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 9 credit cards, including for the largest mall operator in the U.S. and the largest airline in South America. 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 $60M in equity funding from top venture capital firms and angels.

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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'll 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 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).
• 5+ years of experience in credit risk within the consumer credit industry.
• 2+ years of hands-on experience using R, Python, SAS, and SQL to analyze large, complex datasets.
• 1+ year of experience in quantitative analysis within a bank or fintech environment.
• 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.

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 are hiring remotely across the continental US for most roles. We work hard to create a first-class, remote-friendly environment, with an additional benefit for remote employees, too (see below).

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.

A condition of employment at Cardless is being fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID prior to beginning your employment. We’ll ask you to send us a copy of your vaccination card in advance of your first day.

Benefits & perks

For all employees, we offer:

💸 Highly competitive salaries, significant equity, and a 401(k) plan

🏥 Top-of-the-line healthcare (medical, vision, and dental), with 100% primary coverage and 75% dependent coverage for medical

🌴 Unlimited paid time off, with a minimum of 15 days off per year

👶 Parental leave for birthing and non-birthing parents

✈️ Amazing team trips & offsites (e.g. rock climbing in Utah, watching a Cavs game in a suite, and staying in an Italian villa in Carmel Valley)

👥 Access to amazing advisors & investors, like Gil Shklarski (Flatiron Health CTO), Dorothy Kilroy (Airbnb & Marqeta exec), and Frank Mastrangelo (Bancorp founder)

For in-office employees:

🍱 Catered lunch at the office every day, plus plenty of snacks & drinks

🚎 $250/month commuter assistance for public transit or our parking garage

For remote employees:

🖥️ $500 remote setup stipend to help you do your best work

Our Values

We believe that the best companies are the ones that successfully align their vision and values, that match their decision making processes, hiring criteria, and overall operating principles to the change they’re striving to make. We're willing to spend significant time and resources to be above average at the following things, because we believe that will lead to long term success.

- Be curious and be the solution. We work in a complex space. In order to be successful, we must think globally and collaborate cross-functionally. We ask thoughtful questions without judgment and propose comprehensive solutions that address the full picture. We are all owners at Cardless — mindful and empowered.

- Start with the customer. Our customers are our priority. Our care for them drives our actions. The first question we always ask is: how will this impact the customer? We make every decision, no matter how big or small, with the customer top of mind.

- Move fast and build things. We are a startup in a highly regulated space, so we must execute with both speed and precision. We achieve this through deliberate focus, methodical preparation, and disciplined execution. We build, learn, improve, and repeat.

- A place to do your best work. We are a team, and we achieve more together than apart. At Cardless, we want to see each other succeed: we take as much pride in each other’s work as our own. We celebrate and seek out diversity of experience, thought, and background in order to accelerate both individual and company growth. We're hungry, we're passionate, and we’re inspired to achieve great things together.

Compensation

This role has an annual starting salary range of $140,000-$190,000 + equity + benefits (see above). Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skills, experience, and specific work location. 

Benefits

We're headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with a beautiful office in the Mission District. We're proud to offer our team excellent 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

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Cardless employees are required to be fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19, and to provide proof of vaccination prior to their first day. Cardless is an equal opportunity employer, and we value a diverse and inclusive workplace. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or any other applicable legally protected characteristics.