Job Summary
We are seeking a Head of Credit & Portfolio for our customer a senior professional who will own and manage the entire lifecycle of the financing portfolio. This role is responsible for end-to-end portfolio performance, including growth, risk control, collections, profitability, funding optimization, and regulatory compliance. The incumbent will act as the primary credit decision authority, ensuring sustainable and scalable fintech lending operations. The ideal candidate will have strong expertise in credit risk and underwriting, hands-on experience in collections within a lending environment, and a proven track record in portfolio management.
Responsibilities
- Portfolio Performance & Risk Management: Own end-to-end portfolio performance across growth, yield, risk, and profitability while monitoring key delinquency metrics (PAR30/60/90), defaults, recoveries, and loss ratios.
- Collections & Recovery Management: Manage exposure limits, segmentation, and risk-based pricing, and implement early-warning and default-prevention mechanisms to protect portfolio quality.
- Design and implement end-to-end collections and recovery strategies (soft, hard, legal), including dunning cycles, escalation policies, restructuring frameworks, and settlement decisions.
- Oversee overdue portfolio management, coordinate with legal teams for enforcement actions, define write-off and recovery procedures, and track collection performance against recovery KPI.
- Funding, Yield & Cost Optimization: Optimize cost of funds and lending unit economics by balancing insurance coverage, expected credit loss, pricing, margins, and overall profitability.
- Monitor borrowing base and facility utilization, and collaborate with finance to ensure adequate yield and sustainable portfolio returns.
- Bank & Institutional Relationships: Manage relationships with banks, lenders, and institutional funding partners, including negotiating financing facilities, warehouse lines, and structured programs.
- Present portfolio performance to lenders and investors while maintaining reporting obligations and stakeholder confidence.
- Regulatory & Compliance Oversight: Ensure adherence to UAE financial regulations and lender requirements, including AML/KYC alignment with the Compliance & Risk function.
- Support credit governance (approval matrices, credit committees) and oversee audits, due diligence, and regulatory reporting.
Qualifications
- 8-15 years experience in Banking, SME Lending, Trade Finance or Fintech Lending.
- Strong background in credit risk, underwriting and portfolio management.
- Experience managing collections or recoveries in a lending environment. Dealing with institutional lenders or credit insurers.
- UAE banking or fintech experience preferred
- Strong expertise in credit risk assessment, underwriting, portfolio analytics, and financial modelling.
- Experience in collections and recovery management, regulatory compliance, and lender/stakeholder negotiations.
