Head of Credit & Fraud - Happy Money

About Happy Money

Happy Money is a consumer finance company that empowers people to achieve their goals through simple, transparent loans funded by trusted financial institutions. Through its proprietary lending platform, Hive, Happy Money delivers a fully digital experience that simplifies borrowing for consumers and helps credit unions, banks and asset managers diversify balance sheets and scale with confidence.

Happy Money is a 100% fully distributed company. Remote work doesn’t mean less work, we work full-time jobs and show up to them fully every day.

About the Role

Happy Money is looking for a Head of Credit & Fraud to own credit and fraud risk strategy for our lending business. Reporting to the Chief Risk & Analytics Officer, you will set credit and fraud policy, lead the team and be the senior credit voice with our Executive Leadership Team and capital partners. You will balance growth and losses to maximize risk-adjusted returns through the credit cycle and build business cases that show a clear, achievable path to profitable implementation.

Responsibilities

Credit & Fraud Strategy

• Own credit and fraud strategy and policy across the customer lifecycle, from acquisition and underwriting through account management, to maximize risk-adjusted returns and manage losses through the credit cycle.
• Set credit risk appetite with the Chief Risk Officer and translate it into clear credit policy, approval criteria and loss targets.
• Balance loss rates, approval rates and conversion to grow profitably, and lead the rollout of growth initiatives, measured against credit and profitability targets.
• Run a disciplined test-and-learn agenda across credit and fraud strategies, with clear success metrics and regular readouts.
• Own credit performance monitoring, vintage analysis and early-warning indicators, and partner with Data Science and Finance on loss forecasting and model governance.
• Spot credit and fraud risks early, including shifts in consumer credit health and new fraud patterns, and respond with timely policy and control changes.
• Ensure credit and fraud policies meet regulatory, fair lending and partner requirements in collaboration with Legal & Compliance.

Leadership

• Recruit, develop and lead a high-performing team of credit, fraud and strategy professionals; set clear goals, coach for growth and hold the team to a high standard.
• Build the right mix of in-house talent, third-party partners and automation tools (including AI), and know when to use each.
• Set the operating rhythm for the function, including credit committee materials, portfolio performance reviews, a central knowledge base and regular leadership updates.
• Build a culture of accountability, curiosity and sound judgment, and grow future leaders on the team.

Executive & Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner with the Executive Leadership Team on company strategy, annual planning, growth targets and risk appetite, and bring a clear credit point of view to growth and investment decisions.
• Present credit and fraud performance, forecasts, risks and recommendations to the Executive Leadership Team, and support reporting to the Board of Directors.
• Work across the organization with Pricing, Data Science, Data Strategy, Product, Engineering, Marketing, Operations, Capital Markets, Finance and Legal & Compliance to design, launch and scale credit and fraud strategies.
• Partner with Product and Engineering on the decisioning, data and tooling roadmap that credit and fraud strategies depend on.
• Own the end-to-end analytics workflow for the function, including defining success and performance metrics, sharing them company-wide and building actionable dashboards and reports.

Capital Partners

• Be the senior credit contact for Happy Money's capital partners, including credit unions, banks and institutional investors.
• Present portfolio performance, credit policy changes and loss expectations to capital partners, and answer their credit questions plainly and with data.
• Work with Capital Markets on partner credit criteria, new partner onboarding and credit programs that support funding capacity.
• Lead the credit portion of partner and investor due diligence, audits and reviews, including forward flow, loan sale and financing discussions.

About You

Core Qualifications

• College degree in a quantitative discipline such as Economics, Finance, Engineering, Math, Statistics, Business, Science or Computer Science (or equivalent experience).
• 12+ years of experience in financial services.
• 8+ years of credit risk experience, including direct ownership of credit strategy or credit policy decisions for a consumer lending portfolio.
• Experience owning or partnering closely on fraud risk strategy and controls.
• Proven track record of building, leading and developing high-performing teams, including remote, multidisciplinary teams.
• Demonstrated experience building trust across cross-functional teams, cultivating an environment of productive friction where feedback is given freely and effectively.
• Experience presenting substantiating data-driven strategic decisions to C-suite executives, boards and external partners or investors with a high degree of influence.
• Direct experience working with capital partners, bank partners, lenders or investors on credit performance, due diligence or credit program design.
• Track record of working across Product, Engineering, Data Science and Operations to build and scale credit and fraud decisioning processes and systems.
• Working knowledge of consumer lending regulation, including fair lending (ECOA / Regulation B), FCRA and model risk management.
• Highly data driven, with the technical fluency to challenge models, analyses and dashboards directly.
• Experience balancing individual contributions with people-management needs across an organization and knowing when to transition from strategy to execution.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience at a fintech or smaller financial services company, where leaders combine strategy with hands-on execution.
• Experience in unsecured consumer lending, such as personal loans or credit cards.
• Experience with bank or credit union partnership models, forward flow or loan sale programs.
• Experience writing a credit policy as part of a new product launch.
• Experience managing a consumer lending portfolio through a credit downturn.
• Advanced degree (MBA, or MS / PhD in a quantitative field).