Digital Accessibility Strategist

At Nationwide, we believe in making banking fairer, which means making every interaction as accessible and inclusive as we can. Our ambition is for our digital channels to provide industry-leading support for those who use assistive technologies to access digital resources and move away from accessibility being a tick box exercise.

We are looking for someone with demonstrable experience in embedding digital accessibility thinking into a large complex organisation – someone who’s created a clear strategy, training and education programme and execution plan before - from must do activities, such as fixing digital accessibility gaps across many complex and fragmented digital applications, to embedding and distilling an ‘inclusive first’ approach to designing and developing new platforms across the society. It’s fair to say that we are dedicated to driving real momentum in this space, however we need some help to bring our vision to life.

We have spent the past few months assessing our current digital estate to understand our adherence to WCAG 2.2 AA standards, supporting teams to get this view, and where required working on a path to green.

You’ll be working with our Digital Accessibility Lead to shape the plan, supported by our ‘Inclusion Champions’ across the different divisions of our business, defining what good looks like, and getting buy in at an executive level. We run month Digital Accessibility Forums, to bring our inclusion champions together, this is where you’ll be able to help shape our immediate execution to ensure that all of our digital platforms are meeting our standards in a consistent manner, and where you will also be able to get buy in on how to take ourselves forward.

Success in this role looks like a whole organisation that’s thinking about how any of its digital communications are inclusive to all – whether that’s a Powerpoint slide, a social post, an email, website journey, or even our own intranet and colleague systems.

You’ll sit within our Customer, Brand and Engagement division, which was formed two years ago, to ensure that all our customer touch points meet the needs of our customers. We have teams responsible for Vulnerability, Digital Platforms, Communications and Marketing all sat together. We’re on a journey, but already starting to make real progress, so you’ll be joining us at an exciting time. Whilst your home may be within CB&E, you’ll be working with stakeholders and teams across the society, consulting and supporting them to elevate our thinking, plan and execution.

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, or if part time you'll spend 40% of your working time, based at either our Swindon, Bournemouth or London office. Whilst these locations are where we are primarily looking to fill the role, if you’re an internal applicant based in a different location we would welcome your application and if successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this could work for this specific role. You can also find out more about our approach to hybrid working here.

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

In This Role, You’ll Be Working Within The Digital Platforms And SEO Team To Provide Expertise In The Following Areas:

Provide consulting support to teams responsible for digital touchpoints across the society on what is required to meet WCAG 2.2 Level AA standards.
Ensure that all of our digital platforms have been consistently accredited on a regular basis through our partnerships with the Digital Accessibility Centre and AbilityNet.
Support the development of a clear and up to date accessibility statement, highlighting assistive technologies that we support, documenting any exceptions that are required
If required, help to create a business case to fix any non-compliant areas, getting buy in from senior stakeholders including finance for it’s prioritisation and approval.
Provide expertise in ensuring that the society has all of the skills and techniques to confidently design and build accessible and inclusive digital experiences. This will ensure that don’t just fix accessibility one, and fall back to old habits, but change our behaviours forever.
Provide thought leadership on the next steps that the society could take to evolve it’s digital inclusion strategy and maturity.

About You

As a minimum you’ll have:

Demonstrable experience of leading, shaping and delivering a Digital Accessibility programme, embedding WCAG 2.2 AA standards into all digital touch points.
Experience of working with teams across a large complex organisation to embed accessibility and inclusion thinking into teams through training, collaboration and consulting.
Experience of defining a digital inclusion strategy beyond ensuring compliance against core accreditation criteria/standards.
Experience of working with stakeholders across many different disciplines including but not limited to engineering, design, content, management, brand, marketing, finance, legal, risk and compliance.

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

You can strengthen your application by showing how our customer first behaviours resonate with you, and where you may have already demonstrated these.

The extras you’ll get

There are all sorts of employee benefits available at Nationwide, including:

A personal pension – if you put in 7% of your salary, we’ll top up by a further 16%
Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year
Life assurance worth 8x your salary
A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme
Wellhub – Access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness
Access to an annual performance related bonus
Access to training to help you develop and progress your career
25 days holiday, pro rata

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. You’ll need to attach your up-to-date CV and answer a few quick questions for us.

We respond to everyone, so we will be in contact shortly after the closing date to let you know the outcome of your application.

Please note that should you be successful in securing this role the job title on our internal systems will be Marketing & Corporate Affairs Manager.