Credit Lead
What is FlapKap?
FlapKap is a data-driven fintech lender providing short-term working capital to SMEs in the UAE. We underwrite businesses on their financial health and cash flow dynamics rather than traditional collateral-based criteria, using AI-powered credit models built in-house.
We lend across three products:
POS financing — installment facilities for B2C merchants with significant card-based revenue
Short term loan (STL) — working capital facilities for B2B trading, service and manufacturing SMEs
Invoice discounting (ID) — advances against approved receivables from verified debtors
What will you do?
You'll be the senior underwriter on the credit team — the person who takes the hardest files, forms a view, and defends it in the Investment Committee. Alongside the day-to-day book, you'll own how we decide: refining the credit models and rewriting the policy criteria as the portfolio teaches us what actually predicts default.
This is a senior individual contributor role. You won't manage a team, but your calls will set the standard the analysts underwrite to, and your recommendations will shape the policy the whole company lends under.
Responsibilities:
Underwriting and credit decisions
Underwrite POS, STL and ID applications end to end; assess capacity and willingness to repay; assign risk ratings through our product-specific credit models
Interrogate AECB reports against bank statements and facility letters
Present cases to Investment Committee with a clear recommendation, structure and conditions; own the outcome
Handle enhanced-review files
Structure security and conditions appropriately
Review appeals and exception requests from the commercial team on their merits, and hold the line when the merits aren't there
Credit model and policy development
Analyse portfolio performance to find where our criteria are wrong — which thresholds reject good businesses, which let bad ones through
Recalibrate scorecards and rating logic across all three products; propose and document policy amendments for approval
Build the analysis that justifies changes to exposure caps, pricing bands, refinancing thresholds and eligibility criteria
Work with product and engineering to translate policy into automated pre-screening rules on the platform
Track and report on cohort performance, early warning indicators, and the accuracy of our own risk ratings against realised outcomes
Requirements
4–6 years in SME credit — UAE bank SME lending, or a fintech/non-bank lender
Hands-on underwriting experience with SME files: bank statement analysis, VAT reconciliation, ageing reports, financial spreading
Working knowledge of the UAE credit infrastructure: AECB, trade licenses, Ejari, VAT filings, cheque-based security and the practical realities of enforcement here
Strong AI skills - good knowledge of how models work and experience in using them to create value to the credit team
The judgement to say no to a commercial team that wants a yes, and the analysis to explain why
Nice to have
Exposure to invoice discounting or receivables finance, including debtor verification
Scorecard development or credit model validation experience
Familiarity with automated decisioning and the tradeoffs between rules-based and model-based approval
What success looks like
3 months — underwriting independently across all three products, taking your own decisions and reviewing cases of more junior employees
6 months — you've identified at least two policy criteria that don't hold up against portfolio data and proposed evidence-backed changes
12 months — the credit models are measurably better calibrated on your work, and rating-to-outcome accuracy has improved
Benefits
Competitive salaries
Paid time off
Healthcare coverage
A highly collaborative team environment that will support your professional and personal growth
A culture that promotes work-life balance and wellbeing
A culture of learning and innovation