Head of Credit Risk

Job description

**About Abound** We’re redefining consumer lending in the UK, and beyond. Using advanced AI and Open Banking data, we make fair, affordable personal finance available to more people. While traditional lenders rely almost entirely on credit scores, we look at the full financial picture - how much you spend, and what you can afford to repay to build a deeper, more accurate understanding of each customer's unique financial situation. And we've shown it works at scale. We’ve issued over **£1.3bn** in loans directly to customers while delivering **market-leading credit performance** - for every 10 defaults the industry expects, we see only 3. We also reached profitability just 2.5 years after launch. Backed by **£2bn+** of funding from top-tier investors including Citi, GSR Ventures, and Deutsche Bank, we’re recognised as one of Europe’s fastest-growing fintechs (Sifted, CNBC). Now, we’re expanding into new markets and product lines - and we’re looking for ambitious people who want to learn fast, take ownership, and grow with us. **The Role** We are hiring a Head of Credit Risk and Reporting to support the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) in overseeing credit risk management across an expanding set of products, channels, and geographies. The role exists to ensure that credit and product risk is measured, monitored, and communicated in a consistent, decision-useful way as the business scales. This is a hands-on leadership role. While it is not a deep, hands-on data science position, it does require someone who is a doer as well as a coordinator – comfortable getting into the detail of MI, asking probing questions, and driving follow-up actions through to completion. The role spans both traditional credit risk and new product risks (for example, Section 75 exposure), working closely with product teams, data scientists, and senior management. **What you'll be doing** - Support the CRO in overseeing credit and product risk management across multiple products, channels, and geographies. - Own and oversee the completeness, accuracy, and clarity of credit risk management information (MI) across the business. - Define and maintain standardised credit risk reporting frameworks, metrics, and definitions to ensure consistency and comparability as the business scales. - Coordinate inputs from product, underwriting, and data science teams into a single, coherent cross-product risk narrative. - Provide clear, structured credit risk updates into Product Steering Committees and Monthly Product Forums. - Oversee the monitoring and reporting of key credit performance triggers and concentration metrics. - Ensure adherence to internally defined risk limits and externally defined triggers arising from funding arrangements. - Identify and assess risks arising from new products, features, or geographies, and ensure appropriate monitoring is in place. - Proactively identify emerging risks or concentrations and ensure timely escalation and remediation. - Lead programme management for audits, funding due diligence, and other external reviews. - Act as a key point of contact for funders, auditors, lawyers, and advisors on credit and product risk reporting. **Who You Are** - A rigorous, disciplined, and hands-on professional with a strong sense of ownership and accountability. - Comfortable operating in a scaling organisation where structure and coordination become increasingly important. - Technically fluent in credit risk concepts, portfolio metrics, concentration analysis, and performance monitoring. - Confident challenging data, assumptions, and narratives in a constructive, commercially grounded way. - Highly organised, with strong execution and stakeholder management skills. - Credible and composed when engaging with senior management and external counterparties. **Experience & Background** - Around 5 years’ experience in a numerate, analytical, or risk-focused role (e.g. credit risk, finance, consulting, audit, analytics, operations). - Experience across one or more consumer lending products such as Unsecured Personal Loans (UPL), BNPL, Mortgages, or Auto finance. - Experience producing, reviewing, or owning MI in a multi-product or multi-channel environment. - Familiarity with credit risk performance metrics, portfolio monitoring, concentration analysis, and performance triggers. - Experience working with internal risk limits and/or external covenants, triggers, or funding-related reporting. - Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex topics clearly to senior audiences. - Does not need to be a deep data scientist, but must be comfortable working closely with data scientists and getting into the detail where required. **Why Abound** - Take ownership of a critical role supporting Abound’s continued growth and expansion into new products and markets. - Work closely with the CRO, senior leadership, product teams, and external stakeholders. - Help shape scalable, best-in-class credit and product risk reporting and governance. - Operate in a high-trust role with real responsibility, visibility, and impact. **What we offer** - Everyone owns a piece of the company – equity. - Hybrid working with 3 days a week in the office. - 25 days’ holiday a year, plus 8 bank holidays. - 2 paid volunteering days per year. - One month paid sabbatical after 4 years. - Employee loan. - Free gym membership. - Team wellness budget to be active together – set up a yoga class, a tennis lesson or go bouldering.