Credit, Director - C&I

OakNorth•New York, NY

About The Position

OakNorth is seeking a Director in its Credit team to evaluate and challenge new lending opportunities across a wide range of trading businesses. This role is central to shaping well-structured deals that support sustainable growth while protecting the resilience of the bank's portfolio. The position involves significant interaction with Credit Committees, direct engagement with borrowers, and close collaboration with deal teams. It requires rigorous thinking applied to real-world commercial opportunities, making it a high-visibility, high-impact role at the core of OakNorth's value delivery.

Requirements

Strong experience in US C&I lower mid-market cash-flow lending, ideally across sectors such as healthcare, hospitality, leisure, financial intermediaries, and manufacturing.
Experience in structured/leveraged finance including M&A activity and private equity is essential.
A strong grasp of working capital mechanics is also required.
10+ years in credit risk or a closely related discipline, or the ability to demonstrate clear transferable expertise.
Familiarity with credit risk concepts such as RWA, PD, and LGD.
A commercial mindset focused on delivering the right outcomes for customers and the bank.
A deep understanding of the SME credit lifecycle — from origination to management, collections, and recoveries.
Practical experience with risk and control techniques, including covenant setting.
Strong stakeholder and negotiation skills — able to challenge constructively and build trusted partnerships.
Ability to handle multiple deliverables in a fast-paced, high-volume environment.

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of operational Real Estate lending (hotels, care homes) with experience of residential property development, investment and commercial property being a plus.

Responsibilities

Key involvement in shaping loan proposals through sighting new lending opportunities with deal teams at an early stage, assessing structure, appetite and key risks from the outset.
Work with and professionally challenge the Debt Finance Origination team and Credit Analytics team to achieve high quality Credit papers and deliver high-quality Credit recommendations to Credit Committee(s), including suggestions to improve the deal structure to facilitate positive outcomes for customers while remaining within the Bank's Credit appetite.
Cut through complexity, distilling transactions into clear, concise insights that support effective decision-making.
Communicate Credit Committee outcomes, ensuring clarity on decisions and timely execution of follow-up actions.
Review and input on term sheets to ensure the risk profile is appropriately balanced with customer outcomes.
Partner with Legal and Loan Execution through closing, ensuring documentation, security, and conditions reflect approved structures.
Join borrower meetings with Origination, offering early guidance on appetite and deal design.
Support Portfolio Management across in-life activity — including increases, extensions, restructures, and covenant resets.
Review key due-diligence materials (financials, covenant models, financial diligence) and articulate the rationale behind covenant packages.
Ensure data integrity, supporting high-quality risk assessment across the portfolio.
Contribute to strategic initiatives led by the Head of Credit as OakNorth scales its US business.

Benefits

401k plan with Principal (OakNorth 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 Programme — 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
Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
20 days Holiday

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