Business Origination Officer

Job summary

The Division

Origination and Client Coverage (OCC) is the internationally facing business development and client relationship arm of UKEF. We are primarily responsible for delivering new business opportunities in overseas markets suitable for UKEF financing. We do this by:

1. Engaging with British exporters and overseas buyers to build up the business pipeline of opportunities suitable for UKEF support.
2. Developing business development strategies for overseas markets of interest by connecting with current and potential clients both in the UK and globally.
3. Coordinating the activities of our international team of export finance executives based in British Missions across the world.
4. Delivering a client coverage functionality in the department through a customer relationship approach.
5. Collaborating across Whitehall, working closely with DIT, HMT, FCDO and others to make sure the UKEF offer is front and centre in HMGs trade promotion and diplomatic activities.
6. Aligning to UKEF’s broader strategy including public policy priorities to translate strategic intent into commercial outcomes, particularly focused on clean growth and sustainability.

About the Role

We are looking for a dynamic Business Origination Officer to support our international activities. You will be working in an outward facing team that engages with exporters and their buyers overseas including foreign governments and corporates as well as financial institutions.

This role provides key support to the team helping meet the OCC objectives for the UKEF’s Business Plan. The OCC division is organised along regional lines with individuals in the team supporting delivery across regions under a Regional Head, working closely with OCC’s international network of Country Heads.

Job description

Main Activities

The main objectives for this role focus on providing support to the team that entail dealing with new business enquiries, liaising with overseas staff, developing, and maintaining management information systems and coordinating strategic planning activities of the team.

The main responsibilities of the role include:

• Assisting the team in evaluating potential business opportunities suitable for UKEF support
• Preparing marketing materials/ presentations for exporters, government ministries and other relevant stakeholders to promote awareness of the UKEF offer.
• Reviewing team pipeline information on Salesforce (the department’s Client Relationship Management tool) and keeping it current by liaising with team members both in the UK and overseas
• Liaising with the other teams in UKEF to deliver support for project opportunities.
• Supporting the team in planning activities such as regional strategies and global catchups/ workshops on origination matters.
• Given the department’s focus on clean growth initiatives, monitoring the origination pipeline to track its clean growth profile.
• Supporting the induction of new hires as the division expands
• Supporting the team in operational management of the team on matters such as budgets and business process requirements
• Supporting the delivery of division’s reporting to senior management of its activities
• Collaborating with colleagues in OGDs (in particular DBT and FCDO) on trade promotion activities of relevance to UKEF
• Supporting the international network in their activities by providing HQ support
• Developing case studies and tailoring presentation materials
• Leading OCC’s contribution to briefings for UKEF’s CEO and Ministers

Person specification

UK Export Finance is looking for motivated individuals with a desire to learn about the business. Successful candidates will be provided not only with functional training to enable them to do well in their role, but also with personal development to help them to achieve their career ambitions. Please note that the person specification below outlines at which stage(s) you will be assessed on how you meet the criteria for the role(s) including:-

A = assessed at application stage I = assessed at interview stage T = assessed by test stage = assessed at presentation stage

Essential

Qualifications

• Significant relevant professional experience. (A)

Knowledge

• Awareness of UKEF and its role. (A, I)

Skills/Ability

• Analytical skills to review information and form judgements. (A, I)
• Demonstrable oral communication skills, including presentation skills. (A, I, P)
• Ability to work without close supervision, exercise autonomy sensibly and to ensure that deadlines are met. (A, I)
• Ability to build and maintain effective professional relationships with colleagues.(A, I)
• Good attention to detail and organisational capabilities. (A, I)

Experience

• Experience engaging with internal and external stakeholders to achieve outcomes. (A, I)
• Resilient and able to progress work using own initiative. (I)
• Experience working collaboratively in team environments. (A, I)

Qualifications

Significant relevant professional experience.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Presentation - this will be a subject / topic agreed by UKEF and provided to relevant candidates

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,500, UK Export Finance contributes £12,022 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

We are assessing candidates using Success Profiles (see Appendix 1) and across the whole process we will assess your Experience, Technical and Behaviours as highlighted below.

The application must be completed by 23.55 on the day of the closing date for it to be accepted.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Please ensure that you read through the Candidate Information Pack attached to this advert, before applying.

All applications will be sifted against our essential criteria outlined in the personal specification.

• Behaviour statement - 250 word statement addressing the behaviour 'Delivering at Pace'
• Statement of suitability - you should fully articulate in 500 words how you meet the essential criteria outlined in the person specification within the Information Pack.

For the initial sift your application will be evaluated against:

1. Experience - Application and Statement of Suitability
2. Behaviour - 250 word statement addressing the behaviour 'Delivering at Pace'

In the event of a large response, an initial sift will be carried out on the following essential criteria:

• Awareness of UKEF and its role. (A, I)
• Analytical skills to review information and form judgements. (A, I)
• Ability to work without close supervision, exercise autonomy sensibly and to ensure that deadlines are met. (A, I)

If you are successful following the sift stage, you will be invited to an initial interview, to be held onsite at 1 Horse Guards Road; this will include the following assessment:

1. Behaviours / Experience - a formal panel interview where you will be interviewed across all four behaviours highlighted in Appendix 1.
2. Technical - you will be assessed across your technical expertise and acumen, in relation to the essential criteria:
   1. Presentation - this will be a subject / topic agreed by UKEF and provided to relevant candidates

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Recruitment Team
• Email : Recruitment2@ukexportfinance.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Recruitment2@ukexportfinance.gov.uk

Further information

Should you have a complaint or wish to raise any concerns regarding the recruitment process, please e-mail your complaint to the Head of Pay and Resourcing (UKEF) at Recruitment2@ukexportfinance.gov.uk and include “Complaint” in the subject heading. Should you remain dissatisfied following UKEF’s investigation then you can refer your complaint to the Commission - http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/making-complaint.

Attachments

UKEF - Business Origination Officer (June 2026) Opens in new window (pdf, 4332kB)