If you’re the kind of person who isn’t afraid to put themselves out there, then you’re the kind of person we’re looking for. Risk management – the careful consideration of risk versus reward – is at the heart of banking. For a bank to grow and be profitable, it has to take risks. To sustain that growth and profitability, however, it must take the right risks.

As a graduate on the Credit Risk programme, you’ll be part of a team that leads the bank in developing and defining our sustainable strategy – a strategy that will protect us from economic threats and minimise any losses. At the same time, you’ll need to identify opportunities for us to maximise our profits and gain an advantage over our competitors.

We want you to surprise yourself. To uncover talents you didn’t know you had. To be even more exceptional than you already knew you were. That’s why we’ll support you with a development plan that’s tailored to your needs, and then track your progress through regular one-to-one meetings. Every six months we’ll assess your performance, give you a formal rating and, if we think you’re ready, give you greater responsibilities.

Location

Mainly based at Santander House in Milton Keynes, every six months you’ll have the opportunity to rotate into one of the other risk teams to increase your knowledge. There could even be opportunities for secondments abroad to Spain, Brazil or the US to see how other Santander risk functions operate.

What we look for in you

To join the programme, you must have or expect to gain a 2:1 degree (or equivalent) in Maths, Statistics, Sciences, Engineering or Economics. Along with having a passion for business analysis, you’ll need exceptional numerical reasoning skills and the ability to communicate complex analysis to a non-technical audience.

You'll join us as a Risk Analyst and will be placed into one of our teams. Here you’ll be assigned a mentor to guide you through the early days. You can expect a formal induction to help you get your bearings along with both external and on-the-job training to quickly bring you up to speed.

Skills you can expect to develop include model building using linear and logistic regression, programming using SAS and VBA, and softer skills through presentations and problem solving.

The teams

There are a variety of teams within credit risk which you can be a part of:

• Application Fraud – Develop and deploy strategies to prevent fraudulent applications, minimising Santander UK exposure to fraud losses.
• Basel – Build and maintain Basel II compliant models to guard against capital inadequacy.
• Collections and Recoveries – Develop the collections policy to maximise recoveries and thus minimise losses.
• Customer Decisioning – Set the strategy for customer retention, cross sales and pricing optimisation.
• Provisioning and Forecasting – Link economics to portfolio losses in order to forecast the required loss budget over the next three years, ensuring Santander is carrying enough provisions.
• Scorecard Development – Join the team that is the sole provider for management and development of the retail credit risk scorecards for the Santander Group.
• Secured and Unsecured Portfolio Management – Set the lending policy to manage the risk, profitability and stability of a retail portfolio through the economic cycle.

Developing your skills is as important to us as it is to you. Throughout your career you’ll receive both formal and 'on-the-job' training, giving you the knowledge and experience you need to realise your full potential.

When you join, you will receive a warm welcome and a thorough induction into the UK business. As part of this, you’ll also receive a more local induction and eventually, after a period of time, we’ll broaden your induction to the wider Santander Group.

All graduates also participate in a number of core learning experiences. These are designed to develop your interpersonal skills and to help prepare you for your first role managing others. Core learning is delivered through a blend of online and face-to-face training in modules covering topics such as an introduction to leadership and management; fundamentals of managing high performance teams; and essential communication and interpersonal skills.

In addition to this, you could be invited to undertake various activities throughout the programme to include:

• An induction to your business
• An induction to your division
•  The allocation of your own mentor and buddy
• Meetings with members of the Executive Committee
• Involvement in cross-divisional project work
• Graduate-specific events
• The production and publication of our graduate magazine

All of our graduate trainees are assessed on their individual performance and behaviours. As long as you demonstrate the required level of skills and behaviours, and you have the passion and enthusiasm to succeed, then Santander UK could be ideal for you.

To help you grow and reach your full potential, we’re committed to giving you the support you need. Not only will you be working closely with some very experienced people from across the business, you’ll also receive world-class training – both within placements and on specific tailored training initiatives.

The programme provides a starting point – do well and you can expect all sorts of development opportunities designed to meet your immediate and longer term career aspirations.