Vice President, Credit and Underwriting (Venture Growth Lending) - New York

Join one of the most established lenders to the innovation economy, a specialty finance platform with a multi billion dollar balance sheet and over $20bn committed since inception to venture capital backed companies across technology, life sciences and sustainable technology. The firm underwrites senior secured loans on its own book and holds them, which means credit decisions are owned rather than distributed.

Known for structuring discipline, deep venture capital relationships and a portfolio built to perform through cycles, the platform pairs institutional scale with the pace of a lean investment team.

We are seeking a Vice President to join the New York credit team as a lead underwriter on new commitments and as owner of a book of existing positions. This is a decision making seat rather than an analytical support one: you will run transactions, set structure, negotiate terms directly with borrowers and their investors, and carry your own recommendations into credit committee.

You will also be the credit voice in live origination discussions, which means saying no early and being able to explain why. On a lean team, a VP here carries deals and carries names, and is expected to develop the Associates and Analysts working alongside them.

• Lead senior secured venture growth transactions end to end, from initial screen through structuring, credit committee approval, documentation and funding, with ownership of the recommendation.
• Set the credit structure on live deals including facility sizing, tranching, performance milestones, financial and liquidity covenants, security, warrants and equity participation, and negotiate those terms directly with borrowers, their counsel and their lead investors.
• Own the credit view on companies that are growing quickly and consuming cash, built on runway, burn, revenue durability, gross margin trajectory and enterprise value coverage, and defend that view under real deadlines.
• Form a judgement on the venture capital syndicate behind each borrower, including depth of dry powder and likely appetite for follow on support, and price and structure against it.
• Present to the credit committee as the responsible underwriter, with a clear recommendation and a candid account of where the credit can break.
• Own a portfolio of positions post close, managing covenant compliance, early warning indicators, amendments and waivers, and leading watchlist credits, restructurings and workouts through to resolution.
• Act as the credit counter party to the origination and coverage teams, engaging early on prospective transactions and shaping terms before they harden.
• Manage, review and develop Associates and Analysts, raising the standard of analysis and written work across the team.
• Contribute to portfolio level risk reporting and to the evolution of underwriting standards and credit policy.

• Typically 6 to 10 years in credit underwriting or portfolio management. Leveraged finance, private credit, direct lending, venture debt, corporate and commercial banking, or credit risk backgrounds all relevant.
• Demonstrable ownership of transactions as the lead underwriter, including authoring credit memoranda and presenting recommendations directly to a credit committee or senior credit officer.
• Real structuring capability. You should be able to build the protections into a deal rather than review a structure someone else set, and know which terms you would trade and which you would not.
• Sector exposure to technology, software, media or life sciences is a clear advantage.
• Comfort underwriting pre profit, cash consumptive businesses, or a deep cash flow credit foundation and a genuine appetite to move into growth lending.
• Experience managing credits under stress, including amendments, waivers, watchlist management and restructurings. Time spent on names that went wrong is valued here.
  
  The judgement to know which two or three assumptions actually drive the answer, and the confidence to hold a position in front of senior stakeholders.
• Excellent written communication, with the ability to make a complicated credit legible in a page.
• Experience developing junior team members.
• Degree educated in Finance, Economics, Accounting, Mathematics, Engineering or a related field. CFA an advantage.

• Balance sheet lending, so you underwrite credits the firm holds to maturity and own the decision through the life of the loan rather than to the close.
• A seat with standing in front of the Chief Credit Officer and the credit committee, with influence on how the book is underwritten rather than only on individual files.
• A platform at record origination volume, which means live deal flow and a clear path into senior credit leadership.
• Exposure to the venture and growth ecosystem, seeing hundreds of high growth companies and the leading venture funds backing them each year.
• Warrant and equity participation across the portfolio, giving upside exposure a traditional lending seat does not…