Principal, Strategic Talent & Market Intelligence - UK Lending

Help Build the Team Behind One of the UK's Fastest Growing Commercial Banks

At OakNorth, we don't just hire talent—we build the teams that help ambitious businesses thrive.

Since launching in 2015, we've deployed billions of pounds in lending to scaling businesses across the UK, helping entrepreneurs turn bold ideas into market-leading companies. Today, our proprietary technology is also used by financial institutions globally, and we're continuing to redefine what modern commercial banking looks like.

We're looking for a Principal, Strategic Talent & Market Intelligence to build a market-leading talent intelligence capability for our UK Lending business.

This is not a traditional Talent Acquisition role.

You'll be embedded within our UK Lending leadership team, partnering directly with the Chief Lending Officer and senior executives to shape hiring strategy, provide market intelligence and build long-term relationships with the industry's most exceptional talent.

We're looking for someone who already has credibility within the UK lending market—someone with an established network, a deep understanding of the commercial lending landscape and the judgement to recognise exceptional talent before the market does.

At the same time, you'll be a key member of OakNorth's Global Talent Acquisition team. You'll collaborate with Talent Partners across the business, sharing market intelligence, sourcing strategies and best practice while helping shape the future of Talent Acquisition at OakNorth. This unique model combines the influence of an embedded business partner with the collaboration, innovation and career development opportunities of a high-performing global team.

You'll combine strategic talent advisory, competitive intelligence, AI-powered research and relationship management to help OakNorth attract and retain the very best lending professionals in the market.

The Opportunity

You'll build a strategic talent intelligence capability that gives OakNorth a genuine competitive advantage.

Rather than reacting to vacancies, you'll identify market trends before they happen, build relationships years before hiring decisions are made and provide intelligence that influences organisational design, succession planning and business growth.

Using Ashby as your strategic Talent CRM, you'll create a living ecosystem of market intelligence, executive relationships and talent insight that supports smarter hiring decisions across the UK Lending business.

What You'll Do

Strategic Talent Partner

Partner with the Chief Lending Officer and senior leadership to develop long-term talent strategies that support business growth.

You'll:

• Translate business objectives into strategic talent plans.

• Influence workforce planning and succession planning.

• Advise on build versus buy hiring decisions.

• Attend leadership meetings to understand future capability requirements.

• Provide market insight that shapes strategic hiring decisions.

Market Intelligence

Become OakNorth's expert on the UK lending talent market.

You'll build and maintain live intelligence across:

• Organisational structures

• Team moves

• Promotions

• Compensation trends

• Reporting lines

• Team stability

• Succession risk

• Fundraising activity

• Office openings

• Emerging talent

Our ambition is simple: build the industry's most comprehensive talent intelligence capability.

Competitive Intelligence

You'll know the market before anyone else.

Develop insight into:

• Which firms are hiring

• Senior leadership movements

• Growing and shrinking lending platforms

• Compensation trends

• Team performance and stability

• Competitor hiring activity

• Emerging market opportunities

You'll transform market insight into actionable intelligence that informs hiring and business strategy.

Relationship Management

Build one of the strongest networks in UK Lending.

Develop trusted relationships with senior professionals across:

• Commercial Banking

• Corporate Banking

• Debt Finance

• Real Estate Finance

• Private Credit

• Alternative Lending

These aren't recruitment conversations.

They're long-term career relationships built through regular engagement, networking, market insight and trusted advice.

Talent Intelligence & Ashby

You'll use Ashby as much more than an applicant tracking system.

You'll build a strategic talent CRM that captures:

• Executive relationships

• Talent communities

• Market intelligence

• Competitor insights

• Career history

• Talent engagement

• Pipeline health

• Hiring trends

You'll create dashboards and reports that enable leaders to make better talent decisions while ensuring valuable market intelligence is retained and continually enhanced.

AI & Innovation

You'll embrace AI to transform how talent intelligence is delivered.

You'll continually explore new technologies that improve:

• Talent mapping

• Research

• Market intelligence

• Relationship management

• Workflow automation

• Reporting

• Productivity

You'll help position OakNorth at the forefront of modern Talent Acquisition.

Talent Brand

Help establish OakNorth as the employer of choice for ambitious lending professionals.

Working alongside Marketing and business leaders, you'll support thought leadership through:

• Industry insights

• Deal case studies

• Leadership interviews

• Podcasts

• Videos

• Market commentary

• Networking events

Non-Obvious Talent Discovery

Exceptional talent rarely comes from traditional sourcing alone.

You'll identify future leaders through:

• Industry awards

• Conferences

• Market transactions

• Professional networks

• Advisory firms

• Sponsor relationships

• Emerging Leader programmes

• Referrals

• Industry publications

Your curiosity and market knowledge will uncover talent long before it becomes visible to competitors.

What Success Looks Like

You'll build intelligence that drives business decisions.

Your outputs will include:

• UK Lending Talent Heatmaps

• Competitor Intelligence Dashboards

• Quarterly Opportunity Reports

• Emerging Talent Reviews

• Compensation Benchmarking

• Succession Risk Analysis

• Executive Relationship Mapping

• Ashby Talent Dashboards

What We're Looking For

This role is ideal for someone who already knows the UK lending market inside out and has built a strong network across it.

You may come from executive search, talent intelligence, commercial banking, private credit, strategy consulting, market intelligence or another commercially focused environment where understanding people, markets and competitive dynamics is critical.

You'll bring:

• An established network across the UK lending market, including commercial banking, corporate banking, debt finance, real estate finance, private credit and alternative lenders.

• Deep knowledge of the UK lending landscape, including key organisations, market dynamics and where exceptional talent is found.

• The judgement to recognise what outstanding looks like across lending, origination and credit, with the credibility to engage senior professionals as a trusted adviser.

• A genuine hunter mentality with exceptional research, networking and relationship-building skills.

• Strong market mapping and competitive intelligence capability.

• Commercial judgement and the confidence to influence senior stakeholders.

• Excellent communication skills and the ability to translate market insight into strategic recommendations.

• Experience using Ashby or another modern Talent CRM to build talent communities and capture strategic market intelligence.

• A passion for leveraging AI and emerging technology to enhance research, talent intelligence and productivity.

• A proactive, entrepreneurial mindset with a bias for action.

Why Join OakNorth?

This is a rare opportunity to build a strategic capability from the ground up.

You'll work directly with senior leadership while being part of a high-performing Global Talent Acquisition team that is redefining how talent is identified, engaged and hired. You'll influence the growth of one of the UK's leading commercial lending businesses, help shape OakNorth's wider talent strategy and build a talent intelligence capability that becomes a genuine competitive advantage.

If you're entrepreneurial, commercially minded, deeply connected within the UK lending market and passionate about uncovering exceptional talent through intelligence rather than transactions, we'd love to hear from you.

What we offer

• Equity — we want everyone to have a stake in the business so our interests are aligned

• 25 days holiday plus personalised benefits — opt in to what matters to you

• Subsidised private medical insurance with Bupa

• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave

• Wellbeing and social events, plus in-house Barista Bar in the London office

• Volunteering time off to support causes that matter to you

• Salary sacrifice schemes — cycle to work, nursery, gym, and electric car scheme