Head of Lending Operations

Company Profile

RiverBank is one of Luxembourg's fastest growing financial services companies. We are a client focused corporate lender, dedicated to funding SMEs across Europe, with an initial focus in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and Spain. We have ambitious plans to grow, at pace, to support thousands of SMEs and medium size corporations to invest and built their businesses.

We are recruiting people who are excited to build a bank on a mission to make a difference to small and medium businesses across Europe, who can help us continue to build momentum, bring customers and help shape the pan-European SME bank of the future.We want people who are passionate about building relationships with clients and able to market lending solutions that will work for all stakeholders.

Purpose of the Role

We are seeking a hand's on commercial loans expert to run our loan fulfilment and collateral management processes, with the aim of building a high performing team and platform to enable the bank to substantially grow its commercial lending book across multiple European countries.

Core Responsibilities

Lending fulfillment

• Ownership of the post-credit committee drawdown and fulfillment processes for commercial lending across the Netherlands, France and Spain
• Responsibility for the oversight of all loan documentation and collateral, ensuring that all lending adheres to compliance and regulatory requirements and the bank's internal credit approval conditions
• Establishment and implementation of lending documentation, collateral management and banking system procedures
• Collaborate with sales, credit and risk management to align loan documentation with credit approval conditions and client terms. Work with external parties for finance document preparation and negotiation
• Ensure clear communication of loan documentation processes to stakeholders
• Ownership and relationship management of the commercial lending legal panel and the bank's valuation partners
• Ensure the systems and processes reflect the bank's collateral associated with its lending deals
• Ensure that transactions are completed in accordance with all key policies and compliance requirements
• Implement risk control guidelines to identify, assess, report, mitigate, and monitor risks

Team leadership

• Build, lead and develop a team, in line with the bank's growth, that supports the front line Commercial lenders in achieving their growth targets

Skills and Competencies

Essential Experience

• Min 10 years commercial loans experience; excellent knowledge of loan drawdown processes
• Proven track record of building and managing operational teams
• Demonstrated ability to work within a time constrained working environment working with colleagues from multiple departments
• Ability to build and manage complex relationships (e.g. with legal counsel / valuation experts)
• Experience working in credit functions
• Understanding of key technologies that underpin commercial lending processes

Technical Skills

• Expert knowledge of technology solutions in the commercial lending space
• Strong stakeholder management across multiple complex relationships
• Expert knowledge of the loan drawdown processes, ideally in multiple countries

Core Competencies

• Stakeholder management - Ability to build strong relationships
• Data-driven mindset - Comfortable with analytics, A/B testing and performance optimization
• Entrepreneurial spirit - Thrives in startup/scale-up environments with ambiguity and limited resources
• Self-starter - Takes initiative, manages priorities independently, and drives projects to completion
• Communication excellence - Outstanding written and verbal communication skills in English (additional European languages highly valued: French, Dutch, Spanish)
• Creative problem-solving - Innovative approach to operational challenges with limited budget

Education

• Experience dependent

Personal Attributes

• Passionate about fintech innovation and SME financing
• Comfortable with regulated financial services environment
• Results-oriented with strong attention to detail
• Adaptable and resilient in fast-paced, evolving organization
• Team player who embodies RiverBank's values of integrity, excellence, and collaboration

RiverBank is a member of the Luxembourg Banking Association, ABBL, and an equal opportunity employer. We work to provide a supportive and inclusive environment where all individuals can maximise their full potential. Our skilled and creative workforce is comprised of individuals drawn from a broad cross section of the communities in which we operate and who reflect a variety of backgrounds, talents, perspectives and experiences. Our strong commitment to a culture of inclusion is evident through our constant focus on recruiting, developing and advancing individuals based on their skills and talents.