Head of Underwriting

Head of Underwriting

Department: Credit Operations (US)

Employment Type: Permanent

Location: Atlanta

Description

About Us

YouLend is a rapidly growing FinTech that is the preferred embedded financing platform for many of the world's leading e-commerce platforms, tech companies, and Payment Service Providers. Our software platform enables our partners to extend their value proposition by offering flexible financing products in their own branding, to their merchant base, without capital at risk. We are owned by the leading Private Equity company, EQT, and have grown +100% year-on-year since 2020.


We operate in more than 10 countries with offices in Atlanta (US), London (UK), Berline (DE) servicing our partners, including eBay, Amazon, GrubHub, Shopify, and Stripe.

The Role

YouLend is hiring a risk-first Head of Underwriting to lead our US underwriting function. The underwriting team is a core part of the YouLend Production Line and is responsible for approving and declining financing applications, deciding appropriate exposure limits, and pricing deals.

In this senior leadership role, you will take full ownership of scaling and managing the underwriting team based in our Atlanta office (25+ people expected within 12 months), while also developing and shaping the US risk strategy to enhance our underwriting processes and capabilities.

Your primary objective is to ensure that customers are served well (as measured through speed and quality of decisioning financing applications), whilst achieving high approval rates and low loss rates. You and your Team Leaders will be responsible for hiring, training and developing current and prospective team members to meet business objectives. While operational excellence is crucial to your success, your role is targeted at enhancing our underwriting process and capabilities to optimise YouLend's returns in US - often in cross-team collaboration with the global Credit Risk, Capital Markets and Product teams. You will establish yourself as a trusted leader, balancing growth with risk-adjusted returns (not just approvals). You will be expected to play an active role in our Credit Committees, monitor performance of YouLend's portfolio, and use data to proactively identify and propose improvements to our underwriting capabilities and tools.

Key Responsibilities

Responsibilities:

• Be at the forefront of building an independent underwriting function in US, balancing growth with risk-adjusted returns (not just approvals) - bridging market standards with the best of YouLend
• This includes developing Team Leaders who can support you in the day-to- day management of the underwriting team (25+ people expected within 12 months)
• Play an active role in Credit Committee, acting as a trusted expert in your field
• Own end-to-end performance: Manage the implementation of global Credit Risk guidance, analyzing bottlenecks and delivering strategies to increase adoption
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (e.g. Credit Risk, Compliance, Capital Markets, Product and Commercial) to continuously optimize underwriting tools, processes, and policies. Use data to proactively identify, propose and execute solutions to bridge policy gaps and adjust Credit Risk models, aimed at improving efficiency or returns
• Establish quality control measures to maintain high standards of accuracy and consistency across teams, including regular audits to verify adherence to internal policies and processes
• Hire and develop managers and individual underwriters alike, cemented in scalable training infrastructure
• Help take new products, partners, and markets from zero to one with the appropriate conversion-risk trade-off
• Act as a change leader, implementing improvements quickly and effectively and embedding them sustainably within the teams - with minimal disruption to day-to-day operations

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

The ideal candidate will have the following skillset:

• 3+ years' direct experience with underwriting or risk. Ideally, working as a senior stakeholder in a growing FinTech company, in the financial services sector or at a bank
• A strong understanding of credit risk across the US, coupled with a commercial mindset
• A strong track-record of managing people (ideally 10+) and mentoring your direct reports. Ideally, you also have experience in managing managers
• Hands-on mentality: You are proactive, act with urgency, drive projects forward, remove obstacles, and consistently implement solutions
• You take responsibility for outcomes, not tasks, and drive projects to completion without supervision
• You are data-driven, comfortable in numbers, and able to make decisions with imperfect information
• Successful track-record of achieving ambitious goals
• Strong change management skills and experience in managing change processes
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Desirable skills:

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with experience working with large datasets (e.g. SQL, Python, R)
• Exposure to SME financing

Benefits

Why join YouLend?

• YouLend is backed by EQT, one of the world's leading private equity firms
• YouLend is scaling rapidly across North America, with some exciting brands launching imminently
• Clear path for progression as the US business scales
• Award-Winning Workplace: YouLend has been recognized as one of the "Best Places to Work in 2024 and 2025" by the Sunday Times for being a supportive, diverse, and rewarding workplace.
• Award-Winning Fintech: YouLend has been recognized as a "Top 250 Fintech Worldwide" company by CNBC.

It's just getting fun:

• We have developed powerful solutions, won some significant partnerships, and are growing at a rapid pace.
• But the global opportunity is still massive, and YouLend is a raw organisation where we are only just getting started.

Lots of upsides:

• High-growth (>100% growth during 2025), so clear outlook to compensation (bonus or share option appreciation) and career growth (through growth with business).
• Well-capitalized with supportive private equity backing.
• Part of Banking Circle Group with a fully licensed Luxembourg bank, which can provide a balance sheet and support European expansion in otherwise complex regulated markets.

Motivating work environment:

• A high-quality team that pushes each other to succeed through direct feedback and aligned incentives.
• Strong and transparent team culture, we have each other's backs.
• Independent work environment where results matter.
• Data-driven culture and emphasis on speed (anti-red tape).

We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes:

• Health Care Coverage. Youlend covers 80%; employee contribution is 20% of the premium.
• Medical Plan (medical insurance and prescription drug coverage)- Choice of 5 different plans through United Healthcare.
• Dental plan coverage
• Vision plan coverage
• Benefits can be for: Employee only; Employee & Spouse; Employee & Child; Employee & Family
• Retirement - 401K match. Employee match $1 for $1 up to 5% of salary.
• Basic Life & AD&D Insurance.
• International travel insurance covered if traveling abroad for work purposes.
• Paid Time Off (PTO)- 20 working days (4 weeks) + US public holidays
• Paid Office Parking

At YouLend, we champion diversity and embrace equal opportunity employment practices. Our hiring, transfer, and promotion decisions are exclusively based on qualifications, merit, and business requirements, free from any discrimination based on race, gender, age, disability, religion, nationality, or any other protected basis under applicable law.