Credit Risk Lead

At Cardless, we’re building a credit card and loyalty platform that consumer businesses use to engage their customers. We’ve launched 14 credit cards, including for Alibaba and Qatar Airways. We help businesses bring imaginative card programs to life, and have pioneered technology to embed credit card features natively into their products.

We value curiosity, humility, and intensity — we move fast and take ownership. This is a place where a motivated, resourceful individual can have an enormous impact on our trajectory. We're headquartered in San Francisco, and have raised about $90M in equity funding from top venture capital firms and angels.

About the Job

The

Credit Risk Lead

at Cardless will oversee credit risk management across all our partner brands. This includes leading initiatives around originations (such as credit policy, initial line assignment, and risk‑based pricing), account management (e.g., CLI, CLD, Authorization), collections strategies, reporting, loss forecasting, and advanced analytics. In this role, you will develop and implement tools to scale risk management processes as we grow our partnerships. A strong sense of responsibility is key : you will foster open communication, address concerns proactively, and ensure adherence to policies and procedures. Additionally, you'll align with Cardless' risk appetite while balancing customer experience and operational objectives. As the company scales, you will be accountable for identifying, managing, and reporting risks across all areas of the business.

Responsibilities

Lead the development and execution of credit risk strategies for both new and existing brand partners.

Conduct advanced analytics, including customer segmentation, optimization, predictive analytics, and machine learning, to manage risk and detect fraud.

Expand the data used in credit decisioning by leveraging proprietary risk models and evaluating third‑party data sources.

Build and maintain automated dashboards to track key performance indicators (KPIs) around originations and portfolio performance, presenting insights to senior management.

Design and execute A / B tests to evaluate new strategies, balancing product performance with customer and partner satisfaction.

Collaborate with the Compliance team to ensure all credit risk strategies align with fair lending regulations and principles.

Develop and maintain loss forecasting models to predict charge‑offs and recovery rates across different delinquency stages.

Develop and maintain comprehensive Credit Policy manuals and underwriting procedures.

Partner closely with Engineering, Product, and Operations teams to assess operational feasibility and launch MVPs, iterating quickly based on performance.

Requirements

Bachelor's or Master’s degree in a STEM field or Economics, with a focus on data‑driven problem solving (preferred).

7+ years of experience in credit risk within the consumer credit industry.

4+ years of hands‑on experience using R, Python, SAS, and SQL to analyze large, complex datasets.

2+ years of experience in quantitative analysis within a fintech startup.

Strong knowledge of the consumer credit landscape and familiarity with fair lending regulations such as ECOA, FCRA, and TILA.

Proficiency with BI / data visualization tools (e.g., PowerBI, Tableau) to create clear, actionable dashboards.

Experience designing and implementing A / B testing to assess new strategies.

Familiarity with data pipelining, data modeling, and ETL processes.

Ability to thrive in a fast‑paced, high‑volume environment while managing multiple tasks simultaneously.

Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to convey complex analyses clearly.

Experience working with banking partners and third‑party data vendors is a plus.

This role has an annual starting salary range of $160,000 - $200,000 + equity + benefits (see below). Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skills, experience, and specific work location.

Benefits

Meaningful Start‑up equity

100% health, vision & dental primary coverage

➕ 75% health, vision & dental dependent coverage

Catered lunches

$250 / month Commuter benefit

Parental leave

✈️ Team building events & happy hours

Flexible PTO with a minimum of 15 days off per year

️ Apple equipment

401k plan

Location

We're headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with a beautiful office in the Mission District (near Dolores Park). We welcome employees who want to work from this office; we offer additional benefits to those who do (see below), and relocation assistance to those who’d like to.

We regularly bring our team together for offsites & trips, about every 2 months, both for fun and for work. We cover all travel & lodging in these cases.

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