Business Operations & Improvement Industrial Placement - Mortgages
Nationwide Building Society · Swindon, United Kingdom ·
- Work mode
- Hybrid
- Category
- Operations
Good things this way
If you're ambitious, curious and enjoy solving problems, our Product & Change Industrial Placement provides an exciting opportunity to gain hands-on experience while exploring a future career in banking.
Help improve products, services and customer experiences while gaining valuable experience of how change is delivered across a large and complex organisation.
Whether you're interested in project management, business analysis, product development or customer insight, this placement offers an opportunity to build practical skills while contributing to meaningful business outcomes.
The experience is designed to help you build confidence, apply your learning and gain valuable insight into how products, services and customer experiences evolve. Along the way, you'll broaden your network, work with experienced professionals and discover where your interests might take you after university.
Looking for a rewarding career in banking? Good things this way.
Where you’ll be working
You'll join teams within our Mortgages function, helping support the products, services and change initiatives that shape customer experiences across Nationwide.
Working alongside experienced professionals, you'll gain exposure to product development, project delivery, customer insight, governance and change management while building a broad understanding of how products and services evolve to meet changing customer needs.
Location
At Nationwide we offer hybrid working wherever possible. More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working. We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected.
For this job you'll spend at least two days per week, based at our Swindon, London, Northampton or Bournemouth offices.
If we receive a high volume of relevant applications, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so please apply as soon as you can.
What you'll be doing on the Product & Change Industrial Placement - Mortgages
Our Product & Change Industrial Placement is a 12-month programme designed to combine practical experience, professional development and real workplace learning. This isn't a placement spent watching from the sidelines. From day one, you'll contribute to meaningful work while receiving the support needed to learn and grow.
Your placement begins with induction, development support and structured learning designed to help you settle in, build confidence and understand the role you'll be performing. Alongside this, you'll join a 10-month collaborative project with other Industrial Placement students from across Nationwide. Development workshops run throughout the placement, helping build project and professional skills, grow confidence and prepare you for your next career step.
You'll then join your team and follow a personalised learning pathway that combines hands-on experience, role-specific training, digital learning and interactive workshops. There will also be opportunities to learn from leaders and industry experts, gaining fresh perspectives and practical ideas you can apply day to day.
The placement offers an opportunity to experience how products, services and change initiatives are developed within a large financial services organisation. Rather than specialising immediately in one area, you'll gain broad experience and develop a better understanding of where your interests and strengths lie. You’ll gain opportunities to understand customer needs, identify improvements and help deliver better experiences for members.
No two days are the same. Activities could include supporting projects, analysing information, contributing to change initiatives, preparing presentations, engaging with stakeholders, coordinating activities and helping solve business problems. You'll work with colleagues across the organisation and gain experience of how ideas are turned into meaningful outcomes.
Exposure to tools such as Microsoft 365, Jira and Confluence will help build practical experience of how teams collaborate, manage work and deliver change successfully.
Along the way, you'll develop transferable skills in communication, stakeholder engagement, project coordination, problem solving, teamwork and business awareness. The placement places strong emphasis on learning, potential and future development rather than previous experience.
There will also be opportunities to explore future career paths in change and delivery while building professional networks across Nationwide.
Who we're looking for on the Product & Change Industrial Placement - Mortgages
We're looking for curious, motivated people who enjoy solving problems, learning new skills and working with others. You'll share our determination to push for better and put customers first in the decisions you make. Whatever your route, this placement will help you gain valuable experience while exploring where a future career in product, change and delivery could take you.
To succeed on our Product & Change Industrial Placement, you'll need to show:
An interest in business change, project delivery, product development or business analysis.
Confidence working with people, solving problems and contributing ideas.
Curiosity about how products, services and customer experiences are improved.
The ambition to keep growing, take on new challenges and build towards your next career step.
A logical, methodical approach, with the ability to understand both the detail and the bigger picture.
The confidence to build relationships and work with colleagues across the business.
Drive, high performance and a commitment to learning from feedback and setbacks.
A determination to push for better and put customers first in the decisions you make.
Eligibility: You must be studying towards an undergraduate degree in any discipline. (Add any specific degree requirement here if stated as essential by the business area)
Our customer first behaviours put customers and members at the heart of how we work together. They are the set of behaviours that every colleague needs to display, in every role:
Feel what customers feel - We step into our customers’ shoes, using their feedback and insights to empathise with them and to understand their needs, so that every decision we make starts and finishes with our customers in mind
Say it straight - We are brave in speaking out and saying what we think – we’re honest and direct with good intent, openly sharing diverse perspectives to reach the best conclusions and using language everyone can understand
Push for better - We don’t settle for mediocrity, we challenge the status quo, taking responsibility for continuous improvement and personal development
Get it done - We prioritise what will have the greatest impact, we are decisive, and we take accountability for delivering brilliant customer outcomes.
The extras you’ll get
High performing and purpose-driven colleagues deserve a rewarding career and competitive benefits to match. We offer you:
Structured learning, personalised development and hands-on experience to help you build future-ready skills and progress your career in banking
25 days holiday each year, which increases over time to 30. Plus, you can ‘buy’ up to 10 extra days
The opportunity to earn an annual bonus based on your performance
Private medical insurance to help you access additional healthcare when you need it
Wellhub access to a range of free and paid fitness and wellbeing options, plus free on-site gyms at selected locations
A highly competitive pension to help you start building your financial future
A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme
Up to 14 paid hours each year to volunteer for a cause that matters to you
Life assurance to provide additional peace of mind for you and the people who matter to you
Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society
We forge our own path at Nationwide.
As a mutual, we’re owned by our members - those customers who bank, save or have a mortgage with us. We challenge the financial sector status quo. We don’t see customers as the engine of our own profit. We share our profits with them and put their needs first. Always there when they need us. Supporting them and their lives.
If you’re inspired by fairer finances, passionate about making a meaningful impact, and truly care about our customers, you’re one of us.
At Nationwide, you are challenged to grow and rewarded for doing so. Valued. Recognised. Inspired to be your best. As a community we want our working lives to count. As a team, we celebrate what we achieve. As a standard-setter, we work for the good of customers, communities, and broader society.
We are purpose-driven. Uncompromisingly customer. Unstoppably Nationwide.
What to do next
If this role is for you, please click the ‘Apply Now’ button, where you’ll be asked to answer a few quick questions for us.
We’ll send you our online assessments to complete and there will also be a short video interview to find out more about you. If you are successful, you could be selected to attend one of our assessment centres which run from December 2026.
Visa sponsorship information
As a UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) approved sponsor, we have a responsibility to comply with the applicable Immigration Rules and guidance (which are subject to change). The Skilled Worker route has specific requirements relating to skill level of the role and minimum salary expectations. As such, our ability to employ individuals who require sponsorship for immigration purposes is limited or may not be possible for some programmes.
VISA Sponsorship cannot be offered on this programme.
All successful applicants with need to demonstrate their right to work in the UK on commencement of employment and for the duration of the programme applied for without requiring sponsorship.
If you have any further questions, please contact us at [email protected]