Director of Audit - Retail, Customer & Audit Innovation

• Reports to the Group Chief Internal Auditor

• Group ExCo-1, Senior leadership role 

• A competitive six-figure base salary, plus a comprehensive benefits package

• Full time, permanent contract

• Closing date 7^th Oct (If we receive a high volume of relevant applications, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date)

Nationwide’s Group Internal Audit (GIA) plays a critical role in safeguarding the Society’s purpose and values by providing independent assurance to the Board and executive management. Through rigorous evaluation of governance, risk management, and internal controls, GIA helps ensure the organisation remains resilient, compliant, and aligned with its strategic objectives, protecting its assets, reputation, and long-term sustainability.

As part of our commitment to supporting Nationwide’s Blueprint to be a modern mutual, our Internal Audit Strategy is focused on delivering high-quality, data-led assurance that is commercially astute, innovative, and aligned with member outcomes. This includes integrating with Virgin Money, embracing new technologies, and evolving our approach to reflect the changing landscape of financial services.

We are now seeking a strategic and forward-thinking Director of Audit – Retail, Customer & Audit Innovation to join our senior leadership team. This pivotal role will lead independent assurance across the Group’s Retail customer-facing operations/distribution channels, shaping audit coverage that leverages data-driven insights and a deep understanding of retail and customer dynamics. You will play a key role in identifying and mitigating risks, enhancing operational resilience, and strengthening customer trust.

Reporting to the Group Chief Internal Auditor, you will be one of four delivery Audit Directors who comprise the Senior Leadership Team. You will contribute to the development of our new audit approach, champion innovation and efficiency, grow talent, and support the delivery of the Society’s strategic priorities.

We’re looking for an enterprise leader who can energise cross-functional teams, inspire change, and navigate complex stakeholder landscapes with clarity and purpose. You will be instrumental in building a culture of engagement and excellence, aligned with our mutual values.

At Nationwide we are proud of the ways colleagues can work together and continue to put our customers at the heart of all we do. We value and prioritise coming together recognising the importance of agility and social connection in delivering the best outcomes for our business and customers. For this role, you’ll spend at least two days per week, or if part-time, 40% of your working time, at one of our offices in Swindon or London.

This role is designated as a Material Risk Taker under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR). The successful candidate will be subject to annual fit and proper assessments, adherence to Conduct Rules, and maintenance of a Statement of Responsibilities, in line with regulatory expectations.

What you’ll be doing

As Director of Audit - Retail, Customer & Audit Innovation, you will lead the strategic development and delivery of independent assurance across the Group’s customer-facing operations. This high-impact role is central to shaping the audit agenda, driving data-led insights, and ensuring robust governance and risk management across the retail business.

You will be responsible for designing and executing a strategic audit plan that reflects the Group’s priorities, emerging risks, and regulatory expectations, ensuring optimal coverage and resource allocation. Your work will deliver high-quality, data-informed audit opinions that provide independent assurance to the Board, Group Chief Internal Auditor, Group ExCo, and senior stakeholders, supporting informed decision-making and regulatory confidence.

This role carries significant strategic accountability, with key responsibilities focused on delivering high-impact audit leadership, driving data-led assurance, and influencing risk and control outcomes across the Group’s retail and customer portfolio.

Key Responsibilities

• Drive innovation and continuous improvement by embedding data analytics, automation, and agile methodologies into audit practices, leading data-led best practice across the function.

• Shape and execute a strategic audit plan aligned to Group priorities, emerging risks, and regulatory expectations, ensuring optimal coverage and resource allocation.

• Deliver high-quality, data-informed audit opinions that provide independent assurance to the Board, Group Chief Internal Auditor, ExCo, and senior stakeholders, supporting informed decision-making and regulatory confidence.

• Drive strategic risk identification by embedding advanced data analytics into audit planning and execution, surfacing emerging customer and retail risks proactively.

• Strengthen the Group’s control framework by identifying root causes and systemic themes, influencing senior leaders to implement sustainable improvements, and coordinating assurance activities across the first and second lines.

