Head of Risk

FairMoney is a credit‑led mobile bank for emerging markets. Launched in 2017, it operates in Nigeria, Zambia, and Uganda and has raised close to €50 m from global investors such as Tiger Global, DST, and Flourish Ventures.

You will be working as the Global Head of Risk in our Risk division, which consists of 10+ people located in Lagos, Bangalore, South Africa, Latvia, and remote locations across the globe.

About the Role

You will be FairMoney’s Head of Risk, managing the Risk department and holding critical responsibility for the company’s overall success.

Your mission is to ensure portfolio performance according to the company’s OKRs and risk appetite, and to offer best‑tailored credit services across our multiple value propositions.

Your goal is to successfully execute FairMoney strategies, achieving optimal profitability and creating sustainable access to credit for all.

The role is highly visible with significant exposure to business leaders and the leadership team. All FairMoney strategies and execution thereof interact with and are influenced by the Risk team's strategies, rules, and decisions. FairMoney ultimately succeeds by what you and your team deliver: leading FairMoney in delivering value, achieving targets, and delivering risk‑adjusted returns.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Define risk appetite for the company, approved by senior leadership and the board.
• Manage the business within risk appetite.
• Use analytics, test‑and‑learn strategies, and execute all risk strategies that enable the achievement of company OKRs.
• Own the main portfolio metrics—default rates, acceptance rates, collection rates, retention rates, and profitability.
• Forecast, monitor, and deliver insights on portfolio performance and ECL/impairment results and trends.
• Drive decisions on new risk product updates, product offerings, and underwriting funnel improvements.
• Lead the company in understanding NPV and unit‑level economics. Deliver strategies that optimise trade‑offs and ensure business success.
• Design and execute collections strategy.
• Lead the company’s fraud prevention workstreams from the product and underwriting policy perspective, fully defining fraud strategies and risk appetite.
• Own and drive the risk‑related product roadmap with tech and product teams, working closely with Product and Engineering on improvements for lending, data, and risk strategies.
• Build, improve, and maintain risk policies.
• Chair the credit committee, reporting back to stakeholders, senior leadership, and the board.
• Stay up to date on regulatory changes and rules; ensure compliance and support audits where applicable.
• Work closely with the Data Science team to ensure world‑class tools are used and decisions are always optimal.
• Mentor and coach talent, scaling the team as required.

Requirements

Experience

• 10–15 years of credit‑risk experience with exposure to fintech / retail banking credit risk (consumer loans) / NBFCs. Preference for prior CRO / Head of Risk experience and leadership across multiple products or geographies.
• History of managing companies through growth and recessionary periods.
• Experience developing a vision and instituting a data‑driven, analytically rigorous framework and infrastructure to support credit decisions in payment products.
• Experience in analytical skills like data science model development, NPV modelling, impairment forecasting, and setting up A/B tests with sensitivity analysis.
• Proficient SQL user, with reasonable experience with BI tools such as Tableau, Power BI, or similar.
• Years in credit‑risk management, including leadership of multiple products or geographies.
• End‑to‑end lifecycle expertise + strategic planning capability.

Ownership of OKRs

• Full P&L‑linked OKRs (GP, ECL, approval rates, churn, retention, debt sales, etc.).
• Risk appetite definition and governance sign‑off authority.

Previous Work

• Built or transformed a risk function in a high‑growth lending environment.
• Implemented scorecard strategies, collections segmentation, and product‑specific risk frameworks.

Team Size Experience

• Managed 5–15+ people including managers and analysts.
• Led distributed or multi‑country teams.

Growth Experience

• Successfully launched new products, new markets, or major portfolio restructuring while keeping losses in check.

Benefits

• Training & Development
• Family Leave (Maternity, Paternity)
• Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays)
• Remote Work

Recruitment Process

• A screening interview with one of the members of the Talent Acquisition team for 30 minutes.
• Takeaway assignment to be completed at home.
• Technical interview for 60–90 minutes with the Hiring Manager.
• Interview/Presentation to the key stakeholders for 60–90 minutes.