Head of Credit Oversight & Portfolio Monitoring

About Us

Tamara is the leading fintech platform in Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC region with a mission to help people make their dreams come true by building the most customer-centric financial super-app on earth. The company serves millions of users in the region and partners with leading global and regional brands such as SHEIN, Jarir, noon, IKEA and Amazon, as well as small and medium businesses.

Tamara is Saudi Arabia’s first fintech unicorn and is backed by Sanabil Investments, a wholly owned company by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), SNB Capital, Checkout.com, amongst others. The company operates from its headquarters in Riyadh, with additional regional and global support offices

About the role

We’re seeking a Head of Credit Oversight & Portfolio Monitoring to sit in the second line of defence, reporting to the Chief Risk Officer. You will set the oversight agenda for credit risk across our markets, ensure robust portfolio monitoring and independent challenge of first-line credit decisions, and drive high-quality reporting to executive management and the Board Risk & Credit Committee. You combine strong quantitative fluency with sharp judgement, turning data into timely actions that protect margin, growth, and customer experience.

You are a driven, solution-oriented team player who partners across Credit, Product, Data, Finance, Collections and Operations. You can shift gears quickly without losing momentum, and you raise the bar for clarity, pace, and discipline.

Your Responsibilities

• Own second-line credit policies and standards, translate Board risk appetite into limits/KRIs/controls and independently challenge new products, market entries, strategy shifts and underwriting models.

• Own the portfolio MI and early-warning framework, trigger timely interventions and oversee ECL with Finance on forecasts and stress tests

• Set and enforce model-risk monitoring for scorecards, decisioning and policy rules (incl. stability, and back-testing) escalating issues and driving remediation with clear owners and timelines.

• Independently assess collections strategy and capacity, recommending line-management actions (limits, exposures) and segment treatments to protect margin, liquidity and risk appetite.

• Deliver monthly/quarterly packs to ExCo and the Board Risk & Credit Committee, lead portfolio reviews and credit forums and track decisions through to closure.

• Build and lead a high-performing second-line team, coach analysts and embed strong documentation, issue management and closure discipline across markets.

Your expertise

• Bachelor’s/Master’s in a quantitative or financial field (e.g., Finance, Economics, Mathematics, Engineering, Statistics).

• 8+ years in consumer credit risk within cards/BNPL/retail lending, with demonstrable second-line or independent oversight experience.

• Deep portfolio-analytics expertise; proficient in SQL/Python and BI platforms, with a track record of turning analysis into clear, actionable recommendations for senior stakeholders.

• Strong written/verbal communication; confident in challenging first-line constructively and presenting to executive/board forums.

• Nice to have: GCC market exposure and familiarity with regional regulatory expectations.