Principal, Head of Corporate Credit Risk - Consumer and Commercial

Position Overview

An indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Apollo Management Holdings, AASP manages the securitized products and structured finance assets sourced and serviced by ATLAS SP Partners while serving as their sole risk manager.

ATLAS SP’s lending business provides financing across three business segments:

• Residential Real Estate

• Commercial Real Estate

• Consumer & Commercial (C&C)

Within C&C, sub-asset classes include but are not limited to unsecured consumer, renewables, credit cards, and auto loans. ATLAS SP’s financing lines, or facilities, are secured by financial assets, and benefit from risk mitigating features including recourse, guarantees, and/or structural credit enhancements such as over-collateralization and credit tranching. Each facility is subject to a comprehensive underwriting process which includes evaluation of general asset performance risk and servicer/originator/sponsor counterparty credit risk.

The Credit Risk Management (CRM) unit within AASP Risk supports the underwriting, risk management and approval of the ATLAS SP lending exposures. CRM reviews the risk profile of every transaction and conducts its own independent analysis on the industry/sector as well as fundamental credit analysis on the sponsor/client. Every lending transaction requires approval from CRM.

The Role

AASP Risk is seeking a Principal to be the Head of Corporate Credit Risk to focus on the Consumer and Commercial (C&C) Portfolio. This will include conducting fundamental credit analysis on corporate sponsors and/or originators in the C&C book with a specific focus on accounts where the financial wherewithal of the sponsor/originator is highly correlated to the collateral in the structure.

The incumbent will report to the AASP Chief Risk Officer and split the risk management and underwriting functions for the C&C portfolio with other Principals. Facility management will be assigned based on the asset class expertise, skillset of the individual and the corporate credit workload, which will take priority in this role. In addition, this individual will work closely on new and existing business opportunities and bring a fundamental credit risk view of the corporate/parent and/or servicer to the underwrite of the transaction.

The ideal candidate will have a genuine interest in securitized products and warehouse lending as well as strong subject matter knowledge of structured products including collateral-based lending across different sectors.

Primary Responsibilities

• Underwrite risk in each transaction, including evaluating the financing structures and asset risk, due diligence on asset pools, understanding the structure of the warehouse facility, credit knowledge to evaluate the risk profile of the originators and servicers, stress testing and analytics as well as market intelligence

• Accountable for independently making critical risk decisions and acting like an investor to approve transactions within a delegated level of authority

• Demonstrate an ability to challenge the business (sales/portfolio/structuring teams), substantiate support or dissent for a deal and where there is dissent, work with the deal team on structural improvements which might move a transaction from “no” to “maybe/yes”

• Participate in the deal underwriting process from inception and be involved over the lifecycle of a transaction, with greater involvement should asset classes be underperforming, higher risk, less liquid, more esoteric, etc.

• Build risk management tools to aid in governing the Corporate Credit risk in the portfolio (including identifying needed changes or additions to risk limits, providing intelligence and input on risk ratings, stress tests, etc. to ensure the metrics and monitoring which are utilized to govern the book are proactive indicators of risk)

Qualifications & Experience

• Strong subject matter knowledge of multiple asset classes in the consumer and commercial sectors; exposure to more bespoke or less liquid asset classes (venture debt, SME lending, fund finance) is highly beneficial

• Prior experience and responsibility for critical decisions of significant financial impact and complex criteria is a main requirement

• Experience underwriting Corporates from a fundamental credit perspective

• Ability to roll-up sleeves and work alongside 1LOD to underwrite highly structured warehouse (loan) facilities

• Strong foundation in risk while also very solution-oriented with a thorough understanding of the commercial needs of a business, especially one in a growth stage, but know how to balance that with risk discipline and control