Head of Delivery - Lending Value Stream

Atom bank; Newcastle upon Tyne; Hybrid; GBP 100,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Salary up to £120k

Hybrid working in Newcastle

Car allowance £8,000

4-day work week

Discretionary cash bonus

Pension scheme (13% cap)

Annual leave 22.5 days + public hols

Private medical insurance

Health cash plan

Life & critical illness cover

EV scheme

Job summary

Atom bank is seeking a Head of Delivery for the Lending Value Stream to own technology change across Residential Mortgages and Commercial Lending. You will lead multidisciplinary teams, deliver complex systems in production, and inspire confidence up to ExCo and the Board.

You will drive the migration of the core lending engine to a modern, cloud-native architecture over the next 24 months, balancing immediate roadmap delivery with strategic evolution.

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading a large technology delivery area in a fast-paced environment.
• Deep understanding of modern, scalable cloud-native architectures, including banking/ lending platforms.
• Expertise in systems thinking, flow metrics, Lean, and modern software delivery practices.
• Hands-on experience managing major 3rd-party SaaS/vendor partnerships with in-house teams.
• Outstanding communication and relationship-building with executives and the board.
• Domain knowledge in residential mortgages, commercial lending, or regulated retail banking is desirable.
• Based near or willing to travel regularly to the Newcastle office.

Responsibilities

• Value Stream Leadership: lead cross-functional technical teams to build products loved by colleagues and customers.
• Core Technology Strategy: partner with Commercial, Product, and Architecture to create a 24-month technology roadmap including core engine migration.
• Executive & Stakeholder Management: serve as a trusted technology leader for senior leadership, ExCo, and the Board.
• Vendor & Custom Build Balance: manage SaaS providers and internal software engineering practices to optimise delivery pace and resilience.
• Financial & Risk Governance: manage Run/Opex and Change/Capex budgets; ensure compliance with regulatory frameworks.
• Continuous Improvement: drive operational efficiency and embed modern engineering practices.

Skills

Delivery leadership

Cloud-native

SaaS vendor mgmt

Executive communication

Stakeholder management

Thought leadership

Tools

Thought Machine

Job description

Were Atom bank

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

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

If youre ready to build the future of banking, wed 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 thats for sure:

As Head of Delivery for the Lending Value Stream, you will take end-to-end ownership of all technology changeacross 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 anExCo or Board room and inspire total confidence.

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

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

We dont do rigid, dogmatic “Agile for the sake of Agile”. We care about flow, systems thinking, andpredictable, high-quality execution. If you live and breathe modern delivery concepts (think The PhoenixProject and Better Sooner Safer Happier), know how to optimise lead time, and can manage finite engineeringcapacity against high business demand, youll thrive here.

What youll be doing:

• Value Stream Leadership: Lead, inspire, and grow cross-functional technical teams to build productsthat colleagues and customers love.
• Core Technology Strategy: Partner with Commercial, Product, and Architecture teams to create andexecute 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 transparentreporting.
• Vendor & Custom Build Balance: Manage complex 3rd-party SaaS software providers alongsideinternal software engineering practices to optimise delivery pace and system resilience.
• Financial & Risk Governance: Manage Run/Opex and Change/Capex budgets for the Lending valuestream. 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, andembedding 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 youll 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 e 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 banks commitment to the FCAs 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.