VP of Risk

About us 

Liberis is on a mission to supercharge the power of small businesses all over the world - delivering the financial products they need to grow through a network of global partners.  

Before all else, Liberis is a technology company, connecting finance with small businesses. 

We use data to help partners understand their customers’ real time needs and tech to offer tailor-made funding and financial products. Empowering small businesses to grow and keep their independent spirit alive is central to our vision. 

Up to now we have funded almost 40,000 small businesses with over $1.5bn - but we believe there is much more to be done.  

The team

The Risk team is central to Liberis’ mission of empowering small businesses globally with flexible funding.

As VP of Risk, you will lead the Credit Analytics, Underwriting, Fraud and Collection teams. The team is responsible for setting the global credit risk strategy, collaborating with the Product and Tech teams to enable automated credit underwriting, developing strategies to combat fraud, and supporting to negotiate the financing facilities, constraints and policies.

You will lead a team of c. [30] people, with the existing European Director of Risk reporting to you. The wider team includes an underwriting team (8 members across UK, US and Europe), a Credit Analytics team (6 members) and a Collections team (15 members).

The role

As the VP of Risk, you will join the senior leadership team and play a key role in shaping and executing the global risk strategy across the entire lifecycle of a customer, from new customer originations, in-life management and renewal customers.

The VP of Risk is responsible for building robust credit, fraud, and compliance frameworks, ensuring that we continue to deliver innovative and scalable financing solutions to SMEs. This role requires a data-driven, hands-on leader who thrives on detail while maintaining a global strategic view across 14 countries, enabling Liberis to expand sustainably across geographies and products.

You will run the monthly Credit Risk Committee for the board, manage external credit advisors, and monitor and report on a daily, weekly and monthly basis Liberis’ risk position across all our countries, partners and financing facilities.

What you'll be doing

• Define and execute Liberis’ global risk management strategy, ensuring alignment with growth objectives and risk appetite.
• Partner with the data science team to develop and optimise credit models using advanced analytics, machine learning, and emerging data sources.
• Monitor and steer the performance of global credit portfolios, balancing risk mitigation with growth objectives.
• Take full accountability for the oversight, allocation, and management of Liberis’ risk budget, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives and regulatory requirements.
• Shape risk policies and processes to support Liberis’ embedded finance solutions, ensuring seamless integration into partner ecosystems.
• Build and oversee fraud prevention frameworks and compliance policies to safeguard Liberis’ customers and reputation.
• Collaborate closely with Product, Commercial, and Technology teams to embed risk management into product development and partner solutions.
• Foster a culture of transparency and collaboration between Risk, Product, and Tech teams, ensuring mutual understanding of goals and clear communication of model assumptions, policies, and evaluation frameworks.
• Partner with the data science team to develop and optimise credit models using advanced analytics, machine learning, and emerging data sources.
• Help define and refine the key requirements for the product design and market positioning, specifically around the data capture and credit processing approach for all our markets.
• Work closely with the Capital Markets team to secure funding by establishing confidence in our credit risk assessments and risk management framework.
• Provide clear, actionable insights into risk strategies and portfolio performance insights internal teams, the Board, and external stakeholders such as capital markets and investors.
• Support the collections and recovery team with data driven insight and collections strategies.

What we think you'll need

• Deep expertise in specifically SME credit risk management within embedded finance or innovative lending environments.
• Ability to lead and develop a high-performing risk team across multiple disciplines and geographies, prioritise projects and manage multiple internal and external stakeholders, creating alignment over the longer-term vision of our funding products.
• Proven experience collaborating with Product, Tech and Data Science teams to design, build and scale credit models and decisioning systems.
• Ability to simplify complex challenges into clear, actionable strategies for cross functional teams.
• Exceptional leadership and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to influence diverse groups and secure alignment on strategic goals.
• Hands-on experience with KYC, AML, and compliance frameworks in a global context.
• Demonstrated success in leveraging innovative data sources and automation to drive risk-adjusted portfolio growth.

What happens next?

Think this sounds like the right next move for you? Or if you’re not completely confident that you fit our exact criteria, apply anyway and we can arrange a call to see if the role is fit for you. Humility is a wonderful thing, and we are interested in hearing about what you can add to Liberis!

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