Credit Underwriter

Credit Underwriter - Business Lending & Credit Risk

East Midlands (Office-Based) | £35,000 + Annual Bonus + Private Healthcare + Enhanced Pension + Life Assurance

Are you analytically sharp, intellectually curious, and looking for a career where your judgement genuinely matters?

This is not a role for people looking to process forms. It is a role for people who want to understand businesses, assess risk intelligently, and build a career at the heart of a fast-growing specialist lender.

The Opportunity

A high-growth, technology-driven specialist SME lender is seeking a Credit Underwriter to join its Northampton-based credit team. This is a rare entry-level underwriting position that offers the kind of analytical depth, commercial exposure and progression that is simply not available at most lenders.

The business has grown rapidly, invested significantly in data, AI-driven decisioning and proprietary credit platforms, and has built a reputation for making lending decisions that combine intellectual rigour with commercial common sense. The underwriting team sits at the core of everything the business does.

What Makes This Different

Most junior credit roles involve applying a scorecard and moving on. This one does not.

From day one, you will learn how to evaluate real lending applications, assess the financial health and trading performance of SMEs, understand risk at a portfolio level, and work alongside experienced senior underwriters and credit professionals who are genuinely invested in developing the next generation of talent.

You will be exposed to both broker-introduced and own-book lending - a breadth of experience that many credit professionals spend years trying to acquire.

The Role

• Assess credit applications across SME, commercial and business lending segments
• Evaluate financial accounts, management information, credit bureau data and other risk indicators
• Support senior underwriters on more complex transactions, building judgement progressively
• Work within established credit policy and risk appetite frameworks while developing your own underwriting instinct
• Communicate decisions clearly and professionally to introducers, brokers and internal stakeholders
• Contribute to continuous improvement of underwriting processes and workflows

What We Are Looking For

The business is particularly interested in individuals who combine strong academic foundations with intellectual curiosity, commercial awareness and the drive to build a long-term career in credit and lending.

• Strong academic background (degree-educated or 4+ strong A-levels equivalent)
• Analytical mindset - comfortable working with numbers, financial data and interpreting information
• Experience gained within financial services - motor finance, consumer finance, retail banking, asset finance or similar environments welcomed
• Commercially curious - interested in how businesses operate and how lending decisions influence outcomes
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Unrestricted right to work in the UK

Backgrounds Actively Welcomed

Previous experience in motor finance, consumer lending, retail banking, asset finance or commercial finance will be valued. Equally, strong graduates or career-changers with a genuine interest in lending, risk and business finance who can demonstrate the right intellectual profile are encouraged to apply.

Progression

The business has a clear and demonstrable track record of promoting from within. This role sits at the foundation of a credit career pathway that extends through Senior Credit Underwriter, Principal Underwriter and into Credit Leadership - within an organisation that is scaling rapidly and investing in its people.

The Package

• £35,000 basic salary
• Annual performance bonus
• Private healthcare
• Enhanced pension contributions
• Life assurance
• Genuine long-term progression within a growing specialist lender

Location

Northampton. This role is fully office-based. The business firmly believes that the highest quality underwriting is developed through proximity - working daily alongside experienced colleagues, sharing knowledge and building commercial instinct through observation and practice. Relocation support may be available for the right candidate.

This role is actively targeted at analytically strong individuals from motor finance, consumer finance, retail banking and financial services environments. If you have the intellectual foundation and the ambition to build a career in business lending and credit risk, this is where that career starts.