Senior Director / Director Portfolio Monitoring - Real Estate
About Us
At OakNorth, we're on a mission to empower the UK's most ambitious businesses. Since 2015, we've lent over $21 billion across the UK and US, helped create more than 58,000 new homes and 36,000 new jobs, and supported hundreds of thousands of personal savers — all while fuelling the UK economy. This is an exciting opportunity to join a dynamic, fast-growing bank known for challenging the status quo. We're not looking for just another cog in the wheel — we want bold thinkers and proactive self-starters who are eager to shape their own careers while supporting the UK's most driven business leaders.
The role
You will manage a book of complex real estate and property-backed loans, owning both the customer relationship and the post-origination credit risk, including customers showing early signs of financial distress. You will work with an analyst team based in India.
The portfolio
Sectors: residential and commercial real estate (investment and development), student accommodation, co-living and retirement living, and property-backed hotel and healthcare loans
Facilities: investment, transitional, development and buy-to-let loans, and lender finance, including revolving credit facilities (RCFs) and loan-on-loan facilities to real estate lenders
Loan sizes: typically £1m to £50m
What You’ll Do
- Monitor the book: annual reviews, quarterly covenant testing, early warning signs and forward-looking stress testing. On investment loans, track rent, occupancy, interest cover, valuation and refinance risk; on development loans, assess drawdowns against monthly monitoring surveyor reports, cost to complete, programme and exit.
- Manage RCFs and loan-on-loan facilities: approve new underlying loans against agreed criteria and monitor look-through LTV and interest cover, arrears and defaults across the underlying book, and the Bank’s security over the underlying real estate.
- Make in-life credit decisions: approve drawdowns, annual reviews, valuations, waivers consents and extensions within your delegated authority and recommend those above it.
- Manage distress: spot underperformance early, agree a clear strategy and lead negotiations with borrowers, sponsors and advisers on waivers, amendments, extensions and restructures, returning loans to standard or exiting without impairment.
- Present to credit committee: review and recommend credit papers and present them verbally, defending recommendations under challenge.
- Work with the India analyst team: direct day-to-day work, review outputs ,coach analysts and work across time zones/georgaphies.
- Professional engagement: Hands on engagement with external professional advisors legal, valuers, PMS etc.
- Work with AI: use the Bank’s approved AI tools day to day and help find step changes in how the book is managed.
What You’ll Bring
- Extensive UK real estate lending or portfolio management experience across investment and development, ideally at a bank or specialist lender and in more than one sector.
- Experience of revolving credit, loan-on-loan or lender finance facilities, or a strong working understanding of how they are structured and monitored.
- Strong credit appraisal, financial analysis and modelling skills; comfortable with LMA documentation.
- Experience of managing underperforming and distressed credits, with a working knowledge of restructuring and insolvency.
- A track record of negotiating confidently and presenting clearly, both verbally and in writing, to senior stakeholders and credit committees.
- Actively looking for opportunities to grow back book; cross selling bank offering
- Openness to AI and new ways of working.
What We Offer
- 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
