Colleague Engagement Lead Mgr

Are you a communications leader who can connect strategy, storytelling and governance to create a more joined-up experience? Can you help leaders communicate with clarity, while bringing greater visibility, prioritisation and structure to customer communications across a complex business?

Business Banking is entering an exciting period of transformation and growth. We're building a new Engagement team to help colleagues and customers understand where we're going, why it matters and the role they play in our future.

Communications will sit at the heart of that work.

This is an opportunity to establish a new communications capability from the ground up. You'll lead colleague communications across Business Banking whilst supporting a more strategic and coordinated approach to customer communications, ensuring activity is aligned to business priorities, planned effectively and delivered through the right channels at the right time.

Importantly, this isn't a copywriting or delivery role for customer communications. You'll provide oversight, governance and prioritisation, ensuring communications are connected, customer-focused and aligned to the wider Business Banking strategy before being briefed into Marketing for development and execution.

The Business Banking Engagement team brings together communications, events, colleague engagement, culture, onboarding, learning and development, and talent.

Our purpose is to bring the Business Banking strategy to life, helping colleagues feel informed, connected and engaged while ensuring customers experience communications that are clear, consistent and joined up.

The Communications team provides strategic ownership across both colleague and customer communications. Internally, it creates a clear narrative, strengthens leadership communications and improves how information is shared across the business. Externally, it provides oversight of customer communications activity, helping Business Banking prioritise, coordinate and shape requirements before they move into Marketing delivery.

Are you an experienced events leader who understands how to turn a business strategy into an experience people can see, feel and remember? Can you create events that strengthen customer relationships, build colleague pride and give leaders a powerful platform to communicate? Do you combine creative thinking with the operational discipline needed to deliver complex events brilliantly?

Business Banking is entering an exciting period of transformation and growth. We’re building a new Engagement team to help colleagues and customers understand our strategy, connect with our ambitions and feel part of what comes next.

Events will play a vital role in bringing that strategy to life.

You’ll lead the strategic planning and delivery of high-profile internal and customer events across Business Banking. This will include colleague conferences, leadership engagement, customer conferences, roundtables, sector events, relationship events and significant business milestones.

This is an opportunity to shape a new events capability, establish high standards and create experiences that deliver meaningful business, customer and colleague outcomes.

The Business Banking Engagement team brings together communications, events, colleague engagement, culture and learning and development.

The Events team will create one strategic view of Business Banking events, ensuring activity is purposeful, coordinated and aligned with the wider business strategy.

The team’s remit spans colleague events, customer events and leadership engagement. This includes all-colleague calls, conferences, customer roundtables, sector events, relationship events, speaking engagements and other significant internal and external appearances.

At Nationwide we offer hybrid working wherever possible. More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working. We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected.

For this job you'll spend at least two days per week, or if part time you'll spend 40% of your working time, based at either our Glasgow, London or Northampton office. If you’re based at our Glasgow office, this will apply from 1 April 2027 and ahead of that there will be a need to regularly connect with colleagues for collaboration events. Alternatively, you'll be located at our Edinburgh hub. If your application is successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this works. You can also find out more about our approach to hybrid working here.

Whilst these locations are where we are primarily looking to fill the role, if you’re an internal applicant based in a different location we would welcome your application and if successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this could work for this specific role. You can also find out more about our approach to hybrid working here.

Virgin Money is now part of Nationwide

Nationwide acquired Virgin Money in October 2024. Virgin Money continues to serve customers on the high street, and there will be a phased and considered integration over the coming years.

You’ll be employed by Nationwide from day one, delivering real impact and benefitting from a highly competitive range of benefits. We’re a workplace where you’re rewarded, recognised and celebrated.

Nationwide is committed to the redeployment of our employees impacted by change, as such applications for redeployment candidates will be prioritised in this recruitment process.

If you’re a colleague on long-term absence (for example, on parental leave) or a temporary worker, please use your personal email address to submit an application.

What you’ll be doing

Reporting to the Head of Engagement, you'll lead the Communications function within the Business Banking Engagement team. You’ll develop and lead a joined-up communications strategy for Business Banking colleagues, translating business priorities and strategic objectives into clear narratives, communications plans and campaigns. The role includes leading the development of the Business Banking colleague narrative, using stories, successes and milestones to build understanding, engagement and pride, while partnering with senior leaders to shape messages and deliver clear, credible leadership communications. You’ll oversee colleague communication channels, editorial planning and communications calendars, and create a single view of customer communications activity across Business Banking, providing visibility of what is planned, proposed and in progress. You’ll triage customer communication requests, assessing the customer need, strategic fit, audience, timing, value and potential impact, and challenge requests where the rationale, customer benefit or intended outcome is unclear. The role also involves helping colleagues shape robust, well-considered briefs before activity is passed to Marketing for development and execution, identifying duplication, overlap, competing priorities and potential clashes across customer communications activity, and acting as the strategic link between Business Banking and Marketing to ensure briefs are clear, aligned and ready to progress. Using colleague feedback, customer insight and performance data, you’ll improve communication effectiveness and decision-making, while leading and developing the Communications team to create a collaborative, high-performing culture. You’ll also build strong relationships across Marketing, Product, Proposition, Customer Journey, Digital, Operations, Risk, Legal and other specialist teams.

