Head of 1:1 Personalised Interactions – Data, Design and Delivery

Are you tired of working in an organisation that talks the talk about Customer Centricity but doesn’t walk the walk? That repeats personalisation buzzwords but doesn’t invest in the people, technology or data to make it happen? Or does invest but lacks the strategic clarity and internal collaboration needed to make it work?

Nationwide is the World’s largest mutual and the second largest banking provider in the UK, with 17 m customers. We have embarked on an ambitious strategy to leapfrog our competitors and deliver the best customer outcomes from personalisation of any bank, anywhere. As part of this, we have put live the latest version of PEGA in the cloud, and invested in the people and real time data infrastructure to go with it. We have made great strides in our capability, yet still have a way to go to deliver our ambition. That’s why we’re hiring a Head of Personalised Interactions to lead our talented teams to become the best – leveraging innovation, a customer-first strategy and consistently brilliant execution.   

If you’re customer focused, data led, proficient in process quality and ready to inspire a team to be better than every other bank in the world, we’d love to hear from you. And in return, we offer the most exciting role in Personalised Interactions in any bank, anywhere.

You’ll join at an exciting period as we grow and transform our capability to be more personalised, more relevant and more useful to customers, leveraging the latest Martech to revolutionise the way in which we do 1:1 marketing. This provides an unrivalled opportunity to lead through a period of transformational change, reshape what we do and how we do it, and deliver marketing growth.

As a leader you’ll need a rare combination of skills: Being data and marketing tech literate, customer insight led and driven by outcomes. Being passionate about customers, and innovative in the way we market to them. And being exceptional at building relationships with peers and stakeholders. Using these skills, you will drive us towards our vision of achieving the best customer outcomes from personalisation of any bank, anywhere.

This role is within the Personalisation Strategy and Decisioning team. The PS&D team exists to drive personalisation across Nationwide as well as the design and delivery of our 1:1 communications. The team also sets the wider Personalisation, Contact and Consent Strategy as well as driving capability uplift, ensuring we have a roadmap of data and technology capability improvements. 

We are happy to consider flexible working approaches to help you perform at your best.

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 Swindon or London office. 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.

If we receive a high volume of relevant applications, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so please apply as soon as you can.

What you’ll be doing

As Head of 1:1 Personalised Interactions, you’ll lead teams that data design and deliver all of our personalisation 1:1 customer marketing communications, as well as the team that provides all the operational and data governance support to ensure we are working as efficiently and effectively as possible. Unlike other banks, we are owned by and run for our members. 1:1 communications are a key part of the relationship we have with our customers, helping them throughout their financial lives and bringing them relevant, helpful and personalised offers and messages at the right time.

Your remit will cover 1:1 existing customer marketing for Nationwide across all of our direct communications channels, from messaging in the app to email to direct mail to push notifications. Leveraging your deep knowledge in data driven marketing and martech campaign platforms such as PEGA CDH you will be accountable for ensuring we design and build timely and effective hyper personalised interactions, working closely with the other teams within our marketing squads. You will also have a deep knowledge of Data Governance ensuring that our data capability and maturity matches the ambition of our Personalisation Strategy as well as ensuring we work within our risk appetite. 

This is a senior role with the following key responsibilities:

• Leading and directing the Data Design and Delivery team - your centre of excellence will build hyper personalised interactions which are timely and effective using PEGA CDH. 
• Leading and directing the Marketing Operations and Capability team who provide centralised support for all our marketing leading platforms such as PEGA CDH and Adobe Campaign. Ensuring we are making the most of out platforms and any issues are identified and fixed with our tech function. 
• As part of the Marketing Operations and Capability team you will also lead and direct our centralised data capability and governance support, ensuring our data capability is uplifted and we meet our Data Governance requirements. 
• Promoting and role modelling a continual culture of test and learn.
• Leading through change as we evolve our ways of working and look to effectively leverage our market leading decisioning engine and other associated marketing technology.
• Supporting, coaching and inspiring the team to develop and be their best.
• Influencing key leaders across the business.

About you

You will have:

• Extensive experience of leading data and selections teams who use tools to build and deliver 1:1 hyper personalised interactions/campaigns, ideally in a financial services context
• Deep knowledge of Data Governance regulation, principles and best practice in a marketing context.
• Experience of leading teams who use market leading marketing selections tools and platforms (ideally PEGA CDH) 
• Experienced at driving operational and process excellence 
• Strong track record of leading and developing successful teams, strong culture scores and achieving outstanding results 
• Experience of using agile ways of working to deliver personalisation at scale (highly desirable: centres of excellence that work in a squad model).
• Experience of effectively partnering multiple director level stakeholders and presenting at c-suite level.

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:

• A personal pension – if you put in 7% of your salary, we’ll top up by a further 16%

• Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year

• Life assurance worth 8x your salary

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

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

• Access to an annual performance related bonus

• Access to training to help you develop and progress your career

• 30 days holiday, pro rata

• Individual healthcare cover

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. 

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.

Please note that should you be successful in securing this role the job title on our internal systems will be Head of Marketing & Corporate Affairs.