Head of Credit Risk Germany

The company

Fast, flexible finance empowers small businesses to manage their cash flow better and seize opportunities - making their business and the economy stronger as a whole. At iwoca, we do just that. We help businesses get the funds they need, when they need it, often within minutes. We’ve already made several billion in funding available to more than 100,000 businesses since we launched in 2012, and positioned ourselves as a leading Fintech in Europe. 

Our mission is to finance one million businesses. We’ll get there by continuing to make our finance ever more relevant and accessible to more businesses by combining cutting-edge technology, data science, and a 5-star customer service 

The role

We are looking for an experienced Head of Credit Risk with a strong analytical background, to lead the credit risk function for our lending portfolio in Germany.

You will work closely with the Chief Credit Officer, the General Manager for Germany, our data scientists, and teams from across the business to ensure our risk management frameworks, scorecards, and lending strategies are effectively managing credit risk while maximising value creation.

Within your broad remit, responsibilities include:

• Being the responsible expert on all things related to credit risk management

  • driving informed decision-making to set credit risk appetite appropriately for the economic conditions and iwoca’s business plan.

  • developing credit risk management policies and control frameworks, and actively managing adherence.

  • Setting the credit risk agenda aligned to the business strategy, and providing strong leadership to the credit risk team to drive its delivery.

  • monitoring credit performance on aggregate and by segment. Proactively driving corrective action where required.

  • driving improvements to credit risk scorecards, associated scoring processes, and data infrastructure.

  • Providing credit risk expertise to support product development when launching new features, e.g. longer terms, interest only, etc.

• Supporting the capital markets team by providing credit risk expertise to ensure funding vehicles are set up to provide sufficient capacity, flexibility, and resilience at an appropriate cost.

• Communicating with equity and debt investors as required around loan book credit performance.

The team:

You’ll join the Credit Risk team, whose primary focus is managing the credit risk profile of our lending portfolios to support iwoca’s broader business goals and mission. As Head of Credit Risk for Germany you will be a key member of the team focused on the development of our lending business in Germany.

The requirements

• Strong analytical background: a degree in Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, or similar quantitative field; or equivalent experience.

• 7+ years experience in credit risk and lending strategy optimisation at a traditional or Fintech lender.

• Passion for analytical problem-solving, with a strong track record in developing conceptual frameworks and technical execution. This will include the ability to personally conduct data-driven analysis and guide this work through others.

• Experience using Python is a plus. 

• Excellent understanding of the statistical techniques and machine learning methods used in credit risk analysis and modelling. Guiding the work of data scientists is an important part of this role.

• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and leadership skills.

• Strong commercial instincts.

• Experience of the German lending market, SME lending, and German language skills are all beneficial.

The salary

We expect to pay from €125,000 to €160,000 for this role, But, we’re open-minded, so definitely include your salary goals with your application. We routinely benchmark salaries against market rates, and run quarterly performance and salary reviews. 

The culture

At iwoca, we look to hire smart, passionate, humble individuals with a growth mindset. We prioritise a culture of learning, growth, and support, and invest in the professional development of our team members. 

We value thought and skill diversity, and encourage you to explore new areas of interest to help us innovate and improve our products and services.

Our friendly and inclusive environment, combined with our flexible work policies, ensures that you'll have the perfect balance between work and life, empowering you to thrive both personally and professionally.

The offices

We put a lot of effort into making iwoca a brilliant place to work:

• Offices in London, Leeds, Berlin and Frankfurt with plenty of drinks and snacks

• Events and clubs, like bingo, comedy nights, yoga classes, football, etc.

The benefits (depending on your location)

• Medical insurance from Vitality, including discounted gym membership.

• 25 days’ holiday, an extra day off for your birthday, and the option to buy or sell an additional 5 days of annual leave.

• Instant access to emotional and mental health support with our partner, Spill.

• Pension and share options.

• Generous maternity and paternity leave.

• A nursery tax benefit scheme to help you save money.

• Paid volunteering day to support your chosen charity.

• Unlimited unpaid leave. 

• One-month fully paid sabbatical after 4 years.

• Cycle-to-work scheme and electric car scheme.

• Two company retreats a year, we’ve been to France, Italy, Spain and further afield.

• Private GP service for you, your partner, and your dependents.

And to make sure we all keep learning, we offer:

• A learning and development budget for everyone.

• Company-wide talks with internal and external speakers.

• Access to learning platforms like Treehouse if you want to learn to code.