Manager, Underwriting

Job Description

Job Description

Job title: Manager, Underwriting

Reports to: VP, Underwriting

Department: Business Resource Group

Location: Remote

Grade: 17

About Priority Commerce: 

Priority Commerce is a leading financial technology company on a mission to deliver a personalized, easy-to-adopt financial toolset that accelerates cash flow and optimizes working capital for businesses. Our vision is to eliminate the barriers to unlocking revenue - empowering businesses to grow faster and operate smarter.

We achieve this through the Priority Commerce Engine, an innovative platform that combines payables, acquiring, and banking and treasury solutions. This unified approach allows businesses to streamline financial operations, reduce unnecessary costs, and uncover new revenue opportunities.

At Priority Commerce, we're driven by results. We expect our people to be known for results - bringing expertise, momentum, and relentless focus to every challenge, helping our clients and each other thrive.

About the Role:

As an Underwriting Manager, you will lead and develop a team of underwriters responsible for evaluating merchant credit and risk across a range of processing relationships, products, and risk profiles. You will provide direction, coaching, and oversight to ensure sound, consistent, and timely underwriting decisions while exercising independent judgment on significant risk and business matters.

You will oversee the application of underwriting policies, Card Brand requirements, and company risk standards, ensuring decisions appropriately balance business objectives with prudent risk management. You will serve as the escalation point for complex, high-volume, or high-risk accounts, independently evaluating risk exposure and determining appropriate actions, approval structures, and risk mitigants within established authority.

You will monitor underwriting quality, portfolio risk, and emerging trends, using financial, operational, and performance data to identify potential concerns and recommend appropriate risk-management actions. You will also partner with Sales, Operations, Risk, Compliance, and other stakeholders to resolve escalated matters and support effective execution of the organization's underwriting strategy.

As a subject-matter expert and leader, you will promote consistent application of underwriting standards, develop team capabilities, and contribute to the ongoing improvement of underwriting policies, procedures, controls, and processes.

Responsibilities: 

• Lead, manage, and develop the underwriting team through coaching, mentoring, performance management, training, and clear expectations, fostering consistent and sound risk-based decision making.

• Oversee merchant underwriting activities and risk exposure across products and processing relationships, exercising independent judgment to establish appropriate risk parameters and ensure decisions align with company policies, Card Brand requirements, and the organization’s risk appetite.

• Serve as the escalation point and decision authority for complex, high-volume, or high-risk accounts, evaluating financial, credit, processing, fraud, and operational risks and determining appropriate approval structures, reserves, ACH delays, and other risk mitigants.

• Monitor portfolio performance, underwriting quality, loss trends, and emerging risks; use data and analysis to identify concerns and recommend appropriate risk-management actions and process improvements.

• Ensure adherence to applicable Card Brand, KYC, AML, and company requirements and partner with Compliance, Risk, Operations, and other stakeholders to address significant risk, regulatory, or policy matters.

• Serve as a subject-matter expert and trusted advisor on underwriting, credit, payments, risk management, and financial analysis, providing guidance on policy interpretation, complex account structures, and significant risk decisions.

• Drive continuous improvement of underwriting policies, procedures, controls, and workflows while promoting consistency, efficiency, sound judgment, and effective risk management across the team.

• Oversee fraud-risk management within underwriting by ensuring effective identification, investigation, and escalation of potential fraud; evaluating fraud trends and portfolio data; establishing appropriate verification and control practices; and leveraging internal tools and third-party resources to reduce fraudulent account exposure.

What Success Looks Like:

Success in this role means leading a knowledgeable, capable, and accountable underwriting team that consistently applies company policies, procedures, Card Brand requirements, and risk standards across all products and processing relationships.

• The Manager has a strong understanding of how the organization’s products function and how each product’s characteristics affect underwriting, credit, fraud, and processing risk, and ensures the team applies that knowledge appropriately.

• Complex and escalated accounts are evaluated thoughtfully, with the Manager exercising independent judgment to make sound decisions and establish appropriate risk mitigants that align with the organization's risk appetite and business objectives.

• Portfolio risk, underwriting quality, loss trends, and emerging concerns are proactively monitored, with appropriate actions taken to manage exposure and address potential issues before they become significant.

• The underwriting team is well-trained, appropriately challenged, and increasingly capable of making independent decisions, while significant or complex matters are escalated appropriately and resolved efficiently.

• The Manager is recognized as a trusted subject-matter expert and strategic partner who provides sound guidance on underwriting, credit, payments, compliance, and risk-management matters.

• The underwriting team consistently identifies and appropriately addresses potential fraud, with effective verification practices, escalation procedures, and risk controls in place to detect emerging fraud patterns and prevent material fraudulent exposure.

Candidate Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and experience, with 10+ years of relevant experience in underwriting, credit, risk, payments, banking, or financial services, including management or leadership experience.

• Strong knowledge of merchant acquiring, payment processing, credit underwriting, financial statement analysis, fraud risk, and payment-related risk exposure.

• Demonstrated ability to assess financial, credit, operational, fraud, and processing risk and exercise sound independent judgment when making significant risk-based decisions.

• Strong understanding of risk-mitigation tools, including reserves, ACH delays, and other approval conditions, and the ability to determine appropriate controls based on risk exposure.

• Knowledge of Card Brand requirements, KYC/AML principles, underwriting policies, and applicable risk and compliance standards.

• Strong leadership, communication, coaching, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities and effectively handle escalated and sensitive matters.

• Strong analytical and data-driven decision-making skills, including proficiency with risk-management systems, underwriting tools, and data analysis.

• Ability to work effectively with Sales, Operations, Risk, Compliance, and other stakeholders while balancing business objectives with prudent risk management.

• Demonstrated ability to identify emerging risks, evaluate alternatives, develop practical solutions, and drive continuous improvement of underwriting practices and processes.