Credit

City First Enterprises (CFE) is a certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) specializing in flexible lending for affordable housing, commercial real estate, small businesses, nonprofits, and clean energy projects. With a mission to create financial solutions to support people and communities in achieving their economic aspirations, we envision a future where all individuals and communities thrive through access to capital.

CFE, headquartered in Washington, DC, with a core market focus on the DMV metro region and the broader Mid-Atlantic, partners nationwide to deliver tailored financial solutions that advance economic opportunity.

City First Enterprises (CFE) seeks an experienced Chief Credit Officer (CCO) to lead the organization’s credit risk management, underwriting, portfolio oversight, and credit governance. Reporting to the CEO and serving on the senior leadership team, the CCO owns CFE’s credit policies, underwriting standards, approval processes, risk-rating discipline, and reporting on loan portfolio status to leadership and the board, safeguarding the quality of CFE’s growing loan portfolio while enabling responsible capital deployment in historically disinvested communities.

The role partners closely with lending originations, portfolio management, finance, operations, and impact teams to keep lending aligned with CFE’s mission, risk appetite, funder and investor requirements, and financial sustainability.

The ideal candidate is a practical, strategic credit executive with deep experience in commercial lending, community development finance, and affordable housing and/or commercial real estate finance. Experience in small business lending, nonprofit lending, clean energy finance, or community banking is a plus but not required. The ideal candidate brings strong technical credit judgment, policy discipline, analytical rigor, and collaborative leadership, and balances prudent risk management with a flexible, borrower-centered community development lending approach.

This role requires a minimum of 2 days/week in our downtown office, with flexibility for additional on-site days as needed. Occasional travel required for external partner and client meetings and events.

• Lead CFE’s commercial credit function as the primary executive owner of credit policy, underwriting standards, approval authorities, risk-rating methodology, and credit governance.
• Translate CFE’s strategic goals, capital sources, and risk appetite into clear credit policies, underwriting guidance, exception protocols, and approval thresholds.
• Partner with senior leadership team to align lending growth with credit quality, capital deployment goals, and financial sustainability.
• Monitor emerging risks, market conditions, and concentration trends, and recommend timely credit guardrails and policy updates.

• Oversee underwriting quality and credit analysis across CFE’s lending, including affordable housing, commercial real estate, small business and nonprofit lending, community facilities, and clean energy.
• Review and recommend transactions for credit approval, partnering with loan committee members and senior leadership to ensure well-reasoned, timely credit decisions across all approval tiers.
• Ensure credit memoranda are complete and decision-ready, grounded in borrower capacity, project feasibility, cash flow, collateral, repayment sources, and mission alignment.
• Provide hands-on guidance to lenders, underwriters, and portfolio managers on complex credits, exceptions, workouts, and higher-risk transactions.
• Maintain disciplined standards for pricing, terms, collateral, covenants, and documentation while preserving CFE’s ability to provide flexible capital where it is most needed.
• Partner with external counsel and lending teams to oversee loan closing, ensuring all documentation and conditions are satisfied before funding.

• Methodically modernize CFE’s underwriting and credit practices by identifying and responsibly deploying artificial intelligence and advanced data…