Delivery for the Lending Value Stream. You will own technology change across Residential Mortgages and Commercial Lending, leading cross‑functional teams and guiding the migration to a cloud‑native core engine.

You will partner with Commercial, Product and Architecture, balance delivery with strategic evolution, and report to ExCo and the Board to drive performance, governance and modern engineering practices.

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading a large technology delivery area within a fast-paced environment.
• Deep understanding of modern, scalable, cloud-native architectures, ideally with experience migrating core banking, payments, or lending platforms.
• Expertise in systems thinking, flow metrics, Lean, and modern software delivery principles.
• Hands-on experience managing major 3rd-party SaaS/vendor partnerships alongside in-house software engineering teams.
• Outstanding communication and relationship-building skills, with the confidence and credibility to reassure executive stakeholders and board members.
• Domain knowledge in Residential Mortgages, Commercial Lending, or regulated retail banking is desirable but not essential.
• Based near or willing to travel regularly to the Newcastle office.

Responsibilities

• Lead, inspire, and grow cross-functional technical teams to build products that colleagues and customers love.
• Partner with Commercial, Product, and Architecture teams to create and execute a 24-month technology roadmap, including core engine migration.
• Serve as a trusted technology leader for senior leadership, ExCo, and the Board – managing expectations and reporting.
• Manage complex 3rd-party SaaS software providers alongside internal engineering practices to optimise delivery pace and resilience.
• Oversee Run/Opex and Change/Capex budgets for the Lending value stream and ensure regulatory compliance.
• Drive operational efficiency and embed modern engineering practices (CI/CD, automated testing, DevOps).

Skills

Leadership

Cloud-native architecture

Vendor management

Executive stakeholder communication

Job description

Head of Delivery – Lending Value Stream

We’re Atom bank

The bank that’s on a mission to make finance faster, simpler and way more human.

We’ve ditched the stuffy banking model to build something that actually works for our customers, whenever and wherever they need us. To make this happen, we’re looking for like-minded people who can help us reach our goals and think differently.

If you’re ready to build the future of banking, we’d love to meet you.

We really value in-person collaboration and this role requires regular attendance at our Newcastle HQ.

What will your ‘typical’ day look like? Different that’s for sure…:

As Head of Delivery for the Lending Value Stream, you will take end-to-end ownership of all technology change across our Residential Mortgages and Commercial Lending value streams. We are looking for a hands‑on, accountable leader who has walked the walk, delivered complex systems in production, and can walk into an ExCo or Board room and inspire total confidence.

You will lead multidisciplinary teams‑spanning Delivery Managers, Architects, Software Engineers, BAs, and SDETs – balancing execution of our immediate business roadmap with a major strategic evolution: migrating our core lending engine off legacy systems onto a modern, cloud‑native architecture (Thought Machine) over the next 24 months.

Our delivery model is shifting. As we execute our core architecture migration, our software mix will evolve from heavily vendor‑assisted to a higher proportion of in‑house custom software engineering.

We don’t do rigid, dogmatic “Agile for the sake of Agile”. We care about flow, systems thinking, and predictable, high‑quality execution. If you live and breathe modern delivery concepts (think The Phoenix Project and Better Sooner Safer Happier), know how to optimise lead time, and can manage finite engineering capacity against high business demand, you’ll thrive here.

What you’ll be doing:

• Value Stream Leadership: Lead, inspire, and grow cross‑functional technical teams to build products that colleagues and customers love.
• Core Technology Strategy: Partner with Commercial, Product, and Architecture teams to create and execute a 24‑month technology roadmap, including our core engine migration.
• Executive & Stakeholder Management: Serve as a trusted technology leader for senior leadership, ExCo, and the Board – managing expectations, delivering on commitments, and providing transparent reporting.
• Vendor & Custom Build Balance: Manage complex 3rd‑party SaaS software providers alongside internal software engineering practices to optimise delivery pace and system resilience.
• Financial & Risk Governance: Manage Run/Opex and Change/Capex budgets for the Lending value stream. Ensure full compliance with regulatory frameworks (IRB & Standardised credit risk models, Information Security, and FCA/PRA conduct rules).
• Continuous Improvement: Drive operational efficiency, removing bottlenecks in workflows, and embedding modern engineering practices (CI/CD, automated testing, DevOps).

What do we need from you?

• Significant experience leading a large technology delivery area within a fast‑paced environment, with a track record of delivering complex, multi‑year change programs.
• Deep understanding of modern, scalable, cloud‑native architectures, ideally with experience migrating core banking, payments, or lending platforms.
• Expertise in systems thinking, flow metrics, Lean, and modern software delivery principles over rigid frameworks.
• Hands‑on experience managing major 3rd‑party SaaS/vendor partnerships alongside in‑house software engineering teams.
• Outstanding communication and relationship‑building skills, with the confidence and credibility to reassure executive stakeholders and board members.
• Domain knowledge in Residential Mortgages, Commercial Lending, or regulated retail banking is desirable but not essential.
• Based near or willing to travel regularly to the Newcastle office.

What you’ll get from us?

• Salary range up to £120k
• Hybrid working in Newcastle
• Car Allowance of £8,000
• 4‑day work week
• Discretionary cash bonus
• Incredibly generous company pension scheme (maximum of 13% of Atom input – candidate can put in more) 22.5 days annual leave plus public holiday
• Private Medical Insurance, Health Cash Plan, Life Insurance & Critical illness cover
• £200 “All about me” fund
• EV Scheme

PLEASE NOTE: You must have the legal right to work in the UK to apply for this role as Atom is unable to support Visa Applications/Sponsorship

Atom is an equal opportunities employer. We value you as an individual and therefore disregard race, religion/belief, gender, sexual orientation, maternity/pregnancy, age, gender reassignment, marriage/civil partnership and disability in any hiring decisions we make. Atom will always adhere to the Equality Act 2010.

All roles within Atom must adhere to the Conduct Rules as set out by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

As part of Atom bank’s commitment to the FCA’s Consumer Duty, Atom will, take all reasonable steps to avoid causing foreseeable harm to customers, take all reasonable steps to enable customers to pursue their financial objectives and act in good faith.