Consumer Credit Lead - Cards

<p><strong>Build and scale the underwriting foundation for our new consumer charge card (0→1).</strong></p> <p>Mercury is building a banking* stack for startups. We work hard to create the easiest and safest banking* experience possible to simplify entrepreneurs' and business owners’ financial lives.&nbsp;</p> <p>We’re launching a premium consumer charge card and are looking for a senior credit risk leader to help build and scale the underwriting strategy from the ground up - and own its performance as the portfolio scales.</p> <p>Our goal is to build a consumer charge card that delivers a premium experience while maintaining disciplined, data-driven credit risk.</p> <p>This is a hands-on, senior individual contributor role. You’ll take an initial strategic direction and turn it into a scalable, data-driven underwriting program, then monitor, refine, and evolve that strategy post-launch.</p> <h4><strong>You’ll play a key role in shaping how risk decisions translate into customer experience, product growth, and long-term portfolio performance.</strong></h4> <p>As the portfolio grows, this role is expected to evolve into team leadership.</p> <p><em>*Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.</em></p> <h3>What You’ll Own:</h3> <h4>Build and operationalize the credit strategy</h4> <ul> <li>Translate underwriting vision into formal credit policy and decision frameworks</li> <li>Define approval logic, segmentation strategy, and limit-setting methodology</li> <li>Establish portfolio guardrails aligned to loss targets and unit economics</li> <li>Design account management strategies across the customer lifecycle</li> <li>Develop early portfolio management approaches including exposure adjustments, servicing strategies, and input into collections processes as the portfolio matures</li> <li>Define portfolio monitoring frameworks and escalation triggers for emerging credit risk trends</li> </ul> <h4>Build the data-driven risk engine</h4> <ul> <li>Implement credit policy in our underwriting platform&nbsp;</li> <li>Evaluate and integrate key data sources (bureau, income, debt signals)</li> <li>Ensure decision logic is structured, testable, and scalable</li> <li>Partner with Engineering and Data to build monitoring and feedback loops</li> </ul> <h4>Own portfolio performance post-launch</h4> <ul> <li>Define and track core KPIs (approval rate, early delinquency, loss rate, exposure, utilization, etc.)</li> <li>Monitor vintage performance and segment behavior</li> <li>Recommend and implement strategy adjustments based on observed risk trends</li> <li>Present risk performance, insights, and recommendations to senior leadership</li> </ul> <h4>Drive data-informed risk and growth decisions</h4> <ul> <li>Use SQL to independently evaluate underwriting decisions and trade-offs</li> <li>Analyze drivers of credit performance and portfolio outcomes</li> <li>Partner with Finance on forecasting and risk-adjusted economics</li> </ul> <h4>Drive cross-functional execution</h4> <ul> <li>Partner with Compliance to ensure the underwriting program is well-documented and built to scale</li> <li>Work with Partnerships, Procurement, and Legal on evaluating and onboarding credit data providers</li> <li>Support broader risk initiatives across our business charge card portfolio during the build phase</li> </ul> <h3>What We’re Looking For:</h3> <ul> <li>6+ years of experience in consumer credit risk. Ideal candidates will have 8–12 years of experience across banking, fintech, or unsecured consumer lending</li> <li>Experience launching or materially redesigning a consumer lending product</li> <li>Experience implementing credit policy within a decisioning or underwriting platform is strongly preferred</li> <li>Demonstrated experience owning risk strategy and monitoring portfolio performance</li> <li>Deep familiarity with bureau data and core credit risk metrics (approval rate, loss rate, vintage curves, etc.)</li> <li>Experience presenting risk insights and strategy recommendations to senior stakeholders</li> <li>Experience translating policy into production decision logic</li> <li>Strong SQL skills and comfort working directly with data</li> <li>Comfortable building in ambiguity and operating in a 0→1 environment</li> <