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