US Head of Underwriting

YouLend•Atlanta, GA

16h•Onsite

About The Position

YouLend is hiring a risk-first Head of Underwriting to lead our US underwriting function. The underwriting team is a core part of the YouLend Production Line and is responsible for approving and declining financing applications, deciding appropriate exposure limits, and pricing deals. In this senior leadership role, you will take full ownership of scaling and managing the underwriting team based in our Atlanta office (25+ people expected within 12 months), while also developing and shaping the US risk strategy to enhance our underwriting processes and capabilities. Your primary objective is to ensure that customers are served well (as measured through speed and quality of decisioning financing applications), whilst achieving high approval rates and low loss rates. You and your Team Leaders will be responsible for hiring, training and developing current and prospective team members to meet business objectives. While operational excellence is crucial to your success, your role is targeted at enhancing our underwriting process and capabilities to optimise YouLend's returns in US - often in cross-team collaboration with the global Credit Risk, Capital Markets and Product teams. You will establish yourself as a trusted leader, balancing growth with risk-adjusted returns (not just approvals). You will be expected to play an active role in our Credit Committees, monitor performance of YouLend's portfolio, and use data to proactively identify and propose improvements to our underwriting capabilities and tools.

Requirements

3+ years' direct experience with underwriting or risk. Ideally, working as a senior stakeholder in a growing FinTech company, in the financial services sector or at a bank
A strong understanding of credit risk across the US, coupled with a commercial mindset
A strong track-record of managing people (ideally 10+) and mentoring your direct reports. Ideally, you also have experience in managing managers
Hands-on mentality: You are proactive, act with urgency, drive projects forward, remove obstacles, and consistently implement solutions
You take responsibility for outcomes, not tasks, and drive projects to completion without supervision
You are data-driven, comfortable in numbers, and able to make decisions with imperfect information
Successful track-record of achieving ambitious goals
Strong change management skills and experience in managing change processes
Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Nice To Haves

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with experience working with large datasets (e.g. SQL, Python, R)
Exposure to SME financing

Responsibilities

Be at the forefront of building an independent underwriting function in US, balancing growth with risk-adjusted returns (not just approvals) - bridging market standards with the best of YouLend
This includes developing Team Leaders who can support you in the day-to- day management of the underwriting team (25+ people expected within 12 months)
Play an active role in Credit Committee, acting as a trusted expert in your field
Own end-to-end performance: Manage the implementation of global Credit Risk guidance, analyzing bottlenecks and delivering strategies to increase adoption
Collaborate with cross-functional teams (e.g. Credit Risk, Compliance, Capital Markets, Product and Commercial) to continuously optimize underwriting tools, processes, and policies. Use data to proactively identify, propose and execute solutions to bridge policy gaps and adjust Credit Risk models, aimed at improving efficiency or returns
Establish quality control measures to maintain high standards of accuracy and consistency across teams, including regular audits to verify adherence to internal policies and processes
Hire and develop managers and individual underwriters alike, cemented in scalable training infrastructure
Help take new products, partners, and markets from zero to one with the appropriate conversion-risk trade-off
Act as a change leader, implementing improvements quickly and effectively and embedding them sustainably within the teams — with minimal disruption to day-to-day operations

Benefits

Health Care Coverage. Youlend covers 80%; employee contribution is 20% of the premium.
Medical Plan (medical insurance and prescription drug coverage)- Choice of 5 different plans through United Healthcare.
Dental plan coverage
Vision plan coverage
Benefits can be for: Employee only; Employee & Spouse; Employee & Child; Employee & Family
Retirement - 401K match. Employee match $1 for $1 up to 5% of salary.
Basic Life & AD&D Insurance.
International travel insurance covered if traveling abroad for work purposes.
Paid Time Off (PTO)- 20 working days (4 weeks) + US public holidays
Paid Office Parking