VP, Head of Risk Underwriting North America

The Vice President, Head of Risk Underwriting North America leads a team of credit professionals across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, overseeing the management and monitoring of Coface's regional trade credit insurance portfolio. This person is responsible for making strategic credit limit decisions, driving portfolio risk management initiatives, and presenting underwriting proposals to Coface Group to support profitable growth while minimizing losses for both Coface and its clients.

As a key member of the Regional Leadership Team, the successful candidate will ensure adherence to risk underwriting policies, governance standards, and portfolio monitoring requirements across the region. The role also serves as a critical partner to senior business stakeholders, fostering strong cross-functional relationships and aligning underwriting strategy with broader business objectives.

This position has overall leadership responsibility for a team of 24 employees, including 3 direct reports and 2 dotted-line reports, with a focus on talent development, operational excellence, and high-performance team leadership.

Key Tasks and Responsibilities

• Establish the strategic direction and vision for the Regional Risk Underwriting Team in collaboration with the Group Risk Underwriting Director and the Chief Underwriting Officer for North America, balancing portfolio health and business growth and with a focus on achieving the defined KPIs

• Demonstrate a strong knowledge of fundamental credit analysis and commercial considerations in taking strategic credit limit decisions of significant value

• Establish and execute clear risk underwriting strategies across buyer groups, including, but not limited to, establishing maximum risk appetite and capacity ceilings, strategically reducing exposure, and determining the appropriate timing for a risk-driven exit

• Execute effective portfolio monitoring through a multi-layered approach

• Actively participate and drive forward the data strategy, inclusive of the ongoing evaluation of data providers, the development of proprietary models, implementing effective Debtor-level alerts, etc.

• Demonstrate effective cross-functional collaboration as it relates to data sharing, claims topics, policy underwriting, commercial considerations, training initiatives, etc.

• Establish strong relationships across the customer portfolio and ensure the broader RUW teams maintains active touch points with clients focused on credit limit decision explanations, portfolio developments, etc.

• Lead and develop the regional risk underwriting teams through a multi-faceted approach, inclusive of a robust onboarding program, regular guidance surrounding large and complex cases, daily feedback on decisions, ongoing professional development opportunities, etc.

• Manage workloads and productivity metrics across the Regional teams, inclusive of staffing considerations, recruiting efforts, efficiency drivers, etc.

• Serve as a member of the daily Regional Deal Committee, providing value-added feedback on the risk portfolio, prospect specifics, and policy terms and conditions

• Establish strong relationships with key stakeholders across the business at both a Local and Coface Group level. 

• Demonstrate strong executive presence in representing the Coface Risk Underwriting function both internally and externally