Earnest’s mission is to make higher education accessible and affordable for everyone. We empower past, present, and soon-to-be students to maximize their financial futures through thoughtful guidance and impactful products.

We build tools that help people feel in control of their financial future, including:

• Private student loans - low rates, people-first service, and flexible payments.

• Student loan refinancing - break free from high interest rates or monthly payments.

• Scholarships - access to thousands of scholarships to help students pay less.

The Head of Credit Risk position will report to the Chief Operating Officer.

As the Head of Credit Risk, you will:

• Be responsible for leading, motivating, and managing a high-performing risk organization.

• Oversee credit risk policy and the credit risk assessment process, including the development of risk models, scoring systems, and underwriting criteria.

• Oversee the company's credit risk management strategy and promote a strong credit risk culture that aligns risk management efforts with overall business objectives.

• Prepare and present comprehensive risk reports to executive leadership and other relevant stakeholders.

• Represent the organization in discussions with regulators, auditors, capital suppliers, investors, bank partners, and other external stakeholders on matters related to credit risk management.

Your Impact:

• This role involves attracting, growing, and inspiring a skilled team, fostering a collaborative and innovative environment, and driving strategic use of data to monitor and implement risk mitigation strategies.

• Drive innovation in risk management practices by staying informed about industry trends, emerging risks, and new technologies, and integrating best practices into the company’s risk framework.

• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of credit risk management systems and processes.

• Foster a culture of risk awareness and compliance throughout the organization, promoting a proactive approach to identifying and mitigating credit risks.

• Prepare and present comprehensive risk reports to executive leadership and other relevant stakeholders.

• Represent the organization in discussions with regulators, auditors, capital suppliers, investors, bank partners, and other external stakeholders on matters related to credit risk management.

About You:

• 15+ years of experience in risk management roles within fintech or banking industry lending, risk management, risk analytics, credit, data science, fraud or information management

• 10+ years personnel management experience, experience managing managers is preferred

• Knowledge of applicable laws and regulations governing the lending industry, including regulatory compliance experience

• Proven track record of developing and implementing effective risk management strategies

• Strong understanding of credit risk modeling, regulatory compliance and risk mitigation strategies

• Deep understanding of loss forecasting modeling techniques and risk mitigation strategies

• Experience and knowledge of the development and deployment of credit workflows

Even Better:

• Experience managing 3rd party decision engines, building workflows, and integrating 3rd party data providers to increase auto approval rates

• Experience collecting or deploying strategies to improve collections on pre and post-default accounts

• Student loan experience

• Experience with Alloy, FNI, or Provenir

• SAS, SQL, Python experience

• Ability to build and deploy underwriting models

• Ability to build default and recovery models

About Us:

What makes an “Earnie” culture:

• Drivers – Drivers are satisfied by making things happen, not coming along for the ride. They feel a strong sense of ownership for their projects and teams and demand high standards from themselves and others.

• Humility – Humble team players check their egos and consider the team’s needs above their own. They are self-aware of their strengths and opportunities for improvement.

• Growth Mindset – People with a growth mindset approach challenges and failures as learning opportunities. They seek feedback to improve, give feedback to others, and genuinely want to perform well.

Earnies are committed to helping students live their best lives, free from the stress of student debt. If you’re as passionate as we are about our mission, read more below, and let’s build something great together!

Earnest believes in enabling our employees to live their best lives. We offer a variety of perks and competitive benefits, including:

• Health, Dental, & Vision benefits plus savings plans

• Work anywhere in the U.S.

• Mac computers + work from home stipend to set up your home office

• Monthly internet and phone reimbursement

• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

• RSUs

• 401(k) plan to help you save for retirement plus a company match

• Robust tuition reimbursement program

• $1,000 travel perk on each Earnie-versary to anywhere in the world

• Competitive days of annual PTO

• Annual “my day”

• Pet insurance!

• Competitive parental leave

• Plenty of Earnest swag, optional in person team gatherings, picnics, celebrations, and plenty of fun virtual events

At Earnest, we are committed to building an environment where our employees feel included, valued, and heard. Our belief is that a strong commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging enables us to move forward with our mission. We are dedicated to adding new perspectives to the team and encourage anyone to apply if your experience is close to what we are looking for.

Earnest provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status disability or genetics. Qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered for the position in a manner consistent with the Fair Chance Ordinance.

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A little about our pay philosophy: We take pride in compensating our employees fairly and equitably. We are showcasing a range of your potential base salary, determined primarily based on a candidate’s location. Earnest takes a market-based approach, categorizing U.S. locations into one of five zones based on a cost of labor index for that geographic area. The successful candidate’s starting pay will also be determined based on job-related qualifications, internal compensation, and budget. This range may be modified in the future.

Pay Range

$180,000—$225,000 USD