Senior Recovery Specialist

(reporting to the Managing Director/Head of Risk)

ABOUT LENDABLE

Lendable connects emerging and frontier market fintechs with international and local investors so that they can in turn provide financial services to those who need it the most: underbanked consumers and small businesses. We have built the technical and financial infrastructure to increase access to credit in emerging and frontier markets, including a proprietary database of over 200m loans across 28 countries. To date, we have helped more than 6.2m people get access to fair loans and deployed over $900m of capital to fintechs across Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.

We are based across Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, with major hubs in London, Nairobi, Johannesburg and Buenos Aires. Our diverse team consists of investors, data scientists, technologists, and people who care about supporting each other and our clients. We are passionate about helping underbanked communities get access to fair financial services. Come help us build out our team and continue to grow!

ABOUT THE ROLE

Based out of Lendable’s office in South Africa or London, we are looking for an individual to join Lendable’s risk management team to manage complex recovery and distressed credit situations across our portfolio end-to-end. You will bring a strong track record of leading recoveries, restructurings, workouts and enforcement strategies, with the commercial judgement to navigate challenging borrower situations and maximise recovery outcomes. This is a hands‑on execution role. We are looking for someone who has personally implemented restructuring strategies and managed recovery from the lender or investor side.

Responsibilities:

Recovery & Restructuring Execution

• Lead the management and execution of recovery, restructuring and workout situations across Lendable’s credit portfolio.
• Develop and implement recovery or repayment plans for underperforming, distressed or defaulted investments.
• Take ownership of the full process from initial identification and assessment through negotiation, restructuring, enforcement/execution and ultimate resolution.
• Manage a broad range of cases, from smaller and relatively straightforward exposures to large, complex and highly distressed situations.
• Assess available repayment/recovery options and determine the most appropriate course of action based on expected recovery, timing, cost, legal considerations and desired commercial outcomes.
• Lead negotiations with borrowers, shareholders, management teams, co-lenders and other relevant stakeholders.
• Drive restructuring solutions including amendments, waivers, payment reprofiling, covenant resets, refinancing, security enhancements and other appropriate interventions.
• Where relevant, work with legal and other relevant advisers to develop and execute enforcement strategies.
• Maintain a strong focus on maximising recoveries and protecting investor capital.

Credit & Situational Analysis

• Analyse challenged credits to understand the underlying causes of underperformance and determine the borrower’s ability to repay.
• Review financial performance, cash flows, liquidity, debt structures, security packages, collateral, covenants and other relevant credit information.
• Assess different recovery scenarios and their likely financial and commercial outcomes.
• Apply strong credit and transaction judgement when selecting / proposing the most appropriate solution including managed wind down, need for additional capital, restructuring, standstill or enforcement.

Legal, Enforcement & Service Provider Management

• Understand how the security structure affects Lendable’s position and available recovery options.
• Navigate the legal and regulatory landscape relevant to recovery and enforcement situations across multiple relevant jurisdictions.
• Understand financing and security documentation in order to identify lender rights, protections and potential enforcement routes.
• Work closely with internal and external legal counsel to determine practical and commercially appropriate courses of action.
• Identify, assess and appoint appropriate external service providers, including legal counsel, recovery agents, insolvency practitioners, restructuring specialists, valuation providers and other relevant experts.
• Manage external advisers and service providers closely to ensure clear deliverables, appropriate costs and timely execution.

Stakeholder Management

• Build constructive but appropriately firm relationships with borrowers and management teams during difficult situations.
• Communicate clearly and confidently in challenging or contentious circumstances.
• Balance relationship management with the need to protect Lendable’s contractual and economic position.
• Work collaboratively with Lendable’s investment, portfolio management, legal and senior leadership teams.
• Present complex situations in a concise and commercially focused manner to senior stakeholders and investment committees.
• Provide clear recommendations and regular updates on recovery situations, key risks, strategy, expected outcomes and next steps.

Experience:

• Extensive professional experience in credit, private credit, special situations, distressed credit, workouts, restructuring or recoveries.
• Strong credit analysis experience.
• Proven experience personally implementing and executing recoveries, restructurings or workouts is essential.
• Experience within a credit fund, bank, private credit investor, asset manager, DFI or similar lending environment.
• Strong understanding of credit structures, loan documentation, security packages, covenants and lender protections.
• Experience negotiating with borrowers and key stakeholders and navigating legal, restructuring and enforcement processes.
• Experience identifying and managing external legal, recovery, restructuring and other specialist service providers.
• Ability to manage recovery matters of varying size and complexity, taking a proactive, pragmatic and appropriately firm approach to execution.
• Strong interpersonal, communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to maintain constructive relationships through challenging situations.
• Emerging and frontier markets experience is strongly preferred.

Applied Values:

• Judgment
• Distills signal from noise to make decisions and elevate, when required whilst proposing solutions
• Anticipates internal and external questions and concerns, and preemptively provides detailed analysis on key risks and mitigating factors
• Rigorous Communication
• Responsive, collaborative, and thrives on direct communication
• Communicates with stakeholders immediately and directly
• Remains calm and manages stressful deal experiences with a steady hand
• Team Player
• Has a collaborative, supportive and team-focused approach
• Works with urgency but acts with diplomacy
• Puts ego aside and gets involved in every aspect of the investment process
• Open to learning and adapting to Lendable’s values and investment approach
• Solutions-oriented self-starter, can move deals forward despite roadblocks or transaction complexity
• Respectfully challenges colleagues to help Lendable improve as a firm
• Maintains relationships of mutual respect with clients, so that both sides can be demanding of each other, when needed

What Lendable Offers

• Stimulating, inquisitive, and fun colleagues - a group of people who care about equity, diversity, and inclusion above all
• Flexible working set up (hybrid-remote)
• Market competitive salary
• Strong health insurance package that includes dental, vision, and mental health coverage
• Paid new parent leave policy
• The chance to engage in truly impactful and meaningful work

Persons of all gender, race, sex, orientation, age, and identity are encouraged to apply. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform crucial job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.