Small Business Banking Credit Oversight Lead

The role:

As the Small Business Banking Credit Oversight Lead, you will drive independent oversight of the Bank's small business credit portfolio. In this role, you will ensure credit strategies, underwriting standards, portfolio performance, and risk management practices align with the Bank's risk appetite and regulatory requirements. Serving as a strategic advisor and credible challenger to senior leadership, you will proactively identify emerging risks, influence sound lending decisions, and champion a strong risk culture—all while maintaining second-line independence. 

What you’ll do: 

• Provide End-to-End Oversight: Drive independent second-line risk oversight across the entire small business credit lifecycle, including originations, underwriting, servicing, and collections.
• Evaluate & Challenge Business Initiatives: Independently assess credit strategies, pricing, underwriting standards, and new products while providing credible challenge to first-line business partners with data driven analysis supporting risk and return. 
• Monitor Portfolio Health: Track credit quality, loss performance, and key risk indicators (KRIs) to proactively flag areas requiring executive intervention.
• Identify Emerging Threats: Lead portfolio-level risk assessments to uncover emerging credit trends, risk concentration, operational, and macroeconomic trends.
• Advise Senior Leadership: Present independent risk findings, objective opinions, and actionable recommendations to executive leadership and oversight committees.
• Champion Risk Frameworks: Continuously refine second-line risk assessment, monitoring, and reporting tools to keep pace with industry standards.
• Support Regulatory Compliance: Serve as the second-line subject matter expert during regulatory examinations and internal risk audits.

What you’ll need:

• Experience: 10+ years of credit risk management, loan review, commercial/small business underwriting, or internal audit experience in a financial institution.
• Domain Knowledge: Expert knowledge of small business lending, commercial underwriting standards, credit policy, and regulatory expectations.
• Key Skills: Outstanding executive-level communication, quantitative and qualitative analytical skills (from raw data mining and validation to strategic insight), and senior stakeholder management capabilities.
• Risk Perspective: Proven experience evaluating credit strategies, portfolio health, and risk appetite limits from an independent second-line or oversight perspective.
• Executive Influence: Strong ability to deliver credible challenge and guide senior leadership decisions using data-backed risk analysis.

What Success Looks Like:

• Robust Oversight: Fortifies second-line oversight of the Small Business Lending portfolio by driving proactive risk identification and delivering decisive, timely challenge.
• Strategic Influence: Shapes and optimizes underwriting strategies, portfolio management frameworks, and credit governance to support sustainable lending.
• Forward-Looking Insights: Uncovers emerging risk trends to deliver actionable intelligence that guides sound executive and risk-committee decisions.
• Balanced Collaboration: Champions a collaborative partnership with first-line business leaders while preserving uncompromising independent risk judgment.
• Scalable Growth: Establishes a forward-looking risk framework that enables responsible, profitable expansion of the Small Business Lending business.