Commercial Business Development Manager - Midlands & South

About Allica Bank Allica is the UK’s fastest growing company - and the fastest-growing financial technology (Fintech) firm ever. Our purpose is to help established SMEs, one of the last major underserved opportunities in Fintech. Established SMEs are the backbone of local communities - representing over a third of our economy - yet have been largely neglected both by traditional high street banks and modern fintech providers. Department Description Our vision is to reimagine Relationship Banking for established SMEs, through the very best people, products and digital tools. Allica’s Relationship Management team was formed in 2022 and continues to grow at pace, providing established SME customers with expert human relationships alongside modern banking technology. The team supports customers with lending, current accounts, savings, asset finance and working capital facilities, while building deep local relationships with SME customers, trusted professional advisers and business communities. The Regional Lead opportunity is one of four new dedicated leadership roles, and will be instrumental in driving the next phase of growth in our Direct to Customer channel. Role Description The Regional Lead will be accountable for the strategy, leadership, performance and risk outcomes of a defined Direct Relationship Management region, leading a team of Relationship Managers (portfolio Relationship Managers and Business Development focused Hunters) to deliver against the business plan and regional OKRs, contributing to outstanding customer outcomes and the overall success of the D2C channel. This is a dedicated senior leadership role within the D2C channel and will combine clear commercial accountability with performance management and coaching, local go-to-market strategy, risk oversight and cross-team collaboration. The successful candidate will use data, market insight and local knowledge to identify opportunities and performance issues, agree strategic and tactical actions to ensure the region consistently delivers strong customer, commercial, colleague and risk outcomes. The Regional Lead will play an active role in shaping the wider D2C channel, working closely with the Head of Relationship Management and other senior stakeholders to further develop the channel, recommend improvements, share best practice and support execution of channel and bank-wide initiatives. Principal Accountabilities * Lead, develop and performance manage a high-performing regional team of Relationship Managers, creating a strong and meaningful operating rhythm, clear objectives and a culture of accountability, pace and continuous improvement. * Own delivery of the region’s commercial plan to deliver against all agreed commercial targets. * Prepare and present clear performance updates, regional plans and recommendations to the Head of Relationship Management and other senior stakeholders, demonstrating strong judgement, data-led decision making and ownership of outcomes. * Use regional performance data, pipeline insight, CRM activity and local market knowledge to drive timely actions to maximise regional performance. * Provide hands-on leadership, coaching and support to colleagues across the region, including regular one-to-ones, pipeline reviews, performance interventions, development planning and sharing of best practice. * Lead the development and execution of the region’s local business development strategy, ensuring Relationship Managers and Hunters build strong local networks with established SMEs, accountants, solicitors, business groups and other trusted professional advisers in the non-paid channel. * Drive Allica’s ambition to be Most Recommended Bank for ESMEs’s in the region, supporting customer, prospect and adviser relationships where appropriate and ensuring the Bank is known locally for speed, expertise, professionalism and outstanding service. * Be accountable for risk performance within the region, ensuring all required risk and control activities are completed to the required standard and in line with Allica’s risk appetite and policies. * Support the continued development of the D2C operating model, actively seeking opportunities to grow and recommend scalable ways of working as the channel grows. * It is expected that you will lead, nurture and coach your team, role modelling Allica’s culture and values at all times, and ensuring these are consistently reflected in the way your team operates. * Work closely with internal teams and stakeholders to ensure a seamless customer and colleague experience and to maximise opportunities across the Bank. Personal Attributes & Experience * A proven senior commercial leader with experience leading, developing and performance managing high-performing relationship management, business development or sales teams, in a regional leadership environment or similar. * Strong understanding of SME banking and commercial lending, including relationship-led origination in non-paid channels, credit assessment, facility structuring, portfolio management and ongoing risk management. * Demonstrable track record of exceeding commercial objectives while maintaining high standards of customer service, risk management, conduct and colleague engagement. * Evidence of strong career progression and outperformance, with a clear track record of going beyond the core role to improve teams, processes, customer outcomes or business performance. * A practical, hands-on and resilient leader who is comfortable operating at pace, getting into the detail, solving problems, making decisions and taking ownership of outcomes. * Ability to design and execute local business development strategies that are strongly aligned to commercial goals, customer need and Allica’s risk appetite. * Excellent forecasting, CRM and reporting skills, with the ability to translate MI into focused action, coaching priorities and practical improvements. * Strong people leadership capability, including the ability to hire, coach, develop, challenge and retain talented colleagues, and to create a high-performance environment where people know what is expected and are supported to succeed. * Excellent interpersonal, communication and influencing skills, with the credibility to represent Allica with customers, prospects, advisers, colleagues and stakeholders. * A strong external market perspective, including an understanding of local SME communities, professional adviser networks, competitor activity and wider macro issues impacting SMEs * Strong alignment to Allica’s values, with the judgement, integrity and energy to lead by example and help build the next phase of the Direct Relationship Management channel. #LI-Remote #LI-AD1 Working at Allica Bank At Allica Bank we want to ensure our employees have the right tools and environment in which to succeed in their role and in support of our customers. Our employees are at the heart of everything we do, so our benefits are designed with you in mind: * Full onboarding support and continued development opportunities * Options for flexible working * Regular social activities * Pension contributions * Discretionary bonus scheme * Private health cover * Life assurance * Family friendly policies including enhanced Maternity & Paternity leave Don’t tick every box? Don’t worry if you don’t have all the skills or requirements listed on the job description. If you think you’ll be a good fit, we’d still love to hear from you! Flexible working We know the ‘9-to-5’ isn’t right for everyone. That’s why Allica Bank is fully committed to flexible and hybrid working. Please let us know what is best for you and, if we can, we will do our best to accommodate. Diversity We’re a diverse bunch here at Allica, with all kinds of experiences, backgrounds and lifestyles. Our openness and differences make us stronger, and we want everybody to feel comfortable bringing as much of themselves to work with them as they like.

