Head of Underwriting

ACCION OPPORTUNITY FUND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

5d

About The Position

Reporting to the Chief Credit Officer, the Head of Underwriting is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day underwriting operations, managing the Underwriting team, and ensuring consistent application of credit policy. The Head of Underwriting will assess creditworthiness of applicants to support loan growth and mitigate risk and will partner with VP of Credit Risk & Policy to ensure scoring models are appropriately serving AOF’s target customers and aligned with internal and external credit environments.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, Accounting, or Business Administration, or equivalent experience. Master’s degree in quantitative field is preferred.
• 7+ years of experience in credit analysis, underwriting, and risk management, with a meaningful portion of that experience in small business asset based lending including SBA loans.
• 3+ years of experience managing or leading a team of underwriters, preferably in small business or commercial lending.
• Strong working knowledge of the principles of credit, market, liquidity, strategic, operational and compliance, and reputational risks
• Knowledge and understanding of lending/SBA regulations and strong attention to compliance and controls.
• Familiarity with commercial credit profit and loss drivers and their impact on portfolio performance
• Proven ability to lead, manager, and develop a team
• Ability to collaborate with internal partners to communicate and execute on organizational goals
• Experience identifying and implementing process improvements that positively impact business operations, performance, and client experience

Nice To Haves

• MBA/Masters preferred
• Experience in federal and state loan programs such as SBA, and SSBCI

Responsibilities

• Manage commercial Underwriting policies and processes for asset based trucking, equipment and other small business loans across a variety of industries, products, channels, and collateral situations utilizing financial spreading and cash flow analyses, ratio analyses, personal and business credit reports, and other factors to decision deals in a timely and accurate manner.
• Continuously improve AOF’s loan underwriting process by balancing algorithms, scorecards, and automated criteria with appropriate human judgment, with the goal of delivering a smooth, predictable, and borrower-friendly experience.
• Oversee execution of the underwriting and credit process from credit decisioning to funding the loans.
• Lead asset-based underwriting across equipment finance and commercial vehicle/trucking portfolios, including evaluation of collateral quality, equipment valuations, loan-to-value analysis, and residual value risk to ensure sound credit decisions across secured lending products.
• Partner with the VP, Credit Risk & Policy to continuously improve the end-to-end credit approval process and establish best practices that deliver expected portfolio performance and impact results.
• Manage and develop a team of Underwriters, fostering a culture of credit excellence, clear risk articulation, and consistent application of credit policy.
• Support a culture of talent development aligned to the organization’s strategy and goals.
• Support training of Sales and Document Verification teams on credit risk, underwriting processes, and policies to enable a smooth and efficient operation.
• Collaborate with Operations, Product, Sales, Data, Engineering, and Compliance teams to identify needs and contribute to solutions that support organizational goals.
• Establish and monitor SLAs for the underwriting team, maintaining consistent and proactive communication with Sales teams on queue status, progress, and issues.

Benefits

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience.
• An environment that values work-life balance and monthly remote work reimbursements.
• 100% company-funded Medical, Dental, Vision, Life & Disability coverage for employees (Based upon your plan selection). 90% company-funded dependent coverage (Based upon your plan selection) as well as Flexible Spending Accounts.
• Voluntary benefits with payroll deduction for Supplemental Life & AD&D insurance and legal plans.
• Tax deferred & Roth 403(b) Retirement Plan with employer match.
• Unlimited paid vacation days, 12 paid holidays, 1 floating paid holiday, 10 Sick days, and paid parental leave.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Number of Employees: 1-10 employees