Principal, Strategic Talent & Market Intelligence – US Lending

The Role

As a Principal, Strategic Talent & Market Intelligence, you will partner with OakNorth’s US Lending leadership team to build a market-leading talent intelligence capability that shapes the future of our US Lending business. This role is not a traditional Talent Acquisition role but rather a strategic partnership focused on identifying market trends, building relationships, and providing intelligence to inform hiring decisions.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with US Lending leadership to develop long-term talent strategies aligned to business growth.
• Translate business objectives into strategic hiring plans.
• Advise on organizational design and build versus buy decisions.
• Support succession planning and workforce planning.
• Provide market insight to inform strategic hiring decisions.
• Potential to partner with leaders to identify future capability needs.

Market Intelligence

• Become OakNorth's expert on the US lending talent market.
• Build and maintain live intelligence across organizational structures, team moves, promotions, compensation trends, reporting lines, team stability, succession risk, market expansion, office openings, and emerging talent.
• Use Ashby as a strategic Talent CRM to capture executive relationships, talent communities, market intelligence, competitor insights, career history, talent engagement, pipeline health, hiring trends, and develop dashboards and reporting.

Competitive Intelligence

• Develop real-time insight into the competitive landscape.
• Understand which firms are hiring, leadership movements, growing and shrinking lending platforms, compensation trends, team stability, market expansion, emerging competitors, and industry trends.
• Translate market intelligence into actionable recommendations for business leaders.

Relationship Management

• Build one of the strongest professional networks in the US lending market.
• Develop trusted relationships across commercial banking, middle market banking, specialty finance, direct lending, private credit, asset-based lending, sponsor finance, corporate banking, and other relevant areas.
• Engage in industry events, speaking engagements, professional associations, market transactions, advisory firms, industry awards, emerging leaders programs, and market referrals.

Talent Intelligence & Ashby

• Use Ashby as more than an applicant tracking system.
• Build a strategic Talent CRM that captures executive relationships, talent communities, market intelligence, competitor insights, career history, talent engagement, pipeline health, hiring trends, and develop dashboards and reporting.
• Create dashboards and reports that enable leaders to make informed talent decisions while ensuring valuable market intelligence is continually enriched.

AI & Innovation

• Embrace AI to redefine how talent intelligence is delivered.
• Leverage AI and modern talent technology to improve talent mapping, research, market intelligence, relationship management, workflow automation, reporting, and productivity.
• Continually explore new technologies that help OakNorth stay ahead of the market.

Talent Brand

• Help position OakNorth as a destination employer for ambitious lending professionals.
• Work alongside Marketing and business leaders to develop lending market insights, deal case studies, leadership interviews, videos and podcasts, thought leadership, industry events, and employer branding initiatives.

Non-Obvious Talent Discovery

• Identify future leaders through industry conferences, speaking engagements, professional associations, market transactions, advisory firms, industry awards, emerging leaders programs, market referrals, and industry publications.
• Uncover talent long before competitors identify them through curiosity and market knowledge.