Director​/VP Head of Merchant Underwriting

Director / VP Head of Merchant Underwriting Base pay range

$/yr - $/yr

We give businesses and their customers peace of mind by solving complex credit challenges with precision, speed, and intelligence, combining deep expertise with advanced technology, to simplify the experience and deliver better outcomes, every time. We’re a fast-growing fintech empowering enterprise merchants with smarter, more adaptive pay-over-time solutions. From point-of-sale financing to “Buy Now, Pay Later” programs and loyalty integrated offers, we’re building configurable credit tools that help businesses serve more of their customers.

We value teamwork, clarity of purpose, and rigorous attention to data to drive action. We balance speed and excellence to deliver an exceptional customer experience.

As the VP/Director of Merchant Underwriting, you will act as the guardian of Clarity Pay’s financial integrity, managing the critical intersection of commercial growth and merchant acquiring risk. In this role, you will define how we assess, onboard, and monitor enterprise merchants, ensuring that our rapid expansion is built on a foundation of prudent credit and fraud risk management. You will be responsible for underwriting merchants specifically for non-delivery, reputational, settlement, chargeback, and dispute exposure.

Your primary objective is to mitigate the counter party risk inherent in our business model—specifically the risk of unrecoverable funds due to merchant insolvency or operational failure. This is a highly quantitative and strategic role; you will leverage advanced financial and statistical modeling to quantify risks and devise creative mitigation strategies—such as holdbacks, delayed settlements, or covenants—that allow us to say "yes" to business while protecting our downside.

You will work cross‑functionally with Commercial, Legal, and Credit leadership to structure deals that balance commercial success with rigorous risk control.

• Merchant Acquiring & Counter party Risk Strategy:
  Own the underwriting framework for merchant acquiring risk, designing policies to assess a merchant’s financial health and stability.
• Deal Structuring & Risk Mitigation:
  Move beyond binary approvals/declines to engineer solutions such as covenants, holdbacks, and delayed settlement schedules that align with our risk appetite.
• Due Diligence & Investigation:
  Lead engagement with merchant teams to verify financial data, validate business claims, and quantify operational risks.
• Financial & Statistical Modeling:
  Build data‑driven models to forecast potential loss scenarios and determine appropriate credit limits and monitoring triggers.
• Cross-Functional Deal Leadership:
  Lead nuanced, high‑stakes conversations with Commercial, Legal, and Credit Risk leadership to align stakeholders while supporting commercial targets.
• Portfolio Monitoring:
  Implement ongoing monitoring mechanisms to track merchant health post‑onboarding and trigger proactive risk mitigation measures.
• Team Building:
  Build and mentor a high‑performing underwriting team capable of scaling with the business.

• Experience:
  
  7-10+ years in Merchant Underwriting, Commercial Credit Risk, and/or Counter party Risk Management, preferably within Payments, Acquiring, or Lending.
• Technical & Analytical Proficiency:
  Hands‑on with SQL and Python for data extraction, querying, and statistical risk modeling.
• Financial Acumen:
  Ability to dissect financial statements (P & L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow) to assess liquidity and solvency.
• Structured Finance Knowledge:
  Proven experience creating and enforcing covenants, collateral requirements, and risk mitigation solutions.
• Commercial Fluency:
  Track record of balancing risk vs. reward and explaining complex risk concepts to sales leaders and merchants.
• Communication & Influence:
  Exceptional ability to lead nuanced conversations with senior stakeholders while maintaining strong professional relationships.
• Builder Mindset:
  Experience building teams or frameworks from the ground up in fast‑paced, high‑growth environments.
• [Desired] AI-Driven Efficiency:
  Experience leveraging Generative AI tools and prompt engineering to scale analysis.

• Competitive compensation and equity package.
• Comprehensive benefits (medical, dental, vision).
• Collaborative office culture with a strong product mindset.
• Opportunities to grow, lead, and shape the future of consumer finance.
• 401(k) program.

Please email  if you are interested along with a resume.

Clarity Pay is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, veteran, marital status, or any other legally protected status.