Head of Underwriting

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Location: Edinburgh (hybrid)

LendingCrowd is a leading fintech business, shaping the way SMEs borrow money. Blending the latest cutting-edge technology with financial experience and backing, we have developed a scalable lending platform that provides an attractive alternative to the current limitations of business borrowing – we encourage people to think outside the bank!

Founded in 2014 and born out of Edinburgh’s vibrant and growing fintech scene, LendingCrowd has driven over £275m in lending to small businesses, including a significant share of lending to businesses in Scotland. LendingCrowd is positioned to become the trusted choice for SME financing, with a culture of ‘doing the right thing’ at the core of our purpose.

We actively encourage the generation and development of ideas from all team members to grow the business. We offer hybrid working and have our office in central Edinburgh.

The Role

As a key part of our expansion, we are looking for a dynamic and experienced Head of Underwriting to join our team. This is an exciting time in the evolution of our business as we seek to build on and embed our position as a quality provider of debt to UK SMEs.

Reporting to our CEO, this is a role for an experienced people manager who will be responsible for leading our Credit Underwriting function and ensuring procedures are in line with our risk appetite and controls.

Responsibilities

Accountability for the Credit Underwriting function
Managing and developing the Credit Underwriting team, facilitating training and development
Attending the Executive Credit Committee

Ensuring the Credit Underwriting team comply with the company’s credit risk appetite
Ensuring Credit Underwriting procedures comply with business risk controls
Contributing towards process and policy improvements that balance risk with customer service
Making decisions in line with credit policy for applications within delegated lending authority
Carrying out full assessment of potential borrower applications, from initial stage to drawdown
Analysing and inputting financial data to complete full credit risk analysis assessments
Working as part of a team to ensure that all deadlines are met in line with SLAs
Supporting the wider team where required, assisting with drafting and registering of documents
Confirming borrowers’ product eligibility
Analysing and reporting of Credit function management information.
Assisting with peer review assurance testing on a monthly basis
Assisting with ad hoc data analysis requests where required

Skills and Experience

In terms of skills and experience, we would expect you to display:

Experience of people management and leading an experienced and high-performing team
A drive to provide quality output within a high-paced volume lending environment
The ability to meet deadlines and support colleagues in the Sales team to support our borrowers and brokers
Experience of working with and providing services to SMEs within a financial services environment
Experience of structuring debt proposals for SMEs

The ability to analyse and interpret financial statements provided by SMEs as part of an application for debt facilities
Direct experience of underwriting SME debt proposals under own delegated lending authority.
Experience of providing input into the continual development of credit policy and processes
Experience of using credit risk models for credit decisioning purposes
Experience of successfully interacting and presenting to senior management team
Experience of successfully presenting deals to credit risk forums

It would also be beneficial if you have:

Experience of pricing for risk components, for example Probability of Default and Loss Given Default, as part of the provision of SME debt finance facilities
Experience of maintaining credit risk models
Experience of completing quantitative analysis on loan portfolios
Confidence to drive ownership of strategic projects on behalf of the Director of Credit

Opportunities for further development

Participating in the development of in-house credit analytics and credit models
Contributing to the continued development of credit policy, lending parameters and product criteria
Supporting the CEO with the delivery of strategic projects

We sponsor team members through Chartered Banker Institute qualifications to ensure that they build a career at LendingCrowd beyond the role.

Come join us and be part of our success story! To apply for this role, email your CV to careers@lendingcrowd.com