Director - Auto Financing

Our client is a leading automotive marketplace platform operating across multiple markets, enabling seamless vehicle transactions through technology-driven solutions. The organization has built a strong ecosystem connecting buyers, sellers, dealers, and financial partners, with a focus on transparency, speed, and customer-centric innovation.

As part of their strategic growth plans, they are expanding their embedded finance capabilities to strengthen monetization, improve customer affordability, and enhance overall transaction conversion across the platform.

They are seeking a highly experienced Business Head – Financing to lead and scale the lending vertical. This role involves building and managing a profitable lending business, driving embedded finance partnerships, optimizing credit approval models, and owning the end-to-end P&L of the financing portfolio.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Own and drive the overall business strategy, revenue growth, and P&L for the financing vertical
• Build and scale embedded finance solutions including BNPL, personal loans, auto loans, and dealer financing products
• Develop and manage strategic partnerships with banks, NBFCs, and fintech lenders
• Optimize credit funnels, approval rates, and unit economics to maximize portfolio profitability
• Oversee lending portfolio performance including risk metrics, disbursements, yield, and collections efficiency
• Collaborate with product, risk, technology, and operations teams to enhance underwriting models and customer journeys
• Identify new monetization opportunities and cross-sell strategies within the marketplace ecosystem
• Ensure regulatory compliance and alignment with applicable lending frameworks
• Monitor market trends and competitor activity to maintain a competitive financing proposition

What will you drive?

A. Bank Partnerships - Auto Loans

• Own and grow bank partner relationships (currently Emirates NBD; target 4–6 banks).
• Negotiate rates, fees, credit policy and promotions
• Drive approval rate improvement through data-backed underwriting proposals, reduce loan TAT via process re-engineering, and onboard new partners to broaden the product range and sharpen pricing competition

B. Loan Processing Centre

• Build and run a centralized loan origination team serving both retail (VAS) and dealer channels
• Own SLAs across TAT, document rejection, disbursement and collections. Design scalable, tech-assisted workflows and act as the key interface between business teams and bank back-offices

C. Insurance Aggregator Relationships

• Manage aggregator relationships to deliver competitive quotes and fast turnaround
• Negotiate commissions, TAT commitments and offers. Collaborate with VAS and Dealer FS teams to improve insurance attach rates across channels

D. In-house Financing

• Build a proprietary credit scoring model and design a secured auto loan product for customers falling outside bank credit parameters
• Own the NBFI licensing roadmap with the UAE Central Bank, run a controlled 50–100 loan pilot, and partner with the CFO/Treasury to structure the debt funding line

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Business, Economics, Engineering, or a related field. MBA preferred
• Total of 8-10+ years of experience with at least 4+ years in auto finance, consumer lending, NBFC, / fintech
• Built and scaled a lending P&L
• Deep understanding of lending operations, credit risk & structured finance
• Experience in GCC markets preferred
• Proven track record of launching new lending products from zero to scale