About you

• Significant experience leading communications, engagement, customer communications or marketing-related activity, with a strong understanding of how communications support colleague engagement, customer journeys and business outcomes.

• Equally comfortable shaping strategic narratives, developing communication strategies, governance frameworks, editorial plans and planning processes, and bringing structure to complex communication challenges.

• Able to translate complex, sensitive or technical topics into clear and compelling communication approaches, working through ambiguity and helping others bring structure to their thinking.

• Experienced in helping stakeholders turn ideas and requirements into clear, focused briefs, with a strong understanding of how Marketing teams operate and what is required to create high-quality briefs and communications activity.

• Experience working with senior leaders and advising on high-profile or sensitive communications.

• Uses insight, feedback and data to inform decisions, measure effectiveness and improve outcomes.

• Builds strong relationships, collaborates effectively across a wide range of teams and stakeholders, and leads through influence, collaboration and sound judgement.

Our customer first behaviours put customers and members at the heart of how we work together. They are the set of behaviours that every colleague needs to display, in every role:

• Feel what customers feel - We step into our customers’ shoes, using their feedback and insights to empathise with them and to understand their needs, so that every decision we make starts and finishes with our customers in mind

• Say it straight - We are brave in speaking out and saying what we think – we’re honest and direct with good intent, openly sharing diverse perspectives to reach the best conclusions and using language everyone can understand

• Push for better - We don’t settle for mediocrity, we challenge the status quo, taking responsibility for continuous improvement and personal development

• Get it done - We prioritise what will have the greatest impact, we are decisive, and we take accountability for delivering brilliant customer outcomes

You can strengthen your application by showing how our customer first behaviours resonate with you, and where you may have already demonstrated these.

The extras you’ll get

There are all sorts of employee benefits available at Nationwide, including:

• 25 days holiday, pro rata

• Private medical insurance

• A highly competitive pension to help you build a strong foundation for retirement

• Access to an annual performance-related bonus

• Training and development to help you progress your career

• A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme

• Life assurance to provide peace of mind for you and your loved ones in the event of your death

• Wellhub – access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness

• Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year

Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society

We forge our own path at Nationwide.

As a mutual, we’re owned by our members - those customers who bank, save or have a mortgage with us. We challenge the financial sector status quo. We don’t see customers as the engine of our own profit. We share our profits with them and put their needs first. Always there when they need us. Supporting them and their lives.

If you’re inspired by fairer finances, passionate about making a meaningful impact, and truly care about our customers, you’re one of us.

At Nationwide, you are challenged to grow and rewarded for doing so. Valued. Recognised. Inspired to be your best. As a community, we want our working lives to count. As a team, we celebrate what we achieve. As a standard-setter, we work for the good of customers, communities, and broader society.

We are purpose-driven. Uncompromisingly customer. Unstoppably Nationwide.

What to do next

If this role is for you, please click the ‘Apply Now’ button. You’ll need to attach your up-to-date CV and answer a few quick questions for us.

We respond to everyone, so we will be in contact shortly after the closing date to let you know the outcome of your application.

Keeping your data and personal information confidential is important to us. To find out more about how we use and process your data, please read our Privacy policy.

If you want to find out more about using AI in our recruitment process, please read more here.

Disability Confident

We’re not just guided by data, we’re driven by the real experiences of our people. We’re a Disability Confident Level 3 Leader, the highest level.

That’s why we’re constantly evolving our policies and practices to make sure everyone feels genuinely supported, valued, and empowered to champion inclusion. Whatever your needs, we’re here to support you. If you need any additional support throughout your application journey, email our team at Recruitment Support.

Apply safely with Nationwide

Recruitment scams can look convincing, so take a moment to check the role is listed on our official careers site and read our guidance on Don’t be conned by a job scam.

The hiring manager for this role is Gillian Beattie, and the main recruitment contact is Kirsty Packer.

Please note that should you be successful in securing this role, the job title on our internal systems will be Colleague Engagement Lead Manager.