Business Operations & Improvement Industrial Placement - Retail

Good things this way

If you're ambitious, curious and enjoy solving problems, our Business Operations & Improvement Industrial Placement - Retail provides an exciting opportunity to gain hands-on experience while exploring a future career in banking.

Help improve the way Nationwide operates by solving business challenges, supporting better decisions and contributing to improvements that benefit customers and colleagues.

Whether you're interested in business operations, performance insight, process improvement or stakeholder management, this placement offers the opportunity to develop 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 data and analytics support decision-making. 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 our Retail, Customer Operations and Product function, where teams work together to improve experiences, deliver change, solve business challenges and support Nationwide's long-term success.

The Business Operations & Improvement pathway is designed for people who enjoy solving problems, improving ways of working and helping organisations achieve their goals. Through a range of placements, you'll develop skills in business planning, performance insight, process improvement and stakeholder management while learning how data, technology and collaboration can be used to drive effective business delivery.

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 or Northampton 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 Business Operations & Improvement Industrial Placement - Retail

Our Business Operations & Improvement Industrial Placement is a 12-month programme designed to combine practical experience, professional development and real workplace learning.

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 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.

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.

Throughout the placement, you'll gain hands-on experience while following a personalised learning pathway tailored to your role. Mentoring, development sessions and support from experienced colleagues will help you continue building your skills and confidence.

The Business Operations & Improvement pathway is designed for individuals who enjoy understanding how organisations work and finding opportunities to make them better.

Over the course of the placement, you'll complete three four-month placements across different teams. Each experience offers a different perspective on how Nationwide plans, delivers and improves its products, services and operations.

No two days are the same. Activities could include attending team meetings, collaborating with stakeholders, contributing to projects, reviewing customer and business insights, supporting process improvement work and helping teams plan or track delivery activity.

Working across different placements will help you understand how data, technology and collaboration support effective business delivery. You'll gain experience of how organisations identify opportunities, improve performance and respond to changing business needs.

The technologies used will vary depending on the placement team. You may work with collaboration tools, project and change management platforms, insight tools and systems used to support business delivery activity.

Along the way, you'll develop practical skills in:

• Business planning and performance insight

• Process improvement

• Stakeholder management

• Governance and Controls

• Project and programme delivery

• Business analysis

• Communication and relationship building

• Creative problem solving

• Enterprise-wide thinking

• Adaptability and resilience

The role offers opportunities to work on complex business challenges where there may not always be a clear answer. Balancing priorities, adapting to different teams and learning new skills will all be part of the experience.

Successful completion of the placement may help shape future career choices and could provide a route into our Business Operations & Improvement Development Programme.

Who we're looking for on the Business Operations & Improvement Industrial Placement - Retail

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 business operations and improvement could take you.

To succeed on our Business Operations & Improvement Industrial Placement, you'll need to show:

• An interest in understanding business challenges and identifying opportunities for improvement.

• The ability to think critically and analyse information to support decision-making.

• Curiosity about how organisations operate, improve and deliver results.

• 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.

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 January 2027.

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]