Head of Credit Portfolio Management

About Allica Bank

Allica is the UK’s fastest growing company - and the fastest-growing financial technology (Fintech) firm ever. Our purpose is to help established SMEs, one of the last major underserved opportunities in Fintech. Established SMEs are the backbone of local communities - representing over a third of our economy - yet have been largely neglected both by traditional high street banks and modern fintech providers.

Department Description

The Credit Portfolio Management (CPM) function is at the heart of building out data and model-led portfolio stewardship, impairment management and credit data quality. CPM owns credit modelling as well as credit portfolio management, bringing the two together to optimise our risk-return output for the bank. Models include IFRS9 model estate (e.g. PD, LGD, SICR, economic response models), decisioning models for automated underwriting, and some of the credit-linked GenAI models used to automate processes. Portfolio management includes setting portfolio risk appetite parameters that guide our setting of deal appetite, impairment reporting, budgeting and stress testing, ad hoc deep dives to inform our lending strategy. Operating at pace in a scaling bank, CPM must balance speed and commerciality with rigorous data quality controls and regulatory-ready model management. This is a senior leadership role responsible for shaping how the bank manages and measures credit risk across product, geography and economic cycles. The role is responsible for sensibly balancing risk and reward – where too little or too much risk needs to be corrected through the cycle for the level of returns and growth we target.

The role will work closely with Finance, 2LoD Credit / Model Risk, Commercial & Distribution, Transactional Credit Risk (Underwriting, Collections & Recoveries), Product & Proposition and Capital Markets teams, interacting regularly with Exco members via Committees and otherwise.

We’re looking for a proven leader in commercial credit portfolio management with deep expertise in understanding the dynamics within commercial lending, exceptional fluency in data and analytics, strong capability in people leadership and stakeholder management.

For the right individual, this is a rare opportunity to help develop and scale one of the most critical lending functions within a bank that is ambitious, innovative, and fast becoming a leader in UK business banking.

Principal Accountabilities

• Leadership & Strategy: Build and lead teams in two core areas: Credit Models and Lending Strategy. Set the strategic direction for credit portfolio management, model development and credit analytics, aligned to the bank’s risk appetite and commercial objectives. Lead the engagement with key stakeholders like finance, external audit, 2LOD oversight teams as part of impairment reporting. Drive through partnership with product and data teams a best in class capability in credit data availability for driving forward our lending strategy and modelling capabilities for the future. Drive a culture of analytical excellence, data-driven decision making, accountability, and continuous improvement across the team.
• People Leadership: Develop, motivate and retain a high-performing team across modelling and lending strategy teams. Act as a player-manager: combine hands-on modelling and analytics capability with strong people leadership and mentoring. Ensure clear career paths, rigorous performance management and succession planning to maintain resilience as the bank grows. Drive constant improvement in ways of working of the teams being looked after.
• Lending Strategy: Define and maintain portfolio-level strategies: provisioning strategy, vintage management, concentration limits and KRI frameworks. Set and maintain portfolio level appetite levels as part of annual review and on an ongoing basis, including concentration limits and other credit KRIs. Work closely with teams that translate portfolio appetite to deal appetite to create a virtuous feedback loop to optimise lending portfolio performance. Lead impairment forecasting and portfolio stress-testing, feeding into annual budgets, ongoing forecasts, ICAAP, investor discussions and other ad hoc regulatory or bank led assessments for profitability and capital. Produce and sign-off monthly impairment (IFRS9 ECL) numbers for management reporting and regulatory disclosure, ensuring alignment with Finance and Audit. Deliver timely portfolio performance analyses (vintages, roll-rates, cures, loss emergence) and provide actionable insights to underwriting/collections/product teams.
• Credit Models: Drive the roadmap for model development, model retirement and automation to improve accuracy, scale and speed of decisioning and credit measurement. Manage the team that owns development, deployment and lifecycle management of IFRS9 model family: PDs, LGDs, staging/SICR assumptions, Exposure at Default (EAD), Economic Response and scenario mapping across different products. Oversee decisioning models for automated underwriting (auto-decisioning) and in-life monitoring. Oversight of specific in-house GenAI credit models to automate origination or in-life journeys while ensuring monitoring and control framework. Work with Model Validation (2LoD) to ensure independent validation, backtesting and model remediation. Ensure models meet governance, audit and regulatory expectations.
• Governance, Risk & Compliance: Work closely with 2LoD teams across both model monitoring and portfolio management. Ensure CPM’s outputs are compliant with IFRS9 standards, internal policies, and regulatory expectations. Coordinate responses to regulatory queries, internal and external audits and 2LoD findings.

Experience

Senior leader with 8+ years’ experience in credit portfolio management within commercial banking/lending, with hands-on exposure to IFRS9 provisioning and principles. Deep knowledge of IFRS9-related model families: PD (including Lifetime PD), SICR methodologies, LGD, EAD, Economic Response modelling. Strong experience of stress testing, scenario analysis and bridging analytics into appetite, capital & provisioning decisions. Comfortable presenting material to senior committees and external stakeholders (e.g. regulators, auditors); evidence of clear, concise communication of the ‘so what’ to non-technical audiences. Good understanding of UK regulatory expectations (IFRS9, PRA regulations related to capital and credit risk measurement). Good experience in managing technical teams, in the UK and ideally outside. Preferred but not required: experience in modelling or deep understanding of modelling methods, coding ability in Python/SQL. What is required is a curiosity to learn enough about it to work with and add value to the teams. Prior experience in this area matters for this role. If you believe you are a strong fit for the role, but don’t quite meet one of the requirements above – if you think you can suitably overcome that, then please apply anyway.

Personal Qualities

• Hands-on & pragmatic player-manager. Leads from the front, not afraid to roll-up sleeves; able to dive into model code or spreadsheets and to mentor others.
• Data-driven & curious. Loves experimenting with new techniques and continuously improving model accuracy and automation.
• Risk-aware & commercial. Balances risk with reward – we are in the business of taking risk, and this role is to optimise the lending P&L rather than minimise risk.
• Passionate and raises the bar. Passionate about building better banking for SMEs, about being part of Allica’s high ambitions, and about building a best in class portfolio management function.
• Comfortable with decision making. Strong ownership mindset, takes on board inputs from others but is not afraid to make decisions, even when all the information is not necessarily available.
• Collaborative & influential. Builds trusted relationships across Risk, Finance, Product and Distribution and can influence senior stakeholders.
• Resilient. Performs reliably under pressure and in fast-change environments; prioritises effectively.
• Clear communicator. Turns complex trade-offs and modelling concepts into concise messages for Exec and external parties.

Working at Allica Bank

At Allica Bank we want to ensure our employees have the right tools and environment in which to succeed in their role and in support of our customers. Our employees are at the heart of everything we do, so our benefits are designed with you in mind:

• Full onboarding support and continued development opportunities
• Options for flexible working
• Regular social activities
• Pension contributions
• Discretionary bonus scheme
• Private health cover
• Life assurance
• Family friendly policies including enhanced Maternity & Paternity leave

Don’t tick every box? Don’t worry if you don’t have all the skills or requirements listed on the job description. If you think you’ll be a good fit, we’d still love to hear from you!

Flexible working

We know the ‘9-to-5’ isn’t right for everyone. That’s why Allica Bank is fully committed to flexible and hybrid working. Please let us know what is best for you and, if we can, we will do our best to accommodate.

Diversity

We’re a diverse bunch here at Allica, with all kinds of experiences, backgrounds and lifestyles. Our openness and differences make us stronger, and we want everybody to feel comfortable bringing as much of themselves to work with them as they like.