SME Restructuring Director

The SME Restructuring Director provides specialist advisory and case management expertise with the primary objective of rehabilitating distressed SME lending cases back to performing status, while protecting the bank’s capital and ensuring delivery of good customer outcomes.

The role sits within the Commercial division and interfaces closely with First Line Risk, Collections & Recoveries, Group Credit Risk, and the business divisions within Commercial. The postholder maintains a network of external specialists and actively supports colleagues in identifying and managing early warning signs of financial distress, ensuring appropriate Watchlist categorisation, forbearance treatment, and impairment provisioning. The role also carries responsibility for representing First Line Risk at Group committees, including the Group Watch Committee and Group Impairment Committee.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the subject matter expert for restructuring and insolvency, providing hands-on case management either solely or in partnership with the Relationship/Portfolio Manager, to protect the bank’s capital and deliver good customer outcomes.
• Support Originators and Portfolio Managers in the proactive identification of early warning signs of distress, ensuring appropriate action is taken and issues are communicated and escalated promptly.
• Assess escalated cases, undertake due diligence, provide option analysis, and agree strategy, tactics, case ownership, and reporting requirements.
• Own the maintenance and reporting of the Watchlist, including appropriate status classification, forbearance treatment, Watchlist Trigger event definition and monitoring, and provisions allocated; aligned to Group Credit Stewardship, Reporting and Escalation Policy.
• Lead the presentation of strategies and provisions at the Group Watch Committee and Group Impairment Committee, representing Commercial at Group-level forums and reporting on credit risk activities to all relevant committees.

Skills & Experience

• Proven experience in business finance, with proven experience in problem loan or restructuring management.
• Deep and broad financial acumen, including demonstrable ability to undertake commercial analysis of businesses across both financial and non-financial dimensions.
• Significant industry knowledge of banking and lending practices, including credit structures, covenant requirements, pricing, and sector-specific risks.
• Proven credit risk management skills with a track record of turnaround within banking or finance.
• Extensive contacts with other lenders and professionals engaged in NPL and restructuring work.
• Strong customer and intermediary relationship skills; excellent presentation, negotiation, and executive-level reporting capability.
• Ability to work across teams and manage multiple complex cases simultaneously, with high levels of drive and a results-oriented approach.

Key attributes

• A self-starter with high commercial acumen and the confidence to operate autonomously across a complex book of distressed cases.
• Strong interpersonal and influencing skills – able to build trust quickly with clients, colleagues, and senior stakeholders alike.
• Adaptable and resilient in a fast-moving environment; comfortable with ambiguity and able to prioritise effectively under pressure.

Your Wellbeing - We take your health and well-being very seriously by providing a range of benefits to give you and your family peace of mind. These include:

• Market leading family friendly policies such as access to our Maternity, Adoption and Paternity policies from Day 1 of your employment
• Free access to Headspace, a mindfulness & meditation digital health app
• Free access to Peppy digital health app that offers personalised support through fertility treatment becoming a parent or menopause
• EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) - Offering you support on a wide range of subjects including financial concerns, mental wellbeing and more general queries around family, work, housing, and health
• Cycle to work scheme
• Discounts on gym membership
• Contributory pension scheme & death in service

Your Lifestyle - It’s important you strike the right balance between your work and personal life. We provide benefits to support you when at work and when you’re enjoying your leisure time.

• Minimum of 27 days holiday per year
• Option to buy or sell holiday days through our flexi-holiday scheme
• Discounts on gym membership nationwide
• Access to discounts on a range of high street and online brands
• Community support and charitable giving

Your Contribution - We’re focused on rewarding those that go the extra mile in helping us achieve our goals.

• Participation in our annual discretionary bonus scheme designed to reward your contribution to our success
• Proudly Shawbrook recognition scheme focused on recognising our role models and thanking our colleagues for a job well done