Associate Director - Corporate Financing Group

Join us to be Associate Director (AD) - Financial Sponsors Coverage in UKC’s Corporate Financing Group. This is an exciting opportunity to join a newly formed team serving our fastest-growing corporates and their dynamic shareholders as we continue to grow our lending book.

The role offers significant exposure to financial sponsors, leveraged lending, capital financing and M&A, alongside the opportunity to help shape a newly established coverage capability.

The recently created Financial Sponsors Group is responsible for managing relationships with mid-market Private Equity funds that own corporates banked across UKC.

This role would suit a highly ambitious candidate with an interest in both Private Equity and leveraged lending.

Corporate Financing Group (CFG) provides thought leadership and execution for lending solutions for UKC clients. The team leads structuring and origination discussions with clients and Risk, helping to drive lending activity with existing and target clients.

In this role you will:

The AD will support the Head of Financial Sponsors as follows:

Relationship Management: Support the development of a relationship-based approach to deepen connections with selected Sponsors, ensuring consistency and effective coordination.

Revenue Growth: Identify, define and drive sustainable revenue growth from Sponsors’ portfolio companies, contributing to UKC’s growth targets.

Collaboration: Support proactive collaboration across frontline teams to enhance customer relationships, championing internal cooperation with teams including CFG’s Financial Sponsors Structuring team, Large Corporate Coverage, IB Capital Financing, mid-market M&A, GTS, Risk Solutions, Payments & Cash Management, and the Private Bank.

Pipeline Development: Identify, define and drive a pipeline of opportunities. In practice, this involves conducting portfolio reviews with Sponsors to identify lending opportunities and wider ancillary product opportunities.

Portfolio Insight: Create situational awareness across the UKC PE-owned portfolio companies banked by UKC, as well as identifying potential future portfolio companies.

Capital Financing Forum: Support the coordination of monthly capital financing calls.

Customer Experience: Deliver a market-leading customer experience by promoting a consistent culture of high-quality ideas, solutions and service.

To be successful in this role you will have:

• An ability to collect, interpret and communicate complex data.
• An ability to apply AI tools to practical analysis and to improve team processes, in line with approved Barclays processes.
• Experience of covering a portfolio of clients, ideally within a financial institution.
• Experience of covering PE-backed clients is an advantage.
• An understanding of the debt structures and product needs of mid-market and large corporates, including Sponsor-backed businesses.
• Experience in proactively pitching product solutions.
• Understanding of Corporate Finance principles such as cost of capital analysis and Enterprise valuation methodologies.
• Proven ability to analyse and interpret financial statements and to research internal and external market data sources.
• Confidence communicating with senior internal stakeholders, including Managing Directors, and with Sponsor contacts.
• SharePoint experience an advantage.

Desirable skills include:

• Higher education degree OR suitable professional qualification (e.g. ACCA, AMCT, CFA).
• Lending experience within a financial institution.
• Demonstrable understanding and interest in the Private Equity Mid-Market.

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in the role, such as risk and controls, business skills and interpersonal skills, as well as job-specific technical skills.

This role is based in London.

Purpose of the role

To manage debt relationships with high-value corporate clients and potential clients  Provide support to the bank's senior management team in setting strategic direction and,  managing debt structuring risk across the organisation. 

Accountabilities

• Collaboration with account managers to structure, recommend and fully implement relevant debt products and services to existing and potential clients.
• Management of debt structuring, including oversight of colleagues and their performance, implementation of departmental goals and objectives, oversight of department efficiency and effectiveness.  .
• Relationship management of debt structuring stakeholders, including identifying relevant stakeholders, and maintenance of the quality of external third party services.
• Management of key stakeholder relationships within target companies to understand their needs and recommend appropriate solutions.
• Management of debt structuring risk, including identification of potential risks, development of strategies to mitigate those risks, and maintenance of alignment between the bank’s debt structuring and compliance functions.  .
• Monitoring the financial performance of each transaction completed as well as the wider debt structuring department, including revenue, profitability, and cost control.
• Conducting thorough market research to understand market trends, competitive landscape, and regulatory changes to identify market opportunities.

Assistant Vice President Expectations

• To advise and influence decision making, contribute to policy development and take responsibility for operational effectiveness. Collaborate closely with other functions/ business divisions.
• Lead a team performing complex tasks, using well developed professional knowledge and skills to deliver on work that impacts the whole business function. Set objectives and coach employees in pursuit of those objectives, appraisal of performance relative to objectives and determination of reward outcomes
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.
• OR for an individual contributor, they will lead collaborative assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will identify new directions for assignments and/ or projects, identifying a combination of cross functional methodologies or practices to meet required outcomes.
• Consult on complex issues; providing advice to People Leaders to support the resolution of escalated issues.
• Identify ways to mitigate risk and developing new policies/procedures in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Take ownership for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work done.
• Perform work that is closely related to that of other areas, which requires understanding of how areas coordinate and contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the organisation sub-function.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategy.
• Engage in complex analysis of data from multiple sources of information, internal and external sources such as procedures and practises (in other areas, teams, companies, etc).to solve problems creatively and effectively.
• Communicate complex information. 'Complex' information could include sensitive information or information that is difficult to communicate because of its content or its audience.
• Influence or convince stakeholders to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.