YouLend

Revenue-based financing for ecommerce merchants

Head of Credit & Underwriting

Retail & Commercial BankingUpdated on Nov 13

Full-timeBerlin, Germany€100k - €150k /yrIn-person

About the Job

Requirements

Significant experience in underwriting, credit risk, or lending, ideally within fintech, banking, or financial services.
Strong understanding of credit risk in Germany and/or continental Europe.
Proven people leadership experience, ideally including leading managers or Team Leaders.
Strong commercial judgment and understanding of risk-adjusted returns.
A data-driven approach and ability to make decisions using imperfect information.
Experience driving operational and organizational change.
German proficiency at B2+ and professional English proficiency are required for regular communication with German-speaking and international stakeholders.

Responsibilities

Build, lead, and scale the EU underwriting function in Berlin, including hiring and developing Team Leaders and underwriters.
Own underwriting performance across decision quality, approval rates, turnaround times, credit losses, and risk-adjusted returns.
Participate actively in Credit Committee and serve as a senior escalation point for complex credit decisions.
Partner with Credit Risk to implement and improve credit policies, risk models, and underwriting strategies.
Use portfolio and operational data to identify risks, bottlenecks, and opportunities to improve performance.
Establish strong quality controls, training, and underwriting standards across the team.
Partner with Compliance, Capital Markets, Commercial, and Tech to improve underwriting tools and processes.
Support the launch of new products, partners, and European markets.

Desired Qualifications

SME or business lending experience.
Embedded finance or Merchant Cash Advance experience.
Experience with SQL, Python, R, or similar analytical tools.
Experience scaling underwriting across multiple European markets.

YouLend is hiring a Head of Underwriting, EU to build and lead our European underwriting function across nine markets, with Germany our fastest-growing market.

You will scale our Berlin underwriting team to 25+ people, develop Team Leaders, and own underwriting performance across Credit Eligibility, Credit Decisions and KYC/KYB.

This is a senior leadership role combining credit risk, people leadership, operational excellence and commercial decision-making. You will balance approval and conversion rates with credit losses and risk-adjusted returns, while helping shape YouLend's underwriting strategy and capabilities across Europe.

Build, lead and scale the EU underwriting function in Berlin, including hiring and developing Team Leaders and underwriters.
Own underwriting performance across decision quality, approval rates, turnaround times, credit losses and risk-adjusted returns.
Play an active role in Credit Committee and act as a senior escalation point for complex credit decisions.
Partner with Credit Risk to implement and improve credit policies, risk models and underwriting strategies.
Use portfolio and operational data to identify risks, bottlenecks and opportunities to improve performance.
Establish strong quality controls, training and underwriting standards across the team.
Partner with Compliance, Capital Markets, Commercial and Tech to improve underwriting tools and processes.
Support the launch of new products, partners and European markets.

Significant experience in underwriting, credit risk or lending, ideally within fintech, banking or financial services.
Strong understanding of credit risk in Germany and/or continental Europe.
Proven people leadership experience, ideally including leading managers or Team Leaders.
Strong commercial judgement and understanding of risk-adjusted returns.
Data-driven approach with the ability to make decisions using imperfect information.
Experience driving operational and organisational change.
Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
German (B2+) and professional English are required for regular communication with German-speaking and international stakeholders.

Nice to Have

SME or business lending experience.
Embedded finance or Merchant Cash Advance experience.
Experience with SQL, Python, R or similar analytical tools.
Experience scaling underwriting across multiple European markets.

About the Company

YouLend

Revenue-based financing for ecommerce merchants

YouLend provides revenue-based financing to merchants, letting businesses access funding tied to their sales. Funds are disbursed quickly (offers often the same day, funds next day) and repayments are automatically deducted as a fixed percentage of ongoing sales. The platform supports no-code and API integrations, making it easy to connect and go live, with real-time payouts that don’t wait for acquirer settlements. Its goal is to help merchants grow by offering fast, flexible funding that aligns with revenue and avoids traditional debt payments.

Company size: 501-1,000
Company stage: Not listed
Total funding: Not listed
Headquarters: London, United Kingdom
Founded: 2015

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