---
title: 'Senior Associate - Debt Finance at OakNorth'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-associate-debt-finance-oaknorth-manchester-pwtqrykdj40h'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-29'
---

# Senior Associate - Debt Finance at OakNorth

- **Company:** OakNorth
- **Location:** Manchester
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-10-26
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-29
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/oaknorth/0328a593-6208-42db-b077-9122ab0a556d

## Job description

OakNorth is a digital bank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. Since our launch in 2015, we’ve backed ambitious businesses across the UK and US with over £21bn in funding, helping create more than 56,000 jobs and 34,000 new homes. We combine deep credit expertise, technology and a customer-first mindset to help businesses grow.

We’re looking for a Senior Associate to join our Debt Finance team in Manchester, supporting lending to private equity and owner-managed businesses. You’ll bring the analytical depth to understand how a business makes and uses cash, and the judgement to help shape lending solutions around its debt and working-capital needs.

This is a hands-on, high-ownership role. You’ll lead day-to-day analysis and execution across complex transactions, working closely with senior originators and credit colleagues from initial assessment through structuring, credit approval and completion. You’ll take responsibility for moving deals forward, communicating clearly and maintaining strong credit discipline throughout.

## What you’ll be doing

- Assess new opportunities involving businesses, developing a clear view of the business model, sector, management team, financial and credit profile.
- Build and review financial models, including cash-flow forecasts, debt sizing, repayment capacity, sensitivities and downside scenarios.
- Identify the key risks in a transaction and develop practical mitigants.
- Shape and challenge facility structures and terms with originators, credit and other stakeholders, balancing customer needs with OakNorth’s risk appetite.
- Own day-to-day deal workstreams, coordinating diligence, analysis, credit papers, committee materials, term sheets, legal documentation and completion requirements.
- Present clear analysis and recommendations to senior stakeholders, and contribute to credit discussions with well-reasoned judgement.
- Build trusted relationships with borrowers, advisers and intermediaries, and contribute to developing a high-quality pipeline of opportunities.
- Review work and share your expertise with junior colleagues, helping strengthen the quality and consistency of the team’s analysis and execution.
- Work closely with colleagues across debt finance, credit, legal and portfolio teams to support a smooth transition from origination through completion and ongoing monitoring.

## What we’re looking for

- Strong experience in accountancy, commercial lending, debt finance or a closely related area, with the ability to take ownership of complex transaction workstreams.
- Relevant exposure to businesses and their financing needs
- Excellent financial analysis and modelling skills, including cash-flow assessment, debt sizing and downside analysis.
- Sound credit judgement and the ability to identify the risks that matter, test assumptions and explain your conclusions clearly.
- Experience preparing or reviewing credit papers, committee materials, term sheets or transaction documentation.
- Confidence managing multiple stakeholders and workstreams, keeping transactions moving while maintaining accuracy and attention to detail.
- Clear written and verbal communication, with the confidence to explain complex analysis to both specialist and non-specialist audiences.
- A collaborative, low-ego approach and a genuine interest in supporting the development of colleagues around you.

Particularly useful experience

- Lending
- Working-capital

## What you can expect

- Meaningful ownership of live transactions and the opportunity to influence how lending solutions are structured.
- Close partnership with experienced originators and credit colleagues, with access to senior decision-makers.
- A varied portfolio of businesses and financing situations, with scope to deepen your expertise in trading and wholesale lending.
- A collaborative team environment that values commercial thinking, sound judgement and high standards of execution.

If you’re motivated by complex lending challenges and enjoy combining rigorous analysis with practical, relationship-led execution, we’d love to hear from you.

## 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

- [Salesforce nCino Consultant (6 months)](https://feeny.ai/job/salesforce-ncino-consultant-6-months-oaknorth-gurugram-wvdt3m8kg7rg) — Gurugram, India
- [Application Security Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/application-security-engineer-oaknorth-gurugram-cm2jrxr21cgw) — Gurugram, India
- [Staff Engineer - Salesforce/ nCino](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-engineer-salesforce-ncino-oaknorth-gurugram-186c6z9dc2nc) — Gurugram, India
- [Associate Vice President - Financial Planning & Analysis](https://feeny.ai/job/associate-vice-president-financial-planning-analysis-oaknorth-gurugram-6fxbdcegnyxc) — Gurugram, India
- [Lead Engineer - Personal Savings](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-engineer-personal-savings-oaknorth-london-esm7ha02zqpr) — London, United Kingdom
- [Senior Director/Director, Debt Finance - Structured Finance](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-director-director-debt-finance-structured-finance-oaknorth-london-yg438ngx1na0) — London, United Kingdom
- [Manager, Financial Crime](https://feeny.ai/job/manager-financial-crime-oaknorth-london-g2hnjrc3gtga) — London, United Kingdom
- [Senior Analyst - Credit Analytics](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-analyst-credit-analytics-oaknorth-gurugram-epc7p2svhdp9) — Gurugram, India
- [Associate Vice President - Credit Analytics](https://feeny.ai/job/associate-vice-president-credit-analytics-oaknorth-gurugram-jy9670jeshbp) — Gurugram, India
- [Senior Director, Credit Risk - Real Estate](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-director-credit-risk-real-estate-oaknorth-london-fqt4141pb1rv) — London, United Kingdom