Head of SME Lending

Head of SME Lending

Team

Location AMAZE Central - Holborn

County Greater London

Ref #POS_18262

Closing Date 27-Oct-2026

At Metro Bank, we believe the best banking experience starts with people who genuinely care. We’re not just delivering banking services - we’re building trust through authentic connections. Here, our people come first; our colleagues are part of a team that values individuality, collaboration, and long-standing relationships. We are also all about balance so most of our jobs offer the opportunity for hybrid working built around your role and home life, wherever possible.

What you will do:

• This role offers the opportunity to shape the future of lending to small businesses at Metro Bank, leading the transformation of decisioning, data and risk management capabilities as the business continues its ambitious growth journey.

• Lead the Credit Risk function, setting automated lending strategy and risk appetite for small business lending.

• Play a pivotal role in one of the Bank's most exciting growth areas, shaping the future of small business lending and enabling the Metro Bank to scale confidently and responsibly, supporting Metro Bank's ambition to become a leading small business lender.

• Hold accountability for credit performance across the end-to-end customer journey, from acquisition and account management through to collections and recoveries.

• Lead the transformation of credit decisioning, leveraging new systems, data, advanced analytics, AI-driven capabilities and digital technologies to automate the customer journey, reduce reliance on manual underwriting, improve decision-making and operational effectiveness, and build a more scalable, resilient and future-ready credit function.

• Develop and continuously enhance credit policies, scorecards, affordability models, underwriting strategies and risk frameworks across the full customer lifecycle, embedding best-in-class tools, data and processes to support the next phase of growth.

• Partner with Commercial, Product and Distribution teams to support the expansion of the small business lending, balancing growth ambitions with strong risk management and customer outcomes. Shape lending propositions, product development, portfolio management and broader business decision-making.

• Provide visible and inspirational leadership, building a high-performing team and market-leading small business credit risk capability that leverages innovative approaches, modern tools and strong risk management to support the Bank's future ambitions.

• Act as the senior business unit credit risk representative at relevant senior forums, providing insight, challenge and recommendations to support strategic decision-making.

• Represent the Bank externally with regulators, industry bodies, data providers and strategic partners where required.

And... we are a bank so risk is a part of everything we do. We love people who take responsibility, do the right thing for customers, colleagues and Metro Bank and have the ability to call out any concerns.

What you will need:

• Extensive experience leading credit risk strategy, with a track record of balancing growth, risk, customer outcomes and regulatory requirements.

• Deep expertise developing and optimising credit decisioning and risk management strategies across the customer lifecycle, including originations, account management, collections and portfolio oversight.

• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to support sustainable business growth by balancing risk, return, customer outcomes and capital efficiency through data-led strategies.

• Good knowledge of small business lending products, credit risk frameworks and decisioning capabilities.

• Experience of delivering or contributing to credit transformation programmes, leveraging new technologies, data, analytics, automation and AI to enhance decision-making, operational efficiency and customer experience.

• Demonstrated ability to influence and challenge at Executive Committee level, working effectively with senior stakeholders, regulators, strategic partners and governance forums.

• An inspirational people leader with experience building high-performing teams and developing future talent, whilst fostering a culture of innovation , accountability and continuous improvement.

• Experience leading through significant business growth, organisational change or transformation, with the ability to translate strategic ambition into tangible outcomes.

Our promise to you…

• We will make sure that you are well-rewarded by providing you with a competitive salary, discretionary annual bonus, and a wide range of benefits, including generous holiday allowance, attractive pension scheme, healthcare, life assurance, and a number of colleague discounts!

• We will give you the training to ensure you succeed in your role and plenty of internal opportunities to progress your career (around 40% of our recruitment comes from internal promotions!

• This role is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime. This means that If you are successful in your application, we are required to carry out additional checks that will be repeated annually while you are in this role. For more information you can visit the FCA website or ask your recruiter who can explain further.

Important Footnote

Diverse teams really are the best teams. We know that candidates (especially women, research tells us) may be put off applying for a job unless they can tick every box. We also know that ‘normal’ office hours aren’t always doable, and while we can’t accommodate every flexible working request we are happy to be asked. So if you are excited about working with us and think you can do much of what we are looking for but aren’t sure if you are 100% there yet… why not give it a whirl? Good luck!

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