Co-Head of Credit Risk – Real Estate
OakNorth · London, England
We are looking for a Co-Head of Credit Risk – Real Estate to help grow our real estate lending businesses working alongside our Co-Head of Credit Risk – Trading Business. Together, you will provide senior credit leadership across our real estate and trading business lending, each bringing deep expertise in your area.
Based in London, you will help shape the real estate deals we do, the people we develop and how we work across the UK market, while keeping sound credit judgement at the heart of every decision.
This is a role for someone who wants to build, not just oversee. You will work closely with our Debt Finance Originators to understand customers’ ambitions and find the right structure for their transactions, making and sanctioning credit decisions and bringing an independent view to Credit Risk Committee.
The opportunity goes beyond individual deals. You will lead our Real Estate Credit Risk teams, oversee portfolio risk and help shape how we approach real estate credit as we grow internationally.
We also want your ideas. How could AI improve our analysis? Where could better data help us spot risk sooner? What should we stop doing so the team can spend more time on the decisions that matter? You will help turn those ideas into practical changes.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
SHAPE REAL ESTATE CREDIT ACROSS OAKNORTH
- Work with senior Lending and Credit Risk colleagues to support growth across all markets, with clear views on the opportunities we should pursue and the risks we should take.
- Help shape our approach to real estate credit, combining consistent underwriting standards with an understanding of local markets, deal structures and regulation.
- Stay close to transactions and the portfolio, and build the team’s capability as the business grows.
CREDIT DECISIONS AND SANCTIONING
- Make and sanction decisions on new transactions, amendments and other material credit matters within your delegated authority.
- Assess deal structure, leverage, cash flow, security, sponsor strength and downside risk.
- Work with Debt Finance Originators from the early stages of a deal, helping shape terms and structures that work for the customer and meet our risk appetite. Provide clear, timely credit feedback and be direct when a transaction is not right for us.
- Take responsibility for complex or higher-risk cases, including when information is incomplete or circumstances are changing.
- Record decisions clearly, with a sound rationale.
CREDIT RISK COMMITTEE
- Play an active role in Credit Risk Committee and chair where appropriate, bringing a solutions-focused, commercial mindset and independent credit judgement to UK real estate decisions. Help shape our real estate credit appetite, find workable structures for good lending opportunities and keep decisions moving at pace without compromising credit standards.
- Challenge the key assumptions and risks, including how individual deals affect portfolio concentrations.
- Bring a clear view and be prepared to challenge senior colleagues.
BUILD AND LEAD THE TEAM
- Lead our Real Estate Credit Risk teams, giving people clear responsibility and expecting high standards.
- Develop credit professionals who can think for themselves, form a view and stand behind a decision.
- Coach colleagues through complex transactions and give future leaders the experience to take on more responsibility.
- Bring the teams together across markets, and recruit and retain the people we need for our next stage of growth.
USE AI AND DATA TO IMPROVE CREDIT WORK
AI and technology should be part of how we do credit work, not a separate project. You will help the team:
- spend less time gathering information and preparing credit analysis and committee papers
- use data to identify portfolio risks earlier
- automate repetitive tasks and test tools that improve the quality and speed of our work
You do not need a technical background. We do expect curiosity, a willingness to test new approaches and the judgement to know where they add value.
WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
You will have substantial experience underwriting and sanctioning complex commercial real estate transactions. Direct experience of making credit decisions is essential; policy or governance experience alone is not enough.
You will bring:
- deep knowledge of real estate lending across different asset classes and transaction types
- sound judgement on deal structure, sponsors, security, cash flow and downside risk, alongside an understanding of portfolio exposures
- experience on senior Credit Risk Committees and the confidence to challenge senior Lending colleagues
- a track record of leading and developing credit teams
- Experience in UK or across more than one lending market, would be an advantage.
WORKING AT OAKNORTH
We were founded by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs. Our customers have ambitions for their businesses, and we look for ways to help them get there. That takes curiosity, commercial understanding and the willingness to look beyond the obvious answer.
You should enjoy that kind of work: getting into a complex deal, challenging assumptions and finding a structure that others may have missed. Just as importantly, you need the independence to say no when the risk is not right.
We move quickly and expect people to take ownership. You will have room to put ideas into practice, challenge established ways of working and develop your team. In return, we expect clear decisions, disciplined risk judgement and responsibility for the outcome.
If you want to help grow a lending business, develop strong credit leaders and change how credit work gets done, this is an opportunity to do all three.
Benefits & Perks
- 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