Head of Underwriting

THE COMPANY

What do you get when you cross the best of Silicon Valley innovation with the agriculture economy? Farmer’s Business Network, Inc.!

We are proudly Farmers First® . Created by farmers, for farmers, Farmers Business Network℠ (FBN℠) is an independent and unbiased farmer-to-farmer network of thousands of American farms.  By enabling thousands of farmers to work together, anonymously and securely to democratize information, the FBN Network is helping farmers level the playing field and put power back in farmers’ hands.  

Farmers Business Network counts top VCs including Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, DBL Partners, and Acre Venture Partners, T Rowe Price and Temasek among its investors. We are a dynamic, and innovative company in AgTech that offers competitive compensation and benefits.

ROLE OVERVIEW: If you are interested in using your expertise in ag finance to create and grow a new business – this is the role for you. You will join our rapidly expanding finance business to drive the credit process including: underwriting decisions and policies, pricing, servicing, risk monitoring, and collections. You will be critical to growing FBN’s lending business and ensuring farmer members have access to credit. It is a unique opportunity to help create and grow a new business line at one of the fastest growing companies in the Ag industry.  

The right person for this role is a builder, who is comfortable with ambiguity (and adversity, at times). We need someone with an entrepreneurial mind, who is able to organize ideas into a successful model - then execute!  This person will have the ability to manage projects across different teams and influence stakeholders, while effectively partnering across multiple business functions. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Strategy & product development:
• Develop and refine FBN Finance strategy along with key members of the team
• Assist in developing and refining new and innovative lending products for FBN members
• Partner with FBN functions (e.g. product & engineering, marketing, sales, legal, finance operations, and accounting) to successfully launch FBN Finance’s new products and improve execution on existing products
• Underwriting, risk, and pricing:
• Refine, update, and drive internal alignment on underwriting and credit risk policies and procedures
• Drive execution of underwriting and risk management policies and procedures including loan review and approvals and ongoing loan portfolio monitoring
• Partner with data science team to build and improve risk and underwriting models
• Refine risk-based pricing model
• Lead underwriting of large, complex credits
• HR & recruiting: Assist in building the FBN Finance team

QUALIFICATIONS

Characteristics/qualifications include:

• BS/BA. An advanced degree in a quantitative field is a plus
• 10+ years working in agricultural lending and risk with increasing levels of responsibility 
• Significant knowledge of agricultural lending – everything from risk management to operations to sales
• Experience developing lending products for farming operations – from low risk, well capitalized farmers to high-risk operations
• Deep knowledge of agricultural risk and underwriting
• Experience and expertise in developing risk-based pricing models and knowledge of agricultural lending pricing
• Experience working with Farmer Mac is a plus
• Passionate about agriculture and farming; a desire to put the farmer first
• A commitment to the highest ethical standards
• A willingness to roll up your sleeves and work in a fast-paced start-up environment, this is not a 9-5 job