Head of Credit Decisioning

Job Description

411_3416453

The Head of Credit Decisioning has end-to-end accountability for the design, governance, and performance of automated credit decision frameworks across consumer and business lending products. The role leads the strategy, development, deployment, and continuous optimization of credit decision engines spanning origination, underwriting, limit management, pricing, and early warning systems, leveraging strong AI driven solutions.

This role is highly strategic and technical, combining advanced analytics, AI and machine learning, decision science, and strong regulatory governance to enable scalable, fast, fair, and profitable credit decisions. The incumbent will ensure that credit decisioning capabilities support business growth, digital transformation, regulatory compliance, and superior customer experience.

Major Responsibilities

Credit Decisioning Strategy & Leadership

• Define and own the enterprise-wide credit decisioning strategy aligned with business growth, digital channel expansion, and risk appetite.
• Lead the transformation from manual and rules heavy credit assessment to scalable, automated, and AI enabled decision frameworks.
• Establish a clear vision for real time, straight through, and omnichannel credit decisioning across products and customer segments.
• Build and lead a high-performing Credit Decisioning function, ensuring strong capability development in analytics, decision science, and risk governance.
• Act as the central authority on all credit decision logic, policies, and automation across the retail credit lifecycle.

Decision Engine Design & Architecture

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of enterprise credit decision engines covering:
  • Origination and underwriting
  • Credit limit assignment and dynamic limit management
  • Risk-based pricing and offer optimization
  • Early warning and pre-delinquency triggers
• Architect hybrid decisioning frameworks integrating:
  • Rule based strategies
  • Traditional scorecards
  • Machine learning and AI models
  • Adaptive and self-learning components
• Drive in house decision engine build initiatives or oversee vendor platforms (e.g., OMDM, TRIAD, SMG, Probe, or equivalent).
• Ensure decision engines are scalable, resilient, API enabled, and capable of real-time decisioning.

Advanced Analytics, AI & Model Integration

• Oversee integration of predictive models into decision workflows, including:
  • Application scorecards
  • Behavioral and transaction-based models
  • Fraud and identity risk indicators
  • Propensity and affordability models
• Enable the use of alternative and big data sources, including credit bureaus, open banking data, and internal behavioral data.
• Establish challenger and test and learn frameworks to continuously improve decision outcomes.
• Ensure explainability (XAI), fairness, and bias mitigation in all AI driven decisions.
• Establish robust governance frameworks for credit decisioning, including:
  • Decision logic approval and change management
  • Model validation, monitoring, and lifecycle management
  • Policy interpretation and implementation controls
• Ensure compliance with regulatory and internal requirements related to:
  • Auditability and traceability of decisions
  • Fair lending and customer treatment principles
• Maintain full documentation of decision strategies, rules, models, overrides, and exceptions.
• Support internal audit, external audit, and regulatory reviews related to credit decisioning systems.

Business Enablement & Partnership

• Partner with Product, Digital, Sales, Marketing, and Operations teams to:
  • Enable fast and accurate credit decisions across branch and digital channels
  • Support acquisition, cross-sell, and offer personalization strategies
  • Improve customer experience through reduced turnaround times and straight-through processing
  • Advise senior stakeholders on trade-offs between risk, growth, customer experience, and profitability.
• Support launch of new products and channels through rapid configuration of decision strategies.

Performance Management & Optimization

• Define and monitor key decisioning KPIs, including:
  • Approval rates and decline reasons
  • Model performance and stability metrics
  • Automation and straight-through processing rates
• Continuously optimize decision thresholds, cut-offs, and strategies to maximize risk-adjusted value.
• Drive decisioning improvements across the full credit lifecycle, from acquisition to early delinquency prevention.

Knowledge & Skill Requirements

The ideal candidate will demonstrate deep expertise in:

• Credit decision science and automated underwriting.
• AI and machine learning applications in credit decisioning.
• Decision engine architecture and strategy orchestration.
• Rule-based and model-driven decision frameworks.
• Real-time and API-based decision platforms.
• Explainable AI (XAI), fairness, and bias management.
• Challenger frameworks, A/B testing, and test-and-learn methodologies.
• Integration of fraud, credit, and affordability decision layers.
• Regulatory expectations related to automated credit decisions.
• Extensive hands-on experience with enterprise decision engines such as OMDM, TRIAD, SMG, Probe, or equivalent platforms.
• Proven capability in building in-house credit decision engines, including:
  • Strategy design and orchestration
  • Policy management and version control
  • Model integration and deployment
  • Governance, auditability, and explainability
  • Strong understanding of model risk management, regulatory compliance, and audit requirements for automated decision systems.

Qualification

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related quantitative discipline.
• Advanced certifications in analytics, AI, or risk management are an advantage.

Experience

• 12 -18+ years of experience in retail credit risk and credit decisioning.
• Proven experience leading large-scale automated decisioning programs in banks, financial institutions, or fintech’s.
• Strong exposure to digital lending and straight through processing models.
• Demonstrated ability to engage senior management and present complex decisioning concepts clearly at executive and board levels.

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2026-03-24 08:53:30