Credit Risk Manager

Job Title: Credit Risk Manager

Department: Global Customer Finance

Reporting Line: Head of Credit Risk & Compliance Management

Location: Any EEA country of operation or Berlin (Germany)

Job Grade: 16

About ENGIE Energy Access

ENGIE Energy Access is a leading Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGo) and mini-grid solutions provider in Africa. The company develops innovative, off-grid solar solutions for homes, public services, and businesses, enabling customers and distribution partners access to clean, affordable energy. The PAYGO solar home systems are financed through affordable instalments from $0.19 per day and the mini grids foster economic development by enabling electrical productive use and triggering business opportunities for entrepreneurs in rural communities. With over 1,800 employees, operations in nine countries across Africa (Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia), over 2.5 million customers and more than 12 million lives impacted so far, ENGIE Energy Access aims to impact 30 million lives across Africa by 2030.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/3055106

Job Overview

• With EEA selling its products on credit to hundreds of thousands of individual customers every year, EEA’s Customer Finance function plays a key role in the success of the business.
• The Global Customer Finance function supports EEA’s operating entities on credit product design, workflow enhancement guidance, portfolio management tools and capacity building.
• Within the Credit Risk Management Team of Global Customer Finance, we work on the standards, systems, tools and workflows employed by EEA’s country operations to analyse, manage and direct EEA’s portfolio quality as guided by the relevant Company Policy and business objectives.
• The Credit Risk Manager plays a crucial role in managing and enhancing the quality of ENGIE Energy Access's credit portfolio across EEA’s countries of operation. Reporting to the Head of Credit Risk Management, this role entails supporting on the conceptualization, scoping and design of credit risk management strategies, frameworks and tools to optimize portfolio performance and mitigate risk.
• On a day-to-day basis, the Credit Risk Manager works closely with country teams, the Global Customer Finance team, and adjacent departments (especially Strategic Marketing and Digital) to assess portfolio performance and to ultimately refine credit risk policies, procedures, tools, and compliance frameworks. In this context, the Credit Risk Manager provides process-level expertise to select EEA country operations and other Global departments on Credit Risk Management in general, and on core processes, operating frameworks and standards directly managed by the role holder.

Key Responsibilities

• Credit Risk Management: Principles and Standards
  • Policies, Standards & Procedures. Contribute to the documentation, implementation & maintenance of EEA-wide Policies, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and other core materials related to how our markets should organize their credit risk management function, how to set their respective agenda and how to design related specific workflow for which the role owner was appointed as process owner or custodian.
  • Strategy & Planning. In close cooperation with the Head of Credit Risk Management, monitor compliance with and performance against agreed Credit Risk Management targets. Contribute to corrective action and technical solutions conducive to support swift implementation of agreed corrective action.
  • Credit Risk Assessment. Conduct regular desktop and field-visit-based Credit Risk Assessments of country operations, providing insights and recommendations for improving credit risk management practices, e.g. risk inventory, risk limits systems, entity management interview and documented risk mitigation strategies.
  • Credit Risk Management Framework. Contribute to EEA’s Credit Risk Management Framework for internal use and implementation across the operation. Assistance in developing and implementing credit risk management policies, standards, and procedures across all EEA markets, as well as assessment and review of corrective measures emerging from the constant portfolio monitoring activities and reporting. Ensure that corrective measures are aligned with EEA’s Credit Risk Management Framework, Credit Risk Compliance Framework and EEA’s credit risk appetite and business objectives.

• Credit Risk Management: Agenda, Priorities and Reporting.
  • Credit Risk Reporting and Monitoring. Manage and iterate a credit risk monitoring system pivoted around the Country Credit Risk Reports and related Country Credit Risk Committee meetings involving the country management teams. Inform Executive strategic decision-making processes through the Global Credit Risk Report and related Global Credit Risk Committee meetings involving key decision-makers at SLT level.
  • Portfolio Quality Monitoring and Reporting. Monitor portfolio quality by analyzing key performance indicators (KPIs) such as PAR1+, delinquency rates, and write-offs. Prepare and deliver detailed reports to the Head of Credit Risk & Compliance Management, Global CF Team and the country teams.
  • Action Plans. Collaborate with country teams to develop and implement action plans aimed at achieving credit risk management targets. Provide ongoing support and guidance on executing these plans effectively.
  • Customer Assessment and Portfolio Management Tools. Support the development, testing, debugging, implementation and ongoing refinement of credit risk management tools and systems, including customer assessment models and portfolio management tools.
  • Capacity Building. Provide training and capacity development support to country-level credit teams. Develop training materials and deliver workshops to enhance credit risk management skills and knowledge.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration. Work closely with adjacent departments such as Strategic Marketing, Digital, and Data Analytics to ensure a comprehensive approach to credit risk management.

• Fostering Credit Culture
  • Credit Culture. Foster a strong credit culture built on credit risk awareness and understanding of credit principles in the organization, particularly through training, facilitation and capacity development.
  • Leading Leaders. Recognize, empower, mentor, challenge and encourage country leaders and managers in areas related to credit operations, credit risk management and compliance. Apply a growth mindset and cultivate the same in credit leaders and managers in country.
  • General Capacity Development. Directly support capacity development on credit risk management topics, e.g. through recruitment, onboarding and training.

Qualifications and Skills

Experience:

• 5+ years of professional experience in finance, microfinance, retail credit or a related field.
• 3+ years of domain experience in credit risk management, portfolio management or data-smart lending operations based on commercial principles; exposure to individual micro lending technology is a plus; work experience in Sub-Saharan Africa in the off-grid energy sector is a plus
• Can-do attitude, with a knack for problem solving and tackling big challenges that require both team collaboration and individual perseverance.
• Strong analytical and presentation skills; ability to combine hard data and observations on operational realities and translate into actionable guidance.
• High level of professional curiosity and interest in how to make processes and systems work to their best, and an aptitude to investigate and crosscheck information before acting on it.
• Strong and confident communicator who is equally capable of asking for support and guidance as well as sharing feedback, information and knowledge with others.
• Detail-oriented with an ability to support your colleagues maintain high quality of their work.
• Empathy and stamina in collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders including customers, customer-facing teams, leaders and managers across the business and its cultural contexts.
• Familiarity with the characteristics of our customer base and the challenges faced by our customer-facing teams.

Qualifications:

• University degree required; degree in economics, agricultural economics, development economics, business, finance, microfinance or a related subject is desired.
• Certification in a relevant topic (e.g. risk management, portfolio management, microfinance) is a plus.

Language(s):

• English written and spoken fluency required
• French, Swahili or Portuguese is a plus

Technology:

• Proficiency with standard Microsoft Office software packages is required
• Experience with Tableau or other data visualization tools is a plus
• Familiarity with SQL or other statistics packages is a plus

This position involves 20% to 40% business travel to other EEA countries of operation as well as occasional travel for department workshops, functional workshops, training or representation of ENGIE Energy Access.

ENGIE is an equal opportunity employer, promoting diversity and committed to creating an inclusive environment for all. All applications are screened based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without any regard to origin, age, name, sexual identity, orientation or preference, religion, marital status, health, disability, political opinions, union involvement or citizenship. Our differences are our strengths!