--- title: 'Associate Director - Business Banking at OakNorth' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/associate-director-business-banking-oaknorth-london-yw89p40hvyy4' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-11-12' --- # Associate Director - Business Banking at OakNorth - **Company:** OakNorth - **Location:** London, United Kingdom - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** hybrid - **Posted:** 2026-11-10 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-12 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/oaknorth/176be255-2d97-45e4-953e-d3afc3862b97 ## Job description ## About the team Our Business Banking team supports some of the UK’s most exciting scale-ups and complex mid-market businesses. We combine smart technology and data with the human judgement, speed and personal service OakNorth is known for. ## About the role OakNorth was built by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs — and we’re looking for an ambitious, well-connected commercial operator to help take our Business Banking proposition to the next level. As Associate Director, Business Banking, you’ll be at the heart of our growth. You’ll find and win brilliant new customers, build trusted relationships with founders and finance leaders, and expand OakNorth’s presence across mid-market businesses and their trusted advisors. This isn’t a role for someone who wants to work from a fixed playbook. We want someone entrepreneurial: a natural relationship builder who spots opportunities, creates momentum and turns ambitious ideas into commercial results. You’ll have the ownership and platform to make a visible impact — for our customers, our team and OakNorth. ## What you’ll do - Win ambitious new customers: Identify, engage and convert complex mid-market businesses from £2-100m turnover for their day-day operational banking and deposits. - Build relationships that matter: Become a trusted partner to founders, CEOs, CFOs and trusted advisors by understanding their ambitions and helping them navigate the opportunities and challenges of growth. - Grow customer value: Deepen existing relationships, increase product adoption and deposits, and ensure customers get greater value from OakNorth as they scale. - Make OakNorth impossible to ignore: Be a visible and credible ambassador for the brand, strengthening our position as the go-to banking partner for ambitious growth businesses. - Influence the strategy: Collaborate with Product, Marketing, Operations and other teams to remove friction, solve customer problems and help shape the direction of our offering. - Show up where it counts: Represent OakNorth at the events, communities and conversations shaping the UK’s entrepreneurial ecosystem — and create new ways for us to connect with it. - Bring the outside in: Stay close to customers, competitors and market shifts, turning insight into ideas that sharpen our proposition and accelerate growth. - Challenge the status quo: Keep looking for smarter, faster and more effective ways to win customers, build our network and improve the experience we deliver. - Own the outcome: Take accountability for your pipeline, relationships and commercial results, bringing pace, energy and discipline to everything you do. You’ll be a great fit if you have… - A strong track record in a commercial, sales or relationship-focused role within banking, fintech or Financial SAAS business. - Used to working in a start-up environment and able to adapt within a fast-moving, high-growth environment. - An entrepreneurial mindset — you spot opportunities, act with urgency and enjoy building rather than simply following an established playbook. - A deep understanding of what founders and CFOs need from a banking partner. - A strong network across mid-market businesses and their trusted advisors to be able to grow the OakNorth brand within. - Proven success building new relationships, opening doors and turning networks into meaningful commercial outcomes. - Strong commercial instincts and a results-focused approach, with the confidence to own ambitious targets. - Natural curiosity and the ability to quickly understand a customer’s business, ambitions and challenges. - Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the credibility to engage senior decision-makers and represent OakNorth externally. - A collaborative, low-ego approach and the ability to work across teams to get things done for customers. - Comfort operating in a fast-paced, founder-led environment where priorities move quickly and success is measured by impact. - A genuine appetite to challenge conventional business banking and help build something exceptional. ## What we offer OakNorth is for people who want to make a visible difference. We move with pace, stay close to our customers and give talented people the ownership to turn ambitious ideas into real outcomes. You’ll join a business with the energy of a scale-up and the reach and responsibility of a bank. You’ll have the freedom to build your market, expand your network and help shape a Business Banking proposition designed around the UK’s most ambitious companies. Due to a high volume of applications, we may decide to take down this advert early. Please submit your application asap ## About OakNorth ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: OakNorth is a UK-based digital bank founded by entrepreneurs, providing fast, flexible business loans and competitive savings accounts to support ambitious businesses and savers. - **Entity Type**: Private (fully-licensed digital bank, profitable; not publicly listed) - **Headquarters**: London, United Kingdom - **Founded**: 2015 - **Founders**: Rishi Khosla and Joel Perlman ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Digital banking, commercial lending, retail savings - **Target customers**: Lower mid-market businesses (entrepreneur-led, scaling fast) seeking debt financing from £1m to tens of millions; retail savers in the UK. - **Mission**: “Banking should be barrier-free” – inspired by the founders’ own frustrations with traditional lending, OakNorth aims to back proven businesses with fast, data-driven credit decisions. ## Products & Services - **Business Loans**: Flexible, structured debt financing from £1m to tens of millions for growth capital, acquisitions, management buyouts, and property development/investment. - **Business Banking**: Digital account with dedicated support, seamless payments and cash management for scaling businesses. - **Personal Savings**: FSCS-protected savings accounts (up to £120,000) with competitive interest rates, offered via a digital platform. - **OakNorth Credit Intelligence (OCI)**: Data-driven technology platform that gives lenders a forward-looking view for agile credit decisions (used internally and sold to other institutions). ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed (private company) - **Key Metric**: Cumulative lending of over £15.1bn since inception (2025). Annual profit of £165.2m in 2025. Total capital ratio of 18.4%. - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Founded and led by Rishi Khosla & Joel Perlman; backed by a range of institutional investors (details not fully public). Over 400,000 retail savers provide deposit funding. Partnered with LSE Generate for mentorship. - **Growth Signals**: Named **Best Bank in the UK** at The Banker’s Bank of the Year Awards 2025. Recognised by CNBC/Statista as one of the UK’s Top 250 Fintechs. Expanded lending into the US in 2023. Built a diversified business including Business Banking capability. 61,000+ jobs and 36,000+ new homes created through lending. Offices in London, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Newcastle, Birmingham, New York (OCI), and India (Gurugram, Bengaluru, Hyderabad). ## Competitive Advantages - **Data-driven credit underwriting**: Uses proprietary analytics (OCI) to assess future potential, not just past financials, enabling faster, more accurate lending decisions. - **Founder-led, flat organisational structure**: Decision-making is fast, with less bureaucracy than traditional banks. - **Disciplined profitability**: One of the few digital banks globally to be consistently profitable, with extremely low credit losses (4.5 basis points of cumulative facilities). - **Customer obsession**: High NPS and a culture of “customer delight” rather than mere satisfaction. ## Strategic Focus - **US expansion**: Scaling lending in the US lower mid-market where a similar structural gap exists. - **Business Banking rollout**: Building a full business banking capability beyond loans to deepen customer relationships. - **Technology and data**: Continuing to invest in the OakNorth Credit Intelligence platform and automation. - **ESG and community**: Net zero target by 2045; 1+1% initiative (1% of profits and 1% of employee time to charity). - **Talent and culture**: Expanding teams across UK, US, and India while maintaining a founder-led, high-autonomy culture. ## Why Work Here - **Equity**: Employees receive equity in the business, sharing in growth. - **Flat structure**: Opportunity to interact with senior leaders and have real impact regardless of tenure. - **Autonomy**: Personal goal-setting with manager support; freedom to take on projects of interest. - **Mission-driven**: Directly contribute to creating jobs, homes, and supporting ambitious entrepreneurs. - **Culture**: Values include “Say it how it is” (honest communication), “10x” (set ambitious goals), “One team”, and “Momentum”. - **Hybrid/Office**: Multiple office locations across UK (London, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Newcastle, Birmingham) plus New York and India. Specific remote policies not detailed but likely hybrid for most roles. - **Recognition**: Work for a bank that has won “Best Bank in the UK” and is seen as a top fintech employer. ## Sources 1. [OakNorth.co.uk – Home](https://oaknorth.co.uk/) 2. [OakNorth.co.uk – About/Our Story](https://oaknorth.co.uk/about/) 3. [OakNorth.co.uk – Careers](https://oaknorth.co.uk/about/careers/) 4. [OakNorth.co.uk – Annual Report 2025 (PDF)](https://oaknorth.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Annual_Report_2025.pdf) 5. [OakNorth.co.uk – Jobs](https://oaknorth.co.uk/jobs/) ## Other roles at OakNorth - [Chief of Staff – to the Chief Lending Officer](https://feeny.ai/job/chief-of-staff-to-the-chief-lending-officer-oaknorth-london-zgg3fna2qw4g) — London, United Kingdom - [People Operations Specialist – UK & US 9 month FTC](https://feeny.ai/job/people-operations-specialist-uk-us-9-month-ftc-oaknorth-london-c3gc3c1fpj5n) — London, United Kingdom - [Intern - Ventures](https://feeny.ai/job/intern-ventures-oaknorth-london-1y9t6y5rrfdt) — London, United Kingdom - [Associate/Senior Associate - Lending Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/associate-senior-associate-lending-operations-oaknorth-gurugram-j4pp8bqpwp10) — Gurugram, India - [Sales Enablement Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/sales-enablement-lead-oaknorth-london-7ndt9gjn0ck0) — London, United Kingdom - [Senior Associate - Debt Finance](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-associate-debt-finance-oaknorth-manchester-pwtqrykdj40h) — Manchester - [Salesforce nCino Consultant (6 months)](https://feeny.ai/job/salesforce-ncino-consultant-6-months-oaknorth-gurugram-wvdt3m8kg7rg) — Gurugram, India - [Business Development Representative](https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-representative-oaknorth-london-xq88jqx4fnet) — London, United Kingdom - [Application Security Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/application-security-engineer-oaknorth-gurugram-cm2jrxr21cgw) — Gurugram, India - [Associate Vice President - Financial Planning & Analysis](https://feeny.ai/job/associate-vice-president-financial-planning-analysis-oaknorth-gurugram-6fxbdcegnyxc) — Gurugram, India