Reporting to the COO, the Chief Credit Officer is an essential member of the Founders First Capital Partners (FFCP) Credit department. The Chief Credit Officer mobilizes capital markets across various diverse funding offerings, and facilitates lending for our clients by assessing creditworthiness.

The goal of the FFCP Credit Department is to build a strong platform for continued growth and expansion, utilizing underwriting practices and incorporating technology and other processes that can improve the ability of lenders to provide loans to FFCP prospective borrowers.  Leading our lending function, the Chief Credit Officer’s primary responsibility is to drive adoption and scale our lending products. 

About Us: Founders First Capital Partners, Inc (“FFCP”) provides funding and business growth advisory support to diverse founder led small businesses. We provide revenue-based funding and business acceleration support to service-based small businesses located outside of major capital markets such as Silicon Valley and New York City. We focus on supporting businesses led by women, people of color, and military veterans, inclusive teams, and businesses located in low to moderate-income areas.

Salary: $140,000 to $175,000, plus bonus, stock options and benefits

Location: San Diego, CA. In Office Tuesday to Thursday; remote option Mondays and Fridays 

Core Responsibilities

• Oversight and management of loan processing, inclusive of underwriting 

• Clearly defining and evolving the FFCP credit requirements, based on standards, borrower needs and changes to market conditions and trends 

• Builds out processes, and develops a team to enhance  underwriting capabilities, with future automation and scaling in mind 

Processing, Analyzing and Underwriting Loans

The Chief Credit Officer takes the lead on opportunities generated by the Investment Team members, managing some opportunities individually, while assigning and supervising other deals to the underwriting team. 

 The processing, analyzing and underwriting loans of loans consists of the following activities:

• Financial analysis and review for all initially qualified opportunities 

• Review of relevant diligence materials (including pitch decks, customer references, Linked In referrals, company product and service offerings) 

• Conducts diligence calls with prospective borrowers

• Evaluates key strengths, risks, and mitigating factors

• Prepares and presents analysis of the potential borrower historical performance and future expectations for the FFCP Credit Committee

• Prepares  internal memorandum of findings/recommendations for review by Investment Committee

• Performs tasks necessary to close the transaction, including final due diligence and preparation of key legal documents

• Maintains and updates borrower data and deal status in Salesforce.com, and online underwriting and servicing platforms

• Leverages technology platform (Codat) for pulling financial data, ensuring internal and borrower adoption throughout the entire loan lifecycle

Managing a Team of Underwriting Associates

The Chief Credit Officer will manage a team (2-3) of Underwriting associates. In this position you will be a player/coach, as you will also be handling some transactions directly. 

New Borrowers

• Oversee and review all relevant diligence materials (including unaudited financial statements, pitch decks, customer references, LinkedIn referrals, company product and service offerings) 

• Deep dive and resolution to diligence questions raised by internal stakeholders

• Evaluate borrower key strengths, risks, and mitigating factors

• Participate on diligence calls with the prospective borrowers, as necessary 

• Oversee the preparation and presentation of potential borrowers to Credit Committee

• Review internal funding memorandum for approval by Investment Committee

• Perform tasks necessary to the close the transaction, including negotiating and signing off on key legal documents and pricing materials

Existing Borrowers

• Lead monthly servicing meetings for existing borrowers covered by your team

• Management of underperforming companies, including overseeing ongoing performance issues and reporting on remedial actions

• Proactive management for follow on opportunities 

Building 

• Development of credit model, including Requirements, Risk Ratings/Criteria 

• Analysis of current borrower performance to determine key trends, areas of weakness in the current underwriting standards, missing or extraneous data to the underwriting process

• Monitoring

• Reporting requirements of the monitoring system for both the portfolio and the individual borrower

• Development of alerts and other indicators for watchlist and downgrades

• Information reporting to Underwriters, Servicers and Investors 

• Servicing

• Define the data and sources for such data that can more easily automate the process

• Develop a tool that could be white-labeled for sale to any other lending entity

• Legal

• Develop and implement streamlined processes for negotiations and acceptable legal deviations 

• Integration of legal documents with SF, Monitoring and Servicing 

• Team Building

• Establish new hire procedures and onboarding techniques and requirements 

• Establish monthly and quarterly processes for updates and team performance reporting

Qualifications Needed for Success

• Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting, Business Administration, Finance or Economics or equivalent experience required

• Master’s degree and completion of certified credit underwriting program,
  from bank or prominent industry organization, preferred 

• 10+ years’ experience in loan operations, portfolio management, commercial and/or small business finance, commercial credit policies, practices and lending operations. Including experience presenting 

• 6+ years’ experience in developing, improving and implementing a diverse range of loan products for small businesses.

• 3+ years’ experience in loan operations and portfolio management of lending impact lending or community development borrower profiles.  

• 3+ years’ experience development, managing and recruiting credit and underwriting teams.

• 2+ years’ experience working in an early stage, high growth fin tech or financial services company, preferred.

• Impact Lending and/or Capital/Lending Experience, preferred 

• CAIA Certification, preferred 

Skills

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

• Demonstrated ability to build strong relationships across functional area

• Critical thinker, detail oriented and motivated professional      

• Ability to work with big data sets and adept at leveraging technology options to efficiently support the needs of the business      

• Comprehensive understanding of banking systems and products

• Strong experience with establishing corporate short to mid-term operational plans

• This position requires extensive decision making and problem-solving techniques for all finance related issues

• Familiarity with Codat and/or API automation tools for pulling financial data 

Benefits

• Stock option plan

• 401(k) plan

• Medical insurance

• Dental insurance

• Vision insurance

• Health Savings Account

• Life insurance

• Disability insurance 

• Paid time off

COVID Policy: All employees must be fully vaccinated per company policy. 

Our Commitment to DEI: At Founders First, our mission is to solve racial and social economic equity gaps that prevent businesses led by diverse founders from growing profits, premium wage jobs and wealth creation in their communities. This means we continually celebrate the diverse community and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.

Diverse candidates are encouraged to apply! 

For more information please see: www.FoundersFirstCapitalPartners.com