Director, Credit Policy & Underwriting Strategy

Achieve • Chicago, CA

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

Achieve is a leading digital personal finance company. We help everyday people move from struggling to thriving by providing innovative, personalized financial solutions. By leveraging proprietary data and analytics, our solutions are tailored for each step of our member's financial journey to include personal loans, home equity loans, debt consolidation, financial tools and education. Every day, we get to help our members move their finances forward with care, compassion, and empathetic touch. We put people first and treat them like humans, not account numbers. Since 2002, Achieve has grown into one of the largest private consumer fintech unicorns in the U.S., with over $40B in enrollments for our industry-leading, tech-enabled debt resolution services business, and over $11Bn in personal and home loans originations via our banking-as-a-service partner. We are seeking a Director of Strategic Underwriting Guidance to provide dedicated strategic oversight of credit policy across Achieve Home Loans (AHL). The Director will drive process optimization, quality control, and robust credit boundaries across AHL; ensure credit strategy translates cleanly into actionable underwriting guidelines; integrate credit strategy with underwriting operations; support the new AHL Third-Party Origination (TPO) channel on credit policy; and own real-time monitoring of credit performance across the TPO channel. This role is ideal for a hands-on mortgage and home-lending credit leader who can hold a clear, objective view of credit risk while partnering closely with GMs, capital markets, and channel partners to execute it. They demonstrate a strong ability to lead sound credit policy change recommendations grounded in empirical analysis of credit performance data.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in mortgage or home-lending credit, underwriting, or credit policy, including authoring or owning underwriting guidelines.
• 5+ years of leadership experience across credit policy, underwriting, or quality control functions.
• Deep knowledge of consumer mortgage / home equity products (e.g., HELOC, home equity loans) and the underwriting lifecycle.
• Proven track record leading strategic transformation initiatives and cross-functional programs.
• Ability to translate complex analytical concepts into actionable business recommendations.
• Strong analytical, problem solving and communication skills.
• Strategic thinker with strong business acumen and executive presence.
• Strong stakeholder management skills across executive leadership, investors, regulators, and external partners.

Nice To Haves

• Experience standing up or separating a strategic credit-policy function from underwriting operations.
• Hands-on experience with Third-Party Origination (TPO) / wholesale or correspondent channels and the credit risks specific to them.
• Experience building real-time channel performance monitoring and early-warning frameworks.
• Background in fintech home lending or a high-growth mortgage environment.

Responsibilities

• Partner with key stakeholders to manage the formulation of strategic credit policy for AHL, maintaining objective and robust credit boundaries.
• Translate credit strategy into clear, actionable, and consistently applied underwriting guidelines.
• Maintain a single source of truth for underwriting guidelines, including version control, change governance, and clear communication of updates.
• Serve as the bridge between credit strategy/modeling and underwriting operations, ensuring strategy is operationally executable and that operational feedback informs strategy.
• Partner with underwriting leadership to optimize processes, reduce cycle time, and improve decision consistency without weakening credit boundaries.
• Support the AHL Third-Party Origination (TPO) channel on credit policy, ensuring broker and correspondent partners operate within Achieve's credit boundaries.
• Develop TPO-specific overlays, guidance, and communications, and serve as the credit-policy point of contact for the channel.
• Own real-time monitoring of TPO credit performance - early-payment default, exception and overlay trends, guideline adherence, and fraud signals - and trigger timely, well-reasoned policy responses.
• Partner with TPO/wholesale leadership and channel counterparties to remediate performance issues and tighten or adjust policy where needed.

Benefits

• 401 (k) with employer match
• Medical, dental, and vision with HSA and FSA options
• Competitive vacation and sick time off, as well as dedicated volunteer days
• Access to wellness support through Employee Assistance Program, physical and mental health wellness programs
• Pet care discounts for your furry family members
• Financial support in times of hardship with our Achieve Care Fund
• A safe place to connect and a commitment to diversity and inclusion through our six employee resource groups

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed