Senior Director, Account Executive Operations

Capital One (Europe) plc; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension scheme

Performance-based bonus

25 days annual leave + buy 5 days

Private medical insurance

Enhanced parental leave

Job summary

Capital One Europe is hiring a Senior Director, Account Executive Operations in London. The role leads executive-level operations, building scalable structures, and coaching a multi-layered team in a hybrid office setting.

You will partner with Product, Tech and Sales to drive enterprise-wide improvements, define operating rhythms, and sponsor strategic partner relationships while traveling 25–30% of the time.

This permanent role offers a broad benefits package and opportunities for career growth.

Qualifications

• Senior Director level experience in financial services or payments.
• Proven ability to coach leaders, design org structures and scale operations.
• Experience managing executive-level client relationships in the EMEA region.
• Change management experience across large programmes.

Responsibilities

• Provide executive leadership and coaching to a multi-layered operations team.
• Design and govern scalable operating frameworks and SOPs.
• Serve as executive sponsor for top-tier partner relationships at the C-suite level.
• Define strategies to mitigate risks and ensure compliance and data integrity.
• Partner with Product, Tech and Sales on system enhancements and capabilities.
• Define KPIs and dashboards to drive efficiency and resource alignment.
• Lead organisational change and training to support growth.
• Travel approximately 25–30% to engage partners and teams.

Skills

Executive leadership

Coaching leaders

Organizational design

Scaling operational teams

Strategic planning

Client relationship management (EMEA)

Change management

Job description

245 Hammersmith (95989), United Kingdom, London,Senior Director, Account Executive Operations

Job Title: Senior Director, Account Executive Operations

Location: Hammersmith, London - Hybrid

Working Pattern: 2 days in-office and 3 days remote.

Our Mission

We’re on a mission to be a force for good in lending. Throughout our almost 30-year history, we’ve consistently been recognised as a great place to work; in 2026, Capital One was officially ranked 9th in the UK’s Best Workplaces™ list. Hear from our team about what it’s like working at Capital One UK.

About the Role

The Senior Director, Account Executive Operations provides executive leadership and strategic vision for the operational business support of our most critical partners. This role is fundamentally about organizational leadership, building scalable structures, defining the operating rhythm, and deeply investing in the coaching and development of a multi-layered team. As a leader of leaders, you will design the frameworks that guide daily operations, drive enterprise-wide process improvements, and serve as the executive sponsor for complex partner relationships.

We are seeking a highly structured, transformative leader who thrives on mentoring teams, creating clarity out of ambiguity, and fostering a high-performance culture across the operations organization.

What you’ll do

• Executive Leadership & Coaching: Direct, mentor, and coach a multi-layered team of operational leaders (Managers and Directors). Foster a culture of continuous feedback, prioritize leadership development, and build robust succession plans.
• Organizational Design & Structure: Design, implement, and govern comprehensive operational frameworks and standard operating procedures (SOPs). Bring rigorous structure to the department by establishing clear roles, responsibilities, and standardized workflows.
• Strategic Partner Management: Serve as the executive sponsor and ultimate point of escalation for the network’s top-tier, highest-impact strategic partners, managing relationships at the C-suite level.
• Operational Excellence & Risk Mitigation: Define the overarching strategy for mitigating operational gaps and system risks. Oversee the deployment of enterprise-wide initiatives to eliminate failure modes and ensure absolute compliance and documentation integrity.
• Cross-Functional Vision: Champion the full life-cycle of complex, cross-functional transformations. Partner with executive stakeholders across Product, Tech, and Sales to sponsor system enhancements, tool rollouts, and long-term capability building.
• Performance Strategy: Define the key performance indicators (KPIs) and operational metrics for the entire department. Leverage executive-level dashboards to drive continuous improvement, operational efficiency, and resource alignment with corporate goals.
• Change Management: Lead the organization through periods of growth and change, ensuring comprehensive training, change readiness, and adoption strategies are effectively executed.
• Client Engagement: This is a highly visible, client-facing executive role requiring approximately 25-30% travel.

The skills and experience you need

• Experience in a Senior Director level role
• Senior leadership experience, specifically focused on coaching leaders, organizational design, and scaling complex operational teams
• Experience within the financial services or payments industry
• Demonstrated expertise in strategic planning, capability building, and managing executive-level client relationships within the EMEA market
• Change management experience

Where and how you'll work

This is a permanent position based in our Hammersmith, London office.

We embrace a hybrid approach to work. You'll spend two days a week in the office.

What’s in it for you

We invest in the growth of our people alongside our business. You will have extensive opportunities to learn and develop your career, including access to up to £5,000 in funding for external qualifications.

In addition to career development, our comprehensive benefits package is designed to grow with you, ensuring your wellbeing is prioritised at every stage of your career:

• Wealth & Future: Competitive pension and performance-based bonus schemes
• Holidays: Start with 25 days of annual leave, increasing with tenure. Need more? You have the option to buy 5 additional days.
• Health: Access premium care through our private medical insurance.
• Family Support: We champion your milestones with enhanced parental leave.

A full list of our benefits is available here.

What you should know about how we recruit

We pride ourselves on hiring the best people, not the same people. Building diverse and inclusive teams is the right thing to do and the smart thing to do. We want to work with top talent: whoever you are, whatever you look like, wherever you come from. We know it’s about what you do, not just what you say. That’s why we make our recruitment process fair and accessible.

We value diversity, inclusion and belonging at our core. We empower our associates to do great work by creating an inclusive culture—one that values diverse perspectives, fosters collaboration and encourages innovative ideas—and a place where associates of all backgrounds can thrive by bringing their most authentic selves to work. We call this our Culture of Belonging, and it rests at the heart of our business.

Our associate-led Business Resource Groups were created to help support our diverse population and include over 10 groups across our offices. Because each Business Resource Group is as unique as the population it serves, they offer a range of activities, networking opportunities, special events and learning programmes to associates.

Capital One is committed to diversity in the workplace.

If you require a reasonable adjustment, please contact [e-mail]. All information will be kept confidential and will only be used for the purpose of applying a reasonable adjustment.

For technical support or questions about Capital One's recruiting process, please send an email to [e-mail].

Capital One Financial is made up of several different entities. Please note that any position posted in Canada is for Capital One Canada, any position posted in the United Kingdom is for Capital One Europe and any position posted in the Philippines is for Capital One Philippines Service Corp. (COPSSC).

Who We Are

At Capital One, we're building a leading information-based technology company. Still founder-led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fairbank, Capital One is on a mission to help our customers succeed by bringing ingenuity, simplicity, and humanity to banking. We measure our efforts by the success our customers enjoy and the advocacy they exhibit. We are succeeding because they are succeeding.

Guided by our shared values, we thrive in an environment where collaboration and openness are valued. We believe that innovation is powered by perspective and that teamwork and respect for each other lead to superior results. We elevate each other and obsess about doing the right thing. Our associates serve with humility and a deep respect for their responsibility in helping our customers achieve their goals and realize their dreams. Together, we are on a quest to change banking for good.