Export Finance Manager (South West England)

Job summary

The Division

The SME & Trade Finance Directorate (SME&TF) sits within the Business Group and is accountable for the development and delivery of UKEF’s short term business which includes our credit insurance offering.

SME&TF comprises the Export Development and Inclusive Trade Division, which includes the Export Finance Manager (EFM) network and the Inclusive Trade Team, the Short-Term Underwriting Team including Export Insurance, Post-Issue Management, and Business Group Operations.

Our Export Finance Managers are regional representatives of UKEF and are the valuable link for exporters, businesses with export potential, local and national stakeholders and DBT colleagues. They provide information on the types of finance available, the suite of UKEF products and support, and services and signposting to other sources of potential support where appropriate. The EFMs work closely with DBT and our stakeholder banks to ensure that awareness of UKEF's support reaches as many companies as possible, and with a particular regard to underserved business sectors.

About the Role

To make a significant contribution to the export growth in their region by the provision of support services on trade finance and credit insurance. To represent, promote and deliver UKEF support, products, and services to exporting businesses, stakeholders and counterparties including but not limited to:

• UK exporters and international businesses with UK operations.
• Banks (both UK high street and others) working with trade and relationship managers and directors.
• Trade credit insurers brokers and underwriters and associated counterparties.
• Other non-banking financial solution providers.
• Trade associations including promotional material, events, and conferences.
• International buyers and borrowers.
• Professional firms including accountants and lawyers and other ‘intermediaries.
• Local, national, and international chambers of commerce.
• Foreign Embassies located in the UK
• Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and their Devolved Administration equivalents, trade advisers, FCDO overseas representatives, activities and their DBT sector and market-based groups in their exporting initiatives.
• Supporting Ministers at trade events, meeting exporters and providing information to them as part of a Ministerial brief.

Whilst this role is home based it will require regular travel across the full extent of the geographic patch advertised and, occasionally across the UK if required. Applicants should be able to travel independently from a home base which ideally is located within or close to the advertised territory.

Job description

To be an ambassador for UK Export Finance and to proactively seek to create opportunities to raise awareness of its range of products and services. This will be achieved through the development and delivery of tailored presentations and meetings which will aim to promote the UK Export Finance product range with exporters, trade finance intermediaries, insurance organisations and other related third parties. This will include the delivery of presentations to a large, public audiences, dealing with questions from audience, participating in panel discussions, round tables and seminars to bank and exporter multi-disciplinary and function teams, or trade associations.

• Take personal ownership of the development of a strategy to develop the business opportunities in their region, taking account of local knowledge, using local contacts and network.
• Through strong relationships develop business opportunities for UKEF and solutions for UK exporters which will help them grow their exports through the provision of support on trade finance and credit and payment protection matters.
• Successfully drive trade finance, working capital, buyer finance and insurance solutions through positive actions with banks, exporters, and internal departments to maximise fulfilment of UKEF products or alternative solutions.
• Fully evaluate the needs of the business and signpost them to banks, private sector credit insurers, brokers, and other trade support bodies, as appropriate, to facilitate finance and credit risk products to enable exports.
• Proactively establish, develop and deepen a wide range of relationships with appropriate providers of trade finance and risk mitigation products (such as banks, credit insurers, brokers, and others) and to introduce clients who require their services.
• Lead relationships with key Regional/sectoral DBT colleagues and other exporter delivery bodies, to support on export promotional activities. Act as the lead source of support to colleagues in the DBT and its clients in the region on trade finance, credit insurance and payment risk in markets around the world.
• Raise awareness by identifying opportunities to develop and provide training/seminars in UK Export Finance products primarily to banks and other external third parties.
• Proactively assist and contribute to product innovation and development within UKEF, to better support exporters needs by providing feedback from the market and our own innovative ideas.
• Supporting exporters in individual discussions with banks, credit insurers and other international trade business support organisations, advocating UK Export Finance as part of the solution.
• Work collaboratively with UKEF underwriters in supporting the understanding and structure of the export transaction and credit analysis requirements with a view to expediting approval for the benefit of exporters.
• Work with the exporter to explore potential solutions to meet their needs and to enhance their export capacity and capability. If appropriate, analyse statutory company accounts and management accounts to determine most appropriate financial support for the client.
• Develop a sound understanding of government policy as it relates to exports to ensure the ability to explain in simple language the impact to businesses and stakeholders in seeking to access UKEF support.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across the whole department to ensure UKEF remains a great place to work.

This list is not exhaustive, and you may be required to carry out additional duties according to business needs.

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

• Graduate level qualification or significant relevant professional experience. (A)
• Evidence of continuing professional development. (A)

Knowledge

• An understanding of current international trade practice. (A, I)
• An understanding of the types of finance used by a company. (A, I)

Skills/Ability

• Effective communication skills – to be able to express ideas and messages clearly and concisely, both orally and in written communication. (A, I, P)
• Ability to present information to a variety of stakeholders at all levels, through written communications and speaking events. (A, I, P)
• Effective influencing skills throughout all levels of an organisation. (A, I)
• Relationship Management skills. (A, I, P)
• Business Development skills to maximise UKEF product use.(A, I)

Experience

• Experience of developing and maintaining relationships with high level stakeholders such as Company Directors/owners and Senior Bankers. (A, I)
• Experience working with trading businesses of all sizes and developing business opportunities by building relationships and trust. (A, I, P)

Other requirements

• Ability to fulfil the transport requirements of the role, and work outside traditional office hours as required. (A, I)

Qualifications

•Graduate level qualification or significant relevant professional experience. (A)
•Evidence of continuing professional development. (A)

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together

Technical skills

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

• Presentation - assessed against the behaviour 'Seeing the Big Picture' - this will be a subject / topic agreed by UKEF and provided to relevant candidates
• Technical question(s

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £60,000, UK Export Finance contributes £17,382 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.

• Qualification:
  • Graduate level qualification or significant relevant professional experience. (A)
  • Evidence of continuing professional development. (A)
• 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

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

• Ability to present information to a variety of stakeholders at all levels, through written communications and speaking events. (A, I, P)
• Experience working with trading businesses of all sizes and developing business opportunities by building relationships and trust. (A, I, P)

If you are successful following the sift stage, you will be invited to an initial interview, to be held via MS Teams; 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 - assessed against the behaviour 'Seeing the Big Picture' - this will be a subject / topic agreed by UKEF and provided to relevant candidates
   2. Technical question(s)

Details of interview panel members will be e-mailed to all successful candidates who are invited for interview.

Timetable

Please note that the interview dates are indicative.

Closing date for applications

23:55 on Sunday 10 May 2026

Notification of outcome of application

w/c 11 May 2026

Interviews via MS Teams

w/c 01 June 2026

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 - Candidate Information - EFM (South West England) Opens in new window (pdf, 4320kB)