Principal, Talent Intelligence – US Lending

About the role

We want to know the US lending talent market better than anyone else. OakNorth is building its US lending business, and we are looking for someone to build the talent intelligence capability behind that growth. Your job is to know where the exceptional people are before we need to hire them. You'll map the market, understand how the best lending teams are built, develop relationships with outstanding people across the industry and give our leadership real-time intelligence on where talent, teams and opportunities are moving. This isn't a traditional recruiting role focused on filling vacancies. It's a strategic, external-facing role for someone who loves understanding markets, finding people others don't know about and building relationships long before there is a job to discuss. You'll work directly with senior leaders across our US Lending business while being part of OakNorth's Global Talent Acquisition team. You'll have the opportunity to build this capability from the ground up.

Responsibilities

• Know the Market – become our expert on talent across the US commercial lending ecosystem, including commercial and middle‑market banking, private credit and direct lending, specialty finance, sponsor finance, asset‑based lending, and corporate banking; understand the firms, teams and individuals shaping these markets — who's growing, who's moving, where teams are being built and where the next generation of talent is emerging.
• Find Exceptional People Before We Need Them – continuously identify and build relationships with exceptional people who could become important to OakNorth in the future through market mapping and original research, industry relationships and referrals, conferences and professional networks, deal and transaction activity, industry publications and awards, leadership moves and team changes, and AI‑powered research and intelligence tools; look beyond LinkedIn and uncover people competitors haven't found.
• Build Trusted Relationships – develop a powerful network across the US lending market with senior lenders, emerging leaders and market influencers, understanding their careers, ambitions and views on the market, aiming for OakNorth to be one of the first calls exceptional lending professionals make when they're thinking about their careers.
• Turn Intelligence Into Business Insight – turn market observations into useful intelligence for leadership, including talent and competitor heatmaps, team and leadership movements, compensation intelligence, emerging talent, competitor hiring activity, new market entrants, team stability and succession risk, geographic talent pools, and market opportunities to inform hiring decisions.
• Build Our Talent Intelligence Platform – use Ashby as our Talent CRM to create a living picture of the US lending talent market; build and maintain talent communities, executive relationships, competitor maps, market intelligence, future hiring pipelines, relationship history, and talent dashboards, moving from traditional recruiting pipelines toward a long‑term talent ecosystem.
• Experiment With AI – experiment with AI and emerging technology to improve research, market mapping, relationship management, workflow automation and reporting; test new approaches rather than simply follow an established recruiting playbook.
• What Success Looks Like – within the first year build a talent intelligence capability that US Lending leaders actively use to make decisions, achieving a clear map of the most important firms, teams and talent across priority lending markets, strong relationships with exceptional people before vacancies exist, live intelligence on competitor teams and market movements, high‑quality future talent pipelines, better visibility of compensation and talent trends, a growing network of emerging and established lending leaders, and an Ashby Talent CRM containing genuinely valuable market intelligence so that when we decide to enter a market, build a team or make a critical hire we already know who we want to speak to.

Requirements

• We're deliberately open‑minded about where you've built your career; you might currently work in executive search, talent intelligence or strategic sourcing, commercial banking or private credit, lending‑focused research or market intelligence, strategy or competitive intelligence, or another environment where you've developed deep knowledge of the US lending market.
• We're more interested in how you think and operate than whether you've previously held this exact title.
• You'll likely be someone who:
• Understands the US commercial lending landscape and can quickly build credibility with senior professionals.
• Loves researching markets and finding people others miss.
• Is naturally curious about firms, teams, deals and people.
• Builds relationships without needing an immediate transaction.
• Can turn fragmented market information into useful commercial insight.
• Is comfortable speaking with senior executives.
• Has a strong hunter mentality and isn't reliant on inbound applications.
• Enjoys building something from scratch.
• Uses technology and AI to work smarter and move faster.
• Has an entrepreneurial mindset and strong bias for action.
• An existing network across US lending would be valuable, but the ability to build one is just as important.

Benefits

• 401k plan with Principal (ON match up to 4%)
• Medical Care (managed through Insperity) – employees can add their family to their plan if needed
• Dental & Vision bundle
• Insperity Health Savings Account Program – a tax‑advantaged employee benefit which can help manage health care costs by allowing employees to set aside some of their current earnings on a pretax basis for reimbursement of qualified health care expenses during the plan year
• EAP
• 20 days Holiday