Director of Card Growth & Risk Initiatives, Upgrade
$190-220k
Offering responsible credit to mainstream consumers
Be an early applicant
Offering responsible credit to mainstream consumers
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
$190-220k
1001+ employees
Company mission
To help our customers move in the right direction with responsible financial products that put more money in their pocket.
Role
Who you are
- 7+ years of experience in consumer finance, consulting, or other data-driven backgrounds
- Deep experience with consumer lending / credit risk, particularly in credit cards
- Data-driven and independent problem solver
- Strong communicator with a knack for identifying the business intuition behind complexity
- Comfort with solving white-space problems and identifying reasonable paths in the face of ambiguity
- Strong proficiency in SQL, Excel (Python is a plus)
What the job involves
- We're seeking a hands-on and data-driven Director to lead Card Credit R&D and Growth Initiatives
- In this role, you'll drive and deliver a variety of strategic, high impact initiatives that unlock and accelerate growth of our Credit Card business
- You will creatively use internal/external data, business judgement, and scenario analysis to develop business cases for new initiatives
- You will partner cross-functionally to advocate for high value initiatives, develop plans to implement and scale, and report results to leadership
- Your work will drive sustainable and responsible growth in Cards, advance our ability to serve a larger customer base, and ensure predictable and strong returns from our Card product
- This role will be based in our Wilmington or San Francisco office in a hybrid capacity
- Provide credit risk leadership, policy design, and support to launch prioritized strategic initiatives, such as (but not limited to)
- O Enhanced scale in Affinity Segments
- O Expand into new customer segments with customized approaches
- O Enable / support marketing initiatives with credit risk interactions,
- Such as credit line marketing to prospective customers
- Identify and pursue new growth opportunities
- Develop a forward-looking agenda to deliver continued growth and influence the organization to rally behind it
- Evaluate opportunities, propose tests, and build business cases to unlock future card growth
- Combine test results, internal and external market data, and business judgement to deliver responsible growth
- Test cash flow underwriting use-cases, evaluate business case to deploy at scale, and develop policies to unlock growth
- Develop and enhance Intentional Credit Misuse / Synthetic U/W defenses
- Partner cross-functionally to implement and scale
- Track performance of initiatives, identify further opportunities to enhance and report recommendations/results to leadership
Our take
Most credit cards don't encourage the owner to pay down their debt. The longer it takes to pay off the balance, the more money lenders are set to make. Upgrade is an online lender and card issuer doing things differently. The company offers personal loans and credit cards, but with a fixed instalment structure and a set number of equal payments. This ensures the balance reduces every month.
The company believes this model reduces default rates, as borrowers are forced to pay down rather than maintain their debt, and it encourages a greater commitment to repay the balance. Further, by combining the ease of a Visa card with the fixed payments and decreased rates of a personal loan, Upgrade sets itself apart from competitors.
In 2021, Upgrade launched its mobile banking and debit card to onboard new customers and increase loyalty. The fixed-rate nature of the company's cards is expected to be of use to customers in future years in an environment of rising rates. Off the back of impressive growth milestones in 2025, the company raised $165 million in Series G funding, raising its valuation to $7.3 billion, a comfortable position for a future IPO.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
18% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Oct 2025
$165m
SERIES G
Nov 2021
$280m
SERIES F
Total funding: $712m
Company benefits
- Stock option plan
- 100% paid coverage of medical, dental and vision insurance
- Flexible PTO
- Opportunities for professional growth and development
- Paid parental leave
- Health & wellness initiatives
Company HQ
Financial District, San Francisco, CA
Leadership
Renaud Laplanche
(Co-Founder & CEO)After an MBA at London Business School, Renaud spent 5 years as an Associate at Clearly Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and co-founded MatchPoint. They then left Oracle after a year to co-found Lending Club in 2006 and co-founded Upgrade in August 2016.
Adelina Grozdanova
(Co-Founder & Head of Investor Group)Adelina started their career with 6 years at Morgan Stanley after a degree at Princeton. They left banking in 2012 to join Lending Club as VP, and after 3 years co-founded Upgrade, serving as Head of Investor Group since 2016.
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