• Enhance audit quality and consistency through the use of data models, dashboards, and trend analysis, ensuring outcomes are objective, repeatable, and aligned with best practice.

• Promote a culture of accountability and integrity by championing ethical conduct and reinforcing audit’s role as a trusted advisor, holding leaders accountable for control ownership.

• Attract, develop, and retain a high-performing team, fostering a culture of learning and innovation, and evolving the function toward a data-led assurance approach.

• Maintain full compliance with internal audit standards, regulatory requirements, and professional codes of conduct to uphold the credibility and effectiveness of the audit function.

• Provide audit leadership during organisational integration, ensuring control environments are effectively assessed and aligned with strategic objectives, cultural integration, and operational continuity.

About you

In a time of evolving customer expectations and regulatory scrutiny, we are seeking a seasoned audit leader who can bring strategic clarity, assurance excellence and transformative impact across our retail and customer-facing operations. This role demands the highest personal and professional standards, alongside strong intellectual capacity, emotional intelligence, credibility and a positive, authentic leadership style. You will be someone who role models behaviours consistent with the Society’s culture and values.

You are a highly accomplished audit executive with deep subject matter expertise across retail and customer-focused domains, and a strategic mindset that enables you to operate confidently at the highest levels of governance. With a proven track record of reporting to Boards and Executive Committees, you bring gravitas, integrity and impact to every engagement. Your career reflects a strong commitment to embedding leading-edge data analytics into audit practices, translating complex datasets into actionable insights that strengthen control environments and inform strategic decisions.

You hold a relevant professional qualification (e.g. ACA, ACCA, CIIA, CISA) and have extensive leadership experience at executive management level, ideally within financial services and regulatory environments. You are recognised for your ability to rapidly assimilate complex strategic and operational information, working effectively across diverse business areas to deliver pragmatic, innovative solutions to risk and control challenges.

Your leadership style is inspiring and empowering, coaching high-performing teams, articulating a compelling vision and driving strategic change and continuous improvement. You are a role model for objectivity and independence, with exceptional negotiating, facilitation and influencing skills proven at senior levels. Known for your sophisticated communication and interpersonal skills, you distil complex issues into clear, actionable recommendations and build high-value relationships with executive leaders and Board members.

You thrive in dynamic environments, demonstrating agility, collaboration and a commitment to excellence. You bring a well-developed sense of self, emotional intelligence and the ability to lead through ambiguity. Passionate about audit, you bring a compelling vision for its future, with a deep understanding of the opportunities, risks and innovations shaping the function in a rapidly evolving financial landscape. You know how to take people on a journey, inspire change and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

This role demands a leader with outstanding interpersonal skills, a strong sense of purpose and the ability to lead through ambiguity. If you are passionate about delivering meaningful change and have a proven track record in integration leadership, join us in shaping the future of audit at Nationwide, where your leadership will strengthen resilience, build trust and drive innovation at the heart of our mutual purpose.

About your rewards

We continually review and evaluate our offering to ensure we have a broad range of market competitive benefits available for our colleagues. When you put a lot in, it’s only fair to expect a lot out. So, when you help us do the right thing for our customers, we want to reward you. 

 Additional benefits include: 

• 30 days holiday 

• Opportunity to participate in a Green Car Scheme with access to an electric vehicle (EV) via  monthly salary sacrifice payments

• Competitive pension or cash alternative 

• Family private healthcare cover, plus executive health screening every 2 years, and the opportunity to upgrade your cover to include a partner 

• Life assurance, 8 x notional salary 

• Opportunity to participate in our Annual Performance Pay plan  

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

• Access to a 24/7 discounts app – where you can make savings everyday  

If that wasn’t enough, we offer up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year and you could also tailor your reward package with a great selection of voluntary benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme. 

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 you’d like to apply, just click the ‘Apply now’ button. You’ll need to attach your CV and answer a few questions, and we would request a cover letter to support your application highlighting your related skills and experience.