Credit Risk Manager

Credit Risk Manager

Remote

We’re Perenna, a digital mortgage bank that will revolutionise the UK mortgage market. We offer flexible 30-year fixed rate mortgages providing full payment certainty and protecting borrowers against interest rate rises.

This is the most exciting point in our history (so far!) as we work towards the launch of our market changing mortgage products and scale our bank up to service customers. To support our growth and expansion, we’re looking for an experienced Credit Risk Manager who will play an influential role in our approach to Credit Risk management.

What you’ll be doing.

Reporting to the Head of Credit Risk, you’ll provide support and challenge to the first line, as well as technical expertise in the evolution of Perenna’s credit strategy incorporating application scorecards, decisioning rules, lending policy, affordability models and portfolio reporting. This is a hands-on role with significant exposure to senior management and gives you the opportunity to help in shaping Perenna’s approach to managing Credit Risk.

Here’s what you’ll do:

• Manage Credit Risk– Using your mortgage market experience, you’ll challenge and shape Mortgage Lending Policy (including valuations strategy) and our approach to responsible lending. You’ll assess the quantification methods and models that are developed and used by the first line for suitability, adequacy and compliance with Risk Policy requirements. You’ll also provide technical support for the evolution and optimisation of credit decisioning rules and techniques and deputise for the Head of Credit Risk when required.
• Support the 1st Line Credit Risk activities – You’ll provide support to Underwriting and the Commercial teams in the first line to help shape and challenge policy and exceptions. You’ll be reviewing and challenging risk management approaches developed and operated by the first line., testing and confirming the operation of the first line’s risk systems and control, as part of continual assurance activities and specialist investigations.
• Develop and enhance our MI – You’ll develop and produce detailed risk quantifications, analyses, monitoring, reporting and management information, for senior management and Executive and Board committees.
• Promote and enhance our risk culture – Representing the Risk team in strategic project and business change initiatives, you’ll influence employee education on risk related matters – to assist in promoting and enhancing a strong Bank-wide risk culture, particularly in Credit Risk.

Your skills and experience.

We want to work with people who share a passion for our mission, to change the way that mortgages work for people in the UK, and who want to be part of an early-stage company that is building as we grow. Here are the skills and experiences you could bring to Perenna that would make a great impact:

• A strong technical capability in Credit Risk, ideally gained in a similar role, where you’ve developed a proven track record in creating and maintaining credit policies. You’ll have a strong ability to interpret complex data into clear Credit Risk proposals and to oversee their implementation by the first line. Experience of Credit Risk Committees and decision-making governance would help you hit the ground running.
• Deep understanding of mortgage lending, gained from time spent in other mortgage lenders. You’ll be very familiar with the regulatory requirements relating to UK retail banks (e.g., MCOB). You might have spent time in other mortgage lending roles previously; experience gained as an underwriter, or from other roles in mortgage lending e.g., Collections) would be a strong advantage.
• Highly developed analytical, methodical, and logical capability, with comprehensive skills in risk modelling and reporting software, applications and analytics tools – working effectively with SAS, Python, R, SQL, VBA, Power BI etc. will be important in this role.
• A delivery focussed approach to your work. Your excellent planning and organisational skills allow you to manage multiple streams of works simultaneously, and you know how to get things done in a project or programme of wider change.
• Exceptional communication strengths, able to work collaboratively with peers in other functions, and able to inspire and influence colleagues with risk management agendas and engage effectively with groups and on a one-to-one basis.

We are positive, energetic, and focussed as a team, and we enjoy finding pragmatic ways to do new things that change the status quo. We value transparency and collaboration, and we like to own outcomes but share successes. If these are the kind of behaviours that you value in your colleagues, you will enjoy the pace and style of work we do here. It’s a dynamic place to work – there are fewer than 80 people here at Perenna today, and everyone gets stuck in to whatever needs to be done to achieve our goals.

Rewards & Benefits at Perenna

We are still a young company raising capital through investment, so we haven’t finished adding to our benefits package yet. We decided to prioritise the most important things for our people first, a good salary, a generous pension and good life and health benefits. Here’s what’s on offer:

• A base salary in the region of £70,000 to £80,000
• 30 days of annual leave, with Public Holidays on top.
• 10% company contribution to your pension (you put in 5%)
• Fully comprehensive private healthcare cover for you and your family. Our plan includes cancer cover and mental healthcare, access to a GP 24/7 and additional wellbeing benefits. You pay no contributions to any healthcare cover, just tax on the benefit in kind through payroll each month (no P11Ds to worry about).
• Security for life events through our Income Protection Scheme (if you’re incapacitated and can’t work) and our Life Assurance Plan (worth 8 times your salary).
• We offer support through our confidential Employee Assistance Programme whenever you need it, and access to fully trained Mental Health First Aiders across the company.
• Commitment to your development, with access to training and learning opportunities to support your growth and access to thousands of free to use courses through our on-demand learning platform.
• Cycle To Work bike loan scheme (salary sacrifice)
• Electric Vehicle lease scheme (salary sacrifice)

Our roles are hybrid. This means although we don’t expect you to be in the office regularly, there are some things that are just better done together – in-person team training, collaborating on new processes and improvement to how we do things, informal chats and in-person get togethers to explore new things or get a wider perspective on what’s going on. We want to make the balance work between working at home and at the office that best enables efficiency, connection and collaboration.

Things you should know.

Our selection processes are quick, but thorough. After a short initial chat to get some extra information about you, you'll have 2 more structured interviews, but we won’t hang around, and if you aren’t successful, we’ll make sure you get feedback.

We're a regulated bank, so if you're successful, our pre-employment process will include ID verification, a DBS records check, adverse credit checks (not scoring) and employment history referencing before your start date is confirmed.

All applicants need to be fully eligible to work in the UK without any restrictions. We can't support Visa sponsorship.

Things that matter to us all.

The fantastic people we have here at Perenna come from a very wide range of backgrounds and communities, but we all share the same belief that mortgages should be better, and we all want to make that happen together. We’re passionate and proud of our unique proposition, our products and our mission. We collaborate and we support each other, and our culture is inclusive and open. Diversity of all kinds is valued and respected here, and whatever your background, your voice will be heard. That’s not just because it’s the right thing to do – we believe our diversity makes us better for our customers and helps us think big about our goals.

If you need any accommodation or adjustment to participate in our selection process, please let us know, and we’ll make it happen.