Chief Credit Officer, Specialty Finance

Chief Credit Officer

Specialty Finance / Small Business Working Capital

Location: McLean, VA 3-4x a week in office

Reports to: Chief Executive Officer

Employment Type: Full-Time

Position Overview:

We are seeking an experienced Chief Credit Officer to lead the credit strategy, risk management, underwriting standards, and portfolio oversight for a growing specialty finance platform focused on merchant cash advances, small business working capital, and other alternative lending solutions .

The Chief Credit Officer will be responsible for building and maintaining a disciplined credit framework that supports responsible growth while appropriately managing the unique risks associated with short-duration, cash-flow-based and asset-based small business financing.

This is a hands-on leadership role for a credit professional who combines deep small business specialty finance experience with strong analytical and people-management capabilities . The successful candidate will have extensive experience evaluating small businesses and specialty finance transactions, developing credit policies and underwriting criteria, managing credit risk across a portfolio, and leading a team of credit professionals.

The ideal candidate will bring a strong understanding of asset-based lending, cash-flow lending, merchant cash advances, small business credit risk, portfolio performance, and three-statement financial analysis and modeling .

Key Responsibilities:

Credit Strategy & Risk Management

• Develop and execute the company's overall credit risk strategy in alignment with growth, profitability, and risk-adjusted return objectives.
• Establish and continuously refine credit policies, underwriting standards, risk parameters, approval authorities, and exception guidelines.
• Evaluate the appropriate balance between credit quality, approval rates, pricing, term, structure, and portfolio growth .
• Identify emerging credit risks and proactively adjust underwriting policies and risk parameters in response to changes in portfolio performance, economic conditions, industry trends, and borrower behavior.
• Establish appropriate risk segmentation, exposure limits, concentration controls, and escalation procedures.
• Ensure credit decisions are supported by sound analysis, consistent underwriting standards, and appropriate documentation.

Small Business & Specialty Finance Underwriting

• Provide senior-level oversight of underwriting for small business working capital, merchant cash advance, revenue-based financing, asset-based lending, and other specialty finance products .
• Assess borrower creditworthiness through analysis of financial statements, business cash flows, bank activity, debt obligations, industry dynamics, and other relevant operating data.
• Evaluate the quality and sustainability of business cash flows and the ability of borrowers to support proposed financing obligations.
• Understand and appropriately assess the risks associated with asset-based lending , including collateral quality, advance rates, borrowing bases, liquidity, collateral monitoring, priority of claims, and recovery considerations.
• Review complex or higher-risk transactions and serve as the final escalation point for significant credit decisions.
• Develop and improve underwriting methodologies using both traditional financial analysis and alternative data.

Portfolio Management & Credit Performance

• Monitor portfolio performance and establish appropriate early-warning indicators, delinquency metrics, loss trends, roll rates, recoveries, and concentration reporting .
• Analyze portfolio performance by product, risk grade, industry, geography, origination channel, vintage, term, and other relevant dimensions.
• Work closely with senior management to identify deterioration in credit performance and implement corrective actions.
• Participate in portfolio strategy, credit risk forecasting, and loss provisioning.
• Develop feedback loops between portfolio performance and underwriting policy to continuously improve credit decisioning.
• Provide senior management and the Board with clear reporting and recommendations regarding portfolio risk and credit performance.

Financial Analysis & Modeling

• Perform and oversee three-statement financial analysis and modeling of small businesses and specialty finance opportunities.
• Analyze income statements, balance sheets, cash-flow statements, liquidity, leverage, working capital, debt service capacity, and business cash conversion.
• Build and review financial models used to evaluate creditworthiness, repayment capacity, transaction structure, and downside scenarios.
• Evaluate borrower performance under multiple operating and stress scenarios.
• Translate financial analysis into practical credit recommendations and risk-based decisions.

Team Leadership

• Lead, develop, and manage a credit organization of 8+ professionals , including underwriters, credit analysts, and/or portfolio management personnel.
• Establish clear performance standards, workflows, approval processes, and accountability across the credit function.
• Recruit, train, mentor, and develop high-performing credit professionals.
• Ensure consistency and quality of credit decisions across the organization.
• Foster a culture that combines disciplined risk management with commercially sound decision-making .

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner closely with the CEO, CFO, COO, Sales, Operations, Collections, and other senior leaders to align credit strategy with the company's broader objectives.
• Work with Sales and Business Development to ensure growth initiatives remain consistent with credit appetite and risk parameters.
• Collaborate with Operations and Collections to identify portfolio trends and improve credit outcomes.
• Communicate complex credit issues clearly to both credit professionals and non-credit executives.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree completed in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, or a related field.
• 10+ years of credit risk management, underwriting, or credit leadership experience , with significant experience in small business specialty finance, alternative lending, merchant cash advance, working capital finance, asset-based lending, or a closely related environment .
• Experience managing a credit organization .
• Strong understanding of small business credit risk and the unique characteristics of specialty finance lending.
• Demonstrated understanding of asset-based lending and collateral-related credit risk .
• Strong knowledge of financial statement analysis and the ability to independently interpret business financial performance.
• Demonstrated proficiency in three-statement financial modeling .
• Experience developing, implementing, or materially influencing credit policies, underwriting guidelines, and risk-management frameworks.
• Strong analytical and quantitative skills with the ability to translate data and financial analysis into actionable credit decisions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate credit risk and recommendations to senior executives.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with revenue-based financing, small business working capital, factoring, asset-based lending, or other specialty finance products .
• Experience with portfolio management , including monitoring portfolio performance, vintage analysis, delinquency, defaults, losses, recoveries, and concentration risk.
• Experience developing risk-based pricing, credit scoring, risk segmentation, or automated underwriting strategies.
• Experience managing credit policy changes based on portfolio performance and loss trends.
• Experience working in a high-growth specialty finance environment.
• MBA, CFA, CPA, or other advanced financial/credit designation is a plus.

Leadership Profile:

The successful candidate will be a commercially minded credit leader who understands that effective specialty finance credit management is not simply about saying "no." They will be able to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable risk, structure transactions appropriately, and create underwriting processes that enable the company to grow while protecting portfolio quality.

The ideal candidate is:

• Analytical and intellectually rigorous , with strong financial and credit judgment.
• Decisive , with the ability to make difficult credit decisions in a fast-paced environment.
• Commercially pragmatic , balancing risk management with the realities of serving small businesses.
• Data-driven , using portfolio performance and empirical results to continuously improve credit strategy.
• Hands-on , with the technical ability to personally evaluate complex transactions and financial models.
• An effective people leader , capable of building and developing a high-performing credit organization.
• Strategic , able to build a scalable credit infrastructure as the company grows.