Vice President, Commercial Rating & Underwriting

At American Express, our culture is built on a 175-year history of innovation, shared values and Leadership Behaviors, and an unwavering commitment to back our customers, communities, and colleagues. As part of Team Amex, you'll experience this powerful backing with comprehensive support for your holistic well-being and many opportunities to learn new skills, develop as a leader, and grow your career.

Here, your voice and ideas matter, your work makes an impact, and together, you will help us define the future of American Express.

How will you make an impact in this role?

Overview of The Department

Commercial Rating and Underwriting (CRU) sits within the Credit and Fraud Risk Management (CFR) division and supports the institutional credit risk management function within American Express. The CRU team plays the critical role of assessing and managing the risk of large institutional exposures across all business units within American Express, and in all regions globally.  Credit exposures are primarily generated through corporate and small business charge card programs, and via merchant relationships where non-delivery risk exists.  This team focuses on Amex’s largest credit exposures, whereas smaller commercial and consumer credit risks are generally measured by machine learnings models. CRU is led from Salt Lake City with regional teams in New York, Phoenix, London, Singapore, Sydney, Mexico City, Toronto and Bangalore.

Job Responsibilities

CRU has three Vice Presidents responsible for overseeing directors whose teams’ rate and underwrite credit exposures in their assigned region, industry, and business line.  Fundamental analysis incorporates a thorough review of business, finance, industry and country risk coupled with support from internal and external rating model outputs.  Assessment includes understanding of the need for credit extension, and profitability of the relationship and program structures. CRU VPs interact with various constituents across the company including front office sales, business unit risk partners, and credit administration to perform their critical role.  They assist with data analysis and building underwriting capabilities. 

Specifically, this open position will lead several CRU director-led teams with portfolio management responsibilities across large corporate and small to medium sized enterprises.  Responsibilities include ensuring accurate rating, prudent underwriting, and effective monitoring of American Express’s commercial portfolio.  They also include oversight of CRU operational efficiency, policy and procedure documentation, quality review, enhancement initiatives, training across the team, and capabilities and MIS development.

Desired Skills

• Expertise as a credit and underwriting decision maker dealing with commercial exposures ranging from small and medium sized businesses to large, multinational institutions
• Thorough understanding of fundamental financial analysis, including the ability to review financial statements to determine the ability of the obligor to honor its credit obligations
• Comfort with GAAP/IFRS accounting standards, corporate valuation, and forecasting techniques
• Knowledge of how probability of default and loss given default determine economic capital
• Experience in determining appropriate credit capacity, structuring of facilities, and risk mitigation techniques
• Familiarity with quantitative credit models, knowledge of how to interpret the outputs, and when deviation from the model has appropriate defense
• Comfort with public agency ratings and supporting analysis
• Understanding of current macroeconomic trends and how to provide recommendations to improve the probability of default estimation based on the business cycle
• Experience preparing company-specific and industry-wide credit memorandums
• Excellent judgment in making sound rating and underwriting decisions to maximize profitability and mitigate risk
• Familiarity with banking regulations, particularly those imposed by the Federal Reserve and OCC, Amex’s primary regulators
• Track record of collaborating and building relationships across an organization
• Ability to lead large scale, time sensitive, enterprise-wide projects through to successful completion
• Proven ability to influence others to achieve complex objectives against tight deadlines
• Experience managing others, with the proven ability to lead a diverse team of professionals, understand their individual needs, and inspire them to achieve a common goal
• Executive presence with excellent communication skills, the ability to listen, and provide input to help senior leadership make informed decisions

Qualifications

•            Minimum 15 years of experience rating and / or underwriting at a leading financial institution or rating agency

•            Bachelor’s degree (or substantial coursework) in finance, accounting, economics, or statistics

•            Graduate degree with a finance or business emphasis, or Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, is preferred

Salary Range: $185,000.00 to $260,000.00 annually + bonus + equity (if applicable) + benefits

The above represents the expected salary range for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining your pay, we’ll consider your location, experience, and other job-related factors.

We back you with benefits that support your holistic well-being so you can be and deliver your best. This means caring for you and your loved ones' physical, financial, and mental health, as well as providing the flexibility you need to thrive personally and professionally:

• Competitive base salaries 
• Bonus incentives 
• 6% Company Match on retirement savings plan 
• Free financial coaching and financial well-being support 
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability benefits 
• Flexible working model with hybrid, onsite or virtual arrangements depending on role and business need 
• 20+ weeks paid parental leave for all parents, regardless of gender, offered for pregnancy, adoption or surrogacy 
• Free access to global on-site wellness centers staffed with nurses and doctors (depending on location) 
• Free and confidential counseling support through our Healthy Minds program 
• Career development and training opportunities

For a full list of Team Amex benefits, visit our Colleague Benefits Site.

American Express is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability status, age, or any other status protected by law. American Express will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with arrest or conviction records, in accordance with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including, but not limited to, the California Fair Chance Act, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. For positions covered by federal and/or state banking regulations, American Express will comply with such regulations as it relates to the consideration of applicants with criminal convictions.

We back our colleagues with the support they need to thrive, professionally and personally. That's why we have Amex Flex, our enterprise working model that provides greater flexibility to colleagues while ensuring we preserve the important aspects of our unique in-person culture. Depending on role and business needs, colleagues will either work onsite, in a hybrid model (combination of in-office and virtual days) or fully virtually.

Employment eligibility to work with American Express in the U.S is required as the company will not pursue visa sponsorship for these positions

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