Principal, Risk Manager - Residential Real Estate

Apollo•New York, NY

About The Position

An indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Apollo Management Holdings, AASP Risk (AASP) manages the securitized products and structured finance assets sourced and serviced by ATLAS SP Partners and Apollo’s Asset Backed Lending business, serving as the dedicated risk management team. The Role: AASP is seeking a Principal to be the lead risk manager for the residential mortgage warehouse portfolio across all asset-backed ending activities, regardless of point of origination. He/she will be responsible for conducting both asset level and counterparty level credit reviews, evaluating and assessing fraud, reputational and collateral/security considerations, and for the continuous review and monitoring of residential mortgage finance exposures in the portfolio. Reporting to the co-heads of Asset Backed Finance Risk Management, this Principal will work closely with ATLAS and Apollo credit professionals and other risk leaders within the AASP Risk team as well as with clients and key partners. The co-heads of Risk will rely on this senior risk officer to own the end-to-end risk in the portfolio including analysis on transactions, highlighting risk concerns early and ongoing, challenging the deal teams, gaining the expertise in asset classes he/she may not have it in from people who do (utilizing the ecosystem of partners available), form an independent risk view, and write a succinct risk memo/analysis. This individual will be a self-sufficient risk manager, handling transactions in a strong and independent way; this includes delivering an informed view to the Risk Heads and other Atlas and Apollo risk seniors. This candidate will act as an important control function, protecting capital and assessing downside risks. The ideal candidate will have experience as a Credit Risk Officer in a decision-making role for mortgage and asset-backed financing transactions and is comfortable challenging the status quo and establishing guardrails the business can operate in. Product expertise is required for this role. Residential mortgage collateral includes but is not limited to agency, non-qualified mortgages, business purpose (or investor) loans, single family rental, HELOC and closed end seconds, mortgage servicing rights and servicer advances. The individual will review and assess new and existing transactions (warehouse facilities and whole loan pools), facility amendments and renewal requests and monitor the on-going credit quality of the portfolio. This individual will have strong knowledge of the market and be able to communicate informed views of product and client risks including strength of originators and aggressiveness of terms and structure.

Requirements

Strong subject matter knowledge of multiple asset classes in the consumer and commercial sectors, including unsecured consumer, renewables, credit cards, student loans. Exposure to more bespoke or less liquid asset classes (venture debt, SME lending, fund finance) is highly beneficial
Prior experience as an approver of credit
Experience underwriting Corporates from a fundamental credit perspective
Experience reviewing loan agreements
Prior experience and responsibility for critical decisions of significant financial impact and complex criteria is a main requirement
Ability to roll-up sleeves and work alongside 1LOD to underwrite highly structured warehouse (loan) facilities
Strong foundation in risk while also very solution-oriented with a thorough understanding of the commercial needs of a business, especially one in a growth stage, but know how to balance that with risk discipline and control
Strong analytical skills, multi-asset class experience, and an ability to build risk management tools to aid in governing the risk in the portfolio
Extensive financial analysis and modelling skills, expertise in credit risk management, and strong understanding of risk metrics/models/systems
Understanding of fundamental credit skills, ideally having spent time in a large bank or financial institution with structured credit training programs
Exceptional attention to detail
Prior experience and responsibility for critical decisions of significant financial impact and complex criteria
Must have exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal and be comfortable presenting prospective deals to investment committee(s)
Must be able to communicate complex risk-related concepts to both internal and external parties
Ability to incorporate and understand information from variety of sources to stay ahead of market/economic trends and evaluate the impact on the portfolio

Responsibilities

Underwrite risk in each transaction, including evaluating the financing structures, asset risk, the risk profile of the originators and servicers, reputational risks, collateral control risks, stress testing and analytics as well as gathering market intelligence
Accountable for making risk decisions; act like an investor to approve transactions within a delegated level of authority
Demonstrate an ability to challenge the business (sales/portfolio/structuring teams), substantiate support or dissent for a deal and where there is dissent, work with the deal team on structural improvements which might move a transaction from “no” to “maybe/yes”
Participate in the deal underwriting process from inception and be involved over the lifecycle of a transaction, with greater involvement should asset classes be underperforming, higher risk, less liquid, more esoteric, etc.
Work with Legal and the deal teams on the loan agreements to ensure that documents accurately reflect the deal structure, economic terms and asset waterfalls
Work closely with other control function partners including i) Legal, Due Diligence, and Compliance to escalate and review any reputational or franchise risk considerations including fraud and double pledging risk and ii) Treasury to evaluate any liability or liquidity considerations.
Present risk concerns and due diligence findings, make a risk recommendation and answer questions of Investment Committee members or other senior stakeholders
Produce documentation which includes thorough market, borrower, structure, and collateral analysis to support recommendation. This would include but not be limited to understanding and sensitizing stress testing analysis provided by the business and/or obtaining other market intelligence to support risk conclusions and considerations.

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