VP of Lending & Credit

CSP is partnering with a privately held real estate lender in their search for a VP of Lending & Credit. This is a senior leadership opportunity created to accelerate decisioning, own credit authority, and serve as the primary partner to both the origination and operations teams. This role exists to remove bottlenecks in the loan approval workflow, elevate the quality and speed of complex deal structuring, and allow the executive team to focus on growth and strategy.

This is not a policy administrator seat. It is a decisive, deal-minded credit executive who thrives in a fast-moving private lending environment. It will report directly to the COO.

Responsibilities:

Credit Authority & Decisioning

• Serve as the primary credit decision-maker on all loan submissions, reducing escalation to the COO

• Own approval, conditional approval, and decline decisions across all product lines

• Establish and maintain personal credit authority thresholds in partnership with the COO

• Chair credit committee and manage exception review process

Deal Structuring

• Lead complex deal structuring on bridge, CRE, ground-up, and portfolio loans

• Think creatively within credit policy to find workable structures on non-standard submissions

• Serve as a resource to AEs and brokers on pre-submission deal viability

Underwriting Team Partnership

• Serve as day-to-day leader and escalation point for the underwriting team

• Elevate underwriter performance through coaching, decisioning feedback, and deal review

• Identify workflow gaps between origination, underwriting, and processing and drive solutions

Origination Collaboration

• Partner with sales leadership on product feedback, credit appetite, and borrower/broker communication

• Participate in AE strategy conversations to align credit standards with production goals

• Provide credit perspective on new markets, products, and deal types being evaluated

Credit Policy & Standards

• Own and maintain underwriting guidelines across all active loan products

• Lead periodic credit policy reviews and updates in partnership with the COO

• Track exception rates, approval ratios, and portfolio performance metrics

Portfolio & Risk Oversight

• Monitor loan performance, delinquency trends, and early risk indicators

• Partner with servicing on default management, workout strategy, and REO disposition

• Provide credit narrative for investor capital conversations and capital partner due diligence

Qualifications:

• 10 years in real estate lending with significant private, hard money, bridge, or non-QM experience

• Demonstrated credit authority experience — has made final decisions, not just recommendations

• Deep fluency in fix-and-flip, bridge, DSCR, and small-balance CRE credit analysis

• Proven ability to structure complex deals: mezz layers, cross-collateralization, construction holdbacks, guaranty structures

• Experience leading or mentoring an underwriting team

• Strong communication skills with sales teams and external borrowers and brokers

• Comfortable in a lean, fast-moving, founder-led environment