JOB PURPOSE
The Senior Product Owner for Lending Products is responsible for the strategic ownership, development, governance and continuous improvement of the Bank’s non‑regulated lending propositions, including commercial lending, bespoke lending solutions and associate client journeys. The role ensures products deliver strong client outcomes, operate efficiently, manage risk effectively, and achieve sustainable commercial performance across their full lifecycle.
Operating within a regulated environment, the role is responsible for compliance with all relevant regulatory and governance requirements, including Consumer Duty, financial crime, and risk frameworks. Working cross-functionally, the Senior Product Owner translates strategic goals into clear product roadmaps, process enhancements, and scalable lending capabilities aligned to the Bank’s growth objectives.
MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES / KEY DUTIES
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Lead the development, enhancement and optimisation of lending propositions, operational processes, and digital capabilities.
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Ensure lending products remain competitive and commercially viable, operationally efficient and aligned to client and intermediary needs.
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Drive delivery of strategic, regulatory and technology change initiatives through RUN and Change projects through the appropriate governance frameworks.
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Oversee product governance activities including product approvals, product reviews, pricing changes, policy alignment and product withdrawal considerations.
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Monitor product performance through MI, client insight, pipeline performance, utilisation trends, complaints data, operational metrics and commercial performance measures.
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Partner closely with Credit Risk to ensure alignment between product design, underwriting appetite, portfolio performance, and operational execution.
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Support optimisation of onboarding, credit assessment, fulfilment, servicing and client management journeys to improve efficiency and client experience.
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Ensure supporting operational processes and controls, and systems remain robust, scalable, resilient and aligned to regulatory risk expectations.
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Manage relationships with third party providers, intermediaries, technology partners, legal suppliers, and operational vendors supporting lending activities.
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Support the Bank’s digital agenda through workflow optimisation, automation, data led decision making, and enhanced client servicing capability.
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Maintain training and competence (T&C) arrangements relevant to lending activities, ensuring colleagues involved in lending journeys maintain appropriate knowledge, capability and understanding of products, policy, conduct expectations and operational processes.
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Work in partnership with Compliance, Risk and operational leadership teams to support effective T&C frameworks, quality assurance activity, coaching outcomes and continuous improvement initiatives.
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Monitor conduct indicators, client outcomes, quality assurance findings, complaint trends, and operational risk events and identify training needs and drive improvements in colleague capability and client experience.
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Act as a senior subject matter expert for lending products across commercial, operational, conduct, client and governance.
REQUIRED QUALIFCATIONS, KNOWLEDGE, & SKILLS
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Requires strong commercial awareness, regulatory understanding, and stakeholder management capability.
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Experience operating within lending environments is essential.
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Ability to balance client outcomes, risk management, and operational effectiveness.
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Ensures colleague competence while supporting delivery across teams.
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Aligns delivery with strategic growth objectives.
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Influences and collaborates effectively across multidisciplinary teams.
