Head of Direct Banking Operations & Outsourcing - Milton KeynesAbout The RoleSALARY: From £102k pa dependent on experienceLOCATION: Milton KeynesHYBRID WORKING: Our current hybrid working policy requires a minimum of 60% of working time to be based in the Milton Keynes office and flexibility is expected to meet the needs of the business and the role.HOURS / CONTRACT TYPE: Full Time Permanent – 35 hours per week We are seeking an experienced and strategic leader to join our team as Head of Direct Banking Operations & Outsourcing. This is a pivotal role responsible for overseeing the end-to-end operations of our Direct Banking division, ensuring exceptional service delivery, operational efficiency and compliance across all outsourced partnerships and intra‑group service arrangements, while meeting our obligations under Consumer Duty. You will lead a high-performing team, manage critical third-party relationships and drive operational excellence to support our customers and business objectives. This role requires a strong blend of leadership, operational expertise and supplier management skills, with a focus on continuous improvement, innovation and a clear accountability for operational resilience. This role holds Senior Manager Function (SMF24) responsibility under the SM&CR (Senior Manager & Certification Regime) and therefore obtaining and maintaining regulatory approval is a mandatory requirement. What you’ll be doing: Lead and manage the Direct Banking Operations function, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, efficient and customer-focused services. You will be accountable for operational performance across all Direct Banking activities, driving consistency, accuracy and excellence in service delivery. Oversee outsourced operations, taking full responsibility for managing third-party providers and intra-group service delivery. This includes monitoring contractual compliance, ensuring service level agreements (SLAs) are met and implementing robust governance frameworks to mitigate risk and maintain operational integrity. Drive operational excellence through continuous improvement initiatives, identifying opportunities to streamline processes, enhance productivity and leverage automation and technology solutions. You will lead transformation projects aimed at improving efficiency and reducing operational costs without compromising service quality. Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and internal governance standards across all operational activities. You will maintain strong controls, conduct regular audits and ensure adherence to industry regulations, safeguarding the business against operational and reputational risks and ensuring we meet our Consumer Duty responsibilities. Manage operational risk effectively, implementing comprehensive risk management frameworks and monitoring mechanisms. You will proactively identify potential risks, develop mitigation strategies and ensure resilience in operational processes with clear accountability for operational resilience planning, testing and oversight. Build and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders, including outsourced partners, internal teams and senior leadership. You will act as a trusted advisor, ensuring alignment between operational delivery and strategic objectives while fostering collaboration and transparency. Develop and implement strategies to enhance customer experience and operational efficiency, ensuring that all processes are designed with the customer in mind. You will champion a culture of service excellence, driving initiatives that improve satisfaction and loyalty. Provide leadership and direction to the operations team, creating an environment that promotes accountability, engagement and high performance. You will coach and develop talent, ensuring the team has the skills and capabilities to deliver against current and future business needs. Essential experience & skills: Extensive experience in managing third-party and outsourced relationships, including acting as a Material Outsource for a UK Bank or Building Society. You will have a proven ability to establish strong governance frameworks, monitor performance against contractual obligations and ensure outsourced partners deliver consistently to agreed standards while mitigating operational and regulatory risks. Experience of overseeing intra‑group service relationships is also essential. Experience of managing and developing savings operational functions, with a track record of achieving high-quality customer outcomes. This includes overseeing processes such as account opening, servicing and maturity handling, ensuring efficiency and accuracy while maintaining a customer-first approach. Deep familiarity with the regulatory regime applicable to UK savings operations, including PRA and FCA requirements and the Consumer Duty framework. You will be adept at implementing and maintaining effective oversight frameworks that ensure compliance, protect customer interests and safeguard the organisation from regulatory breaches. Customer-centric mindset, with demonstrable knowledge and consideration of customer outcomes in all operational decisions. You will champion initiatives that enhance customer experience, ensuring that processes and policies are designed to deliver fair, transparent, and positive outcomes. Exceptional relationship-building skills, with the ability to create, maintain, and leverage strong partnerships across internal functions and external parties. You will act as a trusted advisor and influencer, ensuring collaboration and alignment to achieve strategic objectives. Understanding of and experience managing first-line risk functions, including conducting risk assessments, implementing controls, and producing accurate reporting. You will ensure operational resilience and proactively address emerging risks including formal responsibility for operational resilience requirements. Ability to manage data governance effectively, ensuring data quality, accuracy, and compliance with regulatory standards. You will work closely with data experts to maintain robust data management practices that support operational integrity and informed decision-making. Proven track record in delivering change, both through internal teams and external partners. You will have experience leading transformation projects, driving process improvements, and embedding new technologies to enhance efficiency and customer experience. Experience of successfully leading a team, achieving results through people by providing clear direction, motivation, and support. You will foster a culture of accountability and continuous improvement. Ability to drive performance through effective coaching and mentoring, developing talent and managing performance to build a high-performing team capable of meeting current and future business needs. What’s in it for you? Bonus: Discretionary 25% on-target bonus (based on personal and Group company performance) Pension: Employer pension contribution of 9% (based on employee contribution of 3%). VWFS will pay 6% if employee chooses a 2% employee contribution. Car schemes*: Choice of Employee Car Ownership (ECO) scheme for petrol/diesel and hybrid vehicles plus car insurance and fuel card. OR Company Car scheme for Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) plus car insurance cover for you and a partner/eligible family member. Other benefits: From day 1 we provide income protection, life assurance (4x salary), retail discount vouchers, access to Care Concierge (a service to support carers of adults), along with other salary sacrifice options including a will writing service and cycle to work (subject to scheme restrictions). Following successful completion of probation, you will have access to private medical insurance, access to our loan car scheme for up to 2 cars for your partner or eligible family members (subject to scheme restrictions) and during our annual benefit window you can purchase critical illness cover and dental cover, so you can select the benefits that matter to you. We invest in our people and are passionate about driving development. You’ll have access to LinkedIn Learning via our Degreed platform as well as a host of professional development programmes and opportunities to build your technical and soft skills so you can further develop your career. We also offer mentoring schemes and reciprocal partnerships recognising that we can all learn from each other in the flow of work. About YouAbout UsWhy join VWFS UK?You’ll have the opportunity to make a difference by helping us to achieve our mission. Our mission is straight forward; we want to be 'The Key to Mobility'. That means we make getting from A-to-B as easy and simple for as many people as possible. To truly meet the mobility needs of people in a changing world, our offering goes beyond traditional vehicle financing. We do this by providing a range of finance and aftersales products on Volkswagen Group vehicles, as well as developing innovative mobility products designed to solve real problems and support our customers.No candidate will meet every single desired qualification. If your experience looks a little different from what we've identified and you think you can bring value to the role, we'd love to learn more about you!VWFS is proud to be an inclusive employer and encourages applications from a diverse range of candidates. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion isn’t just a statement for us, we encourage and aspire for all our colleagues to be their 100% self. If you need any reasonable adjustments to assist you with the application and/or recruitment processes, please contact our Resourcing Team. The Head of Direct Banking Operations & Outsourcing role is a ‘Certified’ /Senior Manager role under the Senior Manager and Certification Regime (SMCR) and the role holder is required to comply with the FCA’s Conduct Rules. A mandatory requirement of the SMCR is for VWFS to certify that the role holder is fit and proper to perform the duties on an ongoing basis.
