Job Description
At OakNorth, we’re on a mission to empower the UK’s most ambitious businesses. Since 2015, we’ve lent over $21bn across the UK and US, helped create more than 58,000 new homes and 36,000 jobs, and supported hundreds of thousands of personal savers — all while operating in one of the most highly regulated environments in financial services.
Our products sit at the intersection of innovation, customer outcomes, and regulatory scrutiny. Getting that balance right is non-negotiable.
The role 👋
We are hiring a Director, Growth & Distribution to own and scale customer acquisition and deposit distribution for OakNorth’s Personal Savings business.
This is a senior commercial leadership role with end-to-end accountability for:
- Growing direct customer acquisition beyond rate-tables
- Building and scaling introducer, affiliate and strategic brand partnerships
- Expanding OakNorth’s third-party distribution footprint as an underlying deposit-taking partner
- Leading and developing growth marketing and partnerships teams
- Working cross-functionally to ensure growth is capital-efficient, compliant and aligned with treasury needs
You will report directly to the Chief Product Officer and will operate as a peer to Product and Engineering Directors, Operations Directors, and as a close partner to Finance and Treasury.
Role
Direct Growth Strategy & Execution
Own the direct customer growth strategy for Personal Savings, with clear targets for volume, cost of acquisition, and customer quality.
Diversify our acquisition by:
Identifying and launching new acquisition channels (e.g. paid search, affiliates, introducers, brand partnerships).
Building scalable referral and introducer models that deliver customers OakNorth can market to directly.
Work closely with Product and Engineering to:
Optimise conversion across acquisition journeys.
Improve onboarding, funding rates, and early-life retention.
Establish clear performance management across channels, grounded in data, not vanity metrics.
Distribution & Partnerships
Map UK distribution landscape for retail deposits, and identify the best opportunities to expand OakNorth’s portfolio of distribution partnerships.
Lead commercial negotiations, structuring partnerships that balance:
Volume and stability of deposits
Margin and pricing discipline
Operational and regulatory complexity
Own ongoing partner performance management, including growth, economics, risk and relationship health.
Leadership & Team Management
Lead and develop our growth/direct marketing specialists and our partnerships team.
Set clear objectives, accountability and development plans.
Build a culture that is commercial, data-driven, and outcome-focused rather than channel-led.
Cross-Functional Leadership
Work closely with:
Product & Engineering – to ensure acquisition and partner needs are built cleanly into product roadmaps.
Finance & Treasury – to align growth plans with funding requirements, balance sheet strategy and pricing constraints.
Operations, Risk and Compliance – to ensure the Personal Savings product is designed and operated in a robust, compliant, scalable and regulator-ready manner in line with sound conduct risk
Act as a senior leader within the Personal Savings unit, contributing to overall strategy, prioritisation and decision-making.
What you’ll bring 🫵
- Senior leadership experience in growth, distribution or commercial roles within:
- Retail banking, fintech, savings/investments platforms, or adjacent regulated environments.
- Excellent understanding of market dynamics and commercial structures of retail deposit taking in the UK
A proven track record of:
- Scaling customer acquisition beyond a single dominant channel.
- Building and managing introducer, affiliate or platform partnerships.
- Strong commercial judgement, including pricing, margin and volume trade-offs.
- Experience working closely with product and engineering teams in a highly iterative environment.
- Confidence operating in regulated contexts, with an understanding of what cannot be compromised for growth.
- The ability to operate at both strategic and hands-on levels.
What Success Looks Like 🏆
- A materially more diversified acquisition mix, with reduced dependency on any one channel.
- Scalable introducer and affiliate partnerships delivering high-quality, directly marketable customers.
- A broader, higher-impact distribution partner portfolio.
- Clear visibility and control over acquisition economics.
- Strong, credible partnerships with Product, Engineering, Operations, Finance and Treasury.
- A high-performing, commercially sharp growth and partnerships team.
What makes working here better 😍
- This is a truly hybrid role, offering the flexibility to work from home while also providing opportunities to collaborate in person with the team when it adds value. There’s no fixed requirement for days in the office, instead, we focus on creating space for engineers & Product to engage meaningfully, whether that’s in-person for whiteboarding sessions or remote for deep focus work.
- Work-life balance 🌴 - 25 days holiday (plus bank holidays) each year, and enhanced family leave allowances.
- Competitive salary & equity 🏦 - We want people to have a serious stake in the business.
- Good kit 💻 - Your choice of the best laptop, running macOS or Ubuntu.
- Team socials 🎉 - The opportunity to get to know each other outside of work.
- Company socials 🥡 - A chance to catch up and meet new colleagues weekly over informal office breakfasts and dinners on OakNorth - or at our free barista bar every day.
- Commuter support 🚲 - We offer the cycle to work & EV scheme.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
