Head of Credit and Underwriting (m/f/d)
A high-growth financial services platform is looking to appoint an experienced leader to oversee its underwriting and credit decisioning activities across several European markets.
This position combines strategic ownership with hands-on execution, focusing on building a scalable underwriting function, improving credit outcomes, and enabling responsible growth. Based in a central European office, you will lead a growing team and play a critical role in shaping how credit decisions are made across the region.
The role requires a balance of commercial awareness, operational leadership, and risk discipline, with a strong emphasis on using data to guide decision-making and continuous improvement.
Responsibilities
- Establish and grow a structured underwriting team, including hiring, coaching, and developing team leads and individual contributors
- Define and implement regional underwriting and credit strategies aligned with business growth targets and risk appetite
- Oversee the full credit lifecycle, from initial triage and validation checks to final decisioning, terms, and limits
- Ensure high-quality, timely decisions while maintaining a strong focus on portfolio health and loss control
- Collaborate cross-functionally to improve credit policies, risk tools, and operational workflows
- Analyse performance data to identify improvement areas, inefficiencies, or emerging risks, and implement solutions
- Introduce and maintain quality control frameworks to ensure consistency and adherence to internal standards and regulatory requirements
- Participate in credit governance processes, offering expertise on approvals, portfolio trends, and risk considerations
- Track and optimise key performance indicators across underwriting operations and overall credit performance
- Support market expansion and new product initiatives by developing appropriate underwriting approaches and risk frameworks
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives, ensuring changes are implemented effectively without disrupting core operations
Profile
- Solid experience in underwriting or credit risk within financial services, with exposure to leadership responsibilities
- Strong knowledge of lending practices and risk considerations across European markets, particularly Germany
- Proven ability to manage and develop teams, including supporting the growth of future leaders
- Commercially minded, with the ability to balance growth ambitions against prudent risk management
- Hands-on and delivery-focused, with a track record of implementing improvements in dynamic environments
- Analytical and comfortable working with data to support decision-making
- Experience owning and delivering complex initiatives end-to-end
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to engage stakeholders across functions
- Demonstrated ability to lead and embed change within organisations
- Professional fluency in both German and English
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