SOLUTION ENGINEER   About Neural Concept Engineering is at an inflection point. The teams defining the next generation of aircraft, electric vehicles, and consumer products are not just designing faster. They are designing fundamentally differently, with AI embedded at the core of their workflows. Neural Concept builds the Engineering AI platform that makes this possible. We help the world's leading engineering teams accelerate development, improve product outcomes, and scale engineering capacity, turning months of simulation into days and engineering intuition into data-driven insight. We work with elite engineering teams in Automotive, Aerospace, High-Tech and Electronics, and advanced manufacturing, where the stakes are high, the complexity is rising, and the pressure to innovate has never been greater. We are changing how engineers work. Come build that future with us.   About the Role As a Solution Engineer, you sit at the intersection of engineering credibility and strategic influence. You are the person in the room who can connect a VP's business challenge to a concrete, well-scoped AI solution, and who knows Neural Concept's platform and roadmap well enough to make that connection land with confidence. This is not a purely technical role, and it is not a pure sales role. You are a trusted advisor: someone who earns credibility through engineering background and product depth, and who builds long-term account relationships by consistently framing the right problems and the right solutions at the right moment. You drive the full pre-sales motion, from discovery to demo to signed Statement of Work, and you remain the account's technical compass through the client lifecycle, identifying and shaping expansion opportunities.   What you will do * Position NC as a long-term strategic partner and trusted engineering advisor across engineering teams, managers, and VPs * Lead structured discovery sessions to identify where NC creates the most impact, framing use cases that are technically feasible and commercially grounded * Define the AI strategy and technical roadmap for each account, translating NC's capabilities and product direction into a multi-horizon vision * Create and deliver compelling, client-tailored demos and presentations grounded in the client's engineering workflows, technically credible and aligned with the vision * Create and co-own the Statement of Work, with deep understanding of the technical building blocks and how these transform the client's existing workflows * Prepare and run Steering Committees, connecting engineering challenges to strategic outcomes * Drive user adoption and engagement across technical users, managers, and designers, ensuring NC is embedded in daily workflows and engineering champions emerge * Identify upsell and expansion opportunities from account knowledge and commercial signals, and shape them into well-scoped proposals * Collaborate with the Sales team to advance and close deals, with the Forward Deployed Engineering team to ensure smooth pre-sales to delivery transitions, and surface client insights to Product and R&D to inform roadmap priorities   Who you are * You hold an engineering degree (mechanical, aerospace, automotive, industrial, or similar) and have a solid understanding of CAD and CAE workflows, including where bottlenecks lie and what it takes to transform those workflows with AI * You are naturally curious and people-driven. You earn trust through genuine interest in client challenges and make engineers and executives feel understood * You are proactive and commercially driven. You move accounts forward without being asked, spot opportunities early, and bring structure to ambiguous situations * You are a confident challenger. You ask uncomfortable questions, reframe assumptions, and guide clients toward better outcomes even when it requires pushing back * You are an outstanding communicator: you own executive conversations, drive narrative with clarity, and connect engineering problems to strategic outcomes * You understand AI and machine learning applied to engineering at a conceptual level, and are comfortable creating demos and prototypes using AI-assisted tools with working knowledge of Python and modern development practices * You have experience in a client-facing role: pre-sales, solutions consulting, technical account management, or engineering consulting * Professional fluency in English   What Will Set You Apart Candidates who bring the following will be able to take on a wider scope and go deeper with the most technically complex accounts: * You have deep, hands-on simulation experience: full pipelines from CAD to post-processing, solver experience, and workflow automation * You are a strong programmer: you write clean Python, build data pipelines, and are comfortable in ML/DL frameworks including model training, evaluation, and deployment * You can go deep in technical discovery: dive into customer toolchains, data environments, and simulation setups to assess feasibility at the level a simulation engineer would respect * You can build end-to-end engineering workflow demos from scratch, rapidly prototyping the full arc from design generation and simulation to data pipelines, model training, and application deployment using agentic development tools   Nice-to-Have * Strategic or technical consulting background, executing digital transformations * Previous experience working in engineering software companies or using engineering software tools (e.g., Ansys, Altair, Siemens, Dassault Systèmes, or Autodesk) * Background in ML/DL research or development in an engineering context * Experience automating CAE workflows (scripting, batch processing, surrogate model pipelines)   What You Get * Work with a world-class technology team – our engineers are top-notch, and we always aim for excellence. * Benefit from a competitive salary and rewarding opportunities as we continue to scale. * Thrive in a collaborative, multicultural environment where your work is visible and recognized. * Develop professionally alongside talented colleagues who share knowledge freely and support one another. * Make a global impact by helping customers shift to AI-assisted design, making innovation faster, smarter, and more sustainable. * Balance life and work with a hybrid model and flexible hours—we care about results, not rigid schedules. WHERE YOU WILL BE * Based in the UK (Midlands preferred, with flexibility) * 30% travel required (UK & EMEA) WE'RE PROUD TO BE AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER, AND WE'RE COMMITTED TO BUILDING A DIVERSE AND INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENT WHERE YOU CAN THRIVE.