Head of Debt Strategy & Development

Pearse Partners; Greater London; On-site; GBP 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Pearse Partners represents a fast-scaling lending platform in London seeking a Director/VP to lead and accelerate the origination franchise. This role offers genuine authority to shape strategy, build teams, processes and the talent pipeline, and to drive the lending platform towards best-in-class status.

The remit covers building infrastructure around origination, managing cross-functional programmes end-to-end, and deepening client relationships across the loan lifecycle.

Job description

Fast-Scaling Lending Platform | London | Director / VP

We are representing a fast-scaling lending platform for a senior hire to help build and scale a highly successful lending franchise. This is an opportunity for someone who already has experience in a strategy, operating or platform-building role to double down on what they have done in this space, applying it to a business with real momentum. The platform is growing fast, the lending business is led by a strong senior operator, and this person will have genuine authority to build.

THE ROLE

The mandate is to build the infrastructure around a highly successful origination franchise: the team, the process, and the talent pipeline that will allow it to scale. This is about supporting the business through its next phase of scaling – going from strong to best in class, rather than from 0 to 1 – with a broad remit, real seniority and a genuine seat at the Debt Finance leadership table. Alongside the operating mandate, a key focus is ensuring that client relationships built during origination are maintained and deepened throughout the full loan lifecycle.

The remit spans five areas:

Own the lending strategic agenda and; lead flagship cross-functional programmes end to end (recent scope: pricing model, incentives model, CRM launch); run the management-reporting and insight layer that turns data into CLO decisions.

Form and test the thesis for new opportunities, run market conversations, and stand them up end to end across credit, transaction execution, and operations.

Commercial Engine

Direct reports across Marketing and Sales Operations. Own marketing’s line into lending and the sales-operations function – pipeline discipline, coverage and origination motions, and the Marketing–Sales handoff – aligned to gross-closings goals.

People & Operating Model

Voice of the team on capability gaps, recruitment, hiring and org design; build the capacity model; partner with HR on development, performance, and coaching managers through difficult conversations.

Finance Partnership

Conduit to Finance on forecasting, product mix, drawdown profile and quarter-end landing – translating commercial reality into the numbers, and constraints back into decisions.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

This role needs two things not always found together: genuine commercial credibility in the lending market, and a real desire to build people and process. Strong fit profiles include:

• The Credit Fund Operator - Director-level at a lender, beginning to feel the ceiling of their model and looking to move towards building rather than doing
• The Investor-Turned-Operator - someone who has already made the move out of a front-line investing or lending seat into an operational, strategy or platform-building role, and gets more out of making a team and process work than chasing individual deal credit
• The Boutique Debt Advisor - 6-8 years in debt advisory or restructuring at a leading firm, ideally having already made one transition into a commercial or operational role
• The Challenger Bank Builder - senior background at a bank that built its credit infrastructure from scratch, with specific experience growing teams where the rulebook didn’t yet exist
• The Chief of Staff - Chief of Staff or Business Management experience within financial services, specifically wired to make a stretched senior principal and their team more effective

WHAT THIS IS NOT

This role will not suit candidates motivated by personal deal credit, those comfortable from large structured banking environments where pace and autonomy are limited, or those without genuine lending market experience. The origination team needs to respect this person from day one.

Director or VP level. Full-time, in-person, London. Start as soon as possible. Reporting directly to the head of the lending business with close access to senior leadership.