Head of Risk
Khazna
Accounting & Finance
Cairo, Cairo Governorate, Egypt
About Khazna
Khazna launched in 2020 with a mission to improve the financial well-being of the underbanked, who have little access to formal financial services by providing access to convenient, effective and secure smartphone-based financial services.
Khazna has received the Central Bank of Egypt’s first prepaid card license and aims to become the go-to neobank for underbanked consumers across the Middle East. In the next phase of its journey, Khazna is looking to continue scaling up its operations in Egypt and to launch its operations in Saudi Arabia.
About the Role
Location: Cairo
Reports to: Chief Operations & Risk Officer
Company Stage: Series-B+
Industry: Fintech / Digital Banking / Regulated Financial Services
Countries covered: Egypt and Saudi Arabia
Role Purpose
The Head of Risk is a high-level executive responsible for scaling lending operations while ensuring healthy portfolio quality and automated governance. This role focuses specifically on the credit lifecycle of the customer - from alternative data underwriting to automated collections, while ensuring the firm's lending remains profitable and compliant with evolving 2026 digital asset and credit regulations.
This role will work closely with the CRO to lead the strategic vision for the firm’s global credit portfolio. You will be responsible for managing the whole Risk team focusing on Credit Policy & Monitoring, Underwriting, Collections & Fraud in Egypt & Saudi Arabia.
Your goal is to maximize growth and financial inclusion while maintaining a risk-adjusted return that aligns with the board's appetite.
Key Responsibilities
- Credit Policy: Implement risk frameworks and policies that are localized to each country Khazna operates in.
- Credit Strategy & Underwriting: Design, Implement & oversee the high-performance automated underwriting engines that utilize machine learning and alternative data (e.g., behavioral scorecards and application scorecards) to assess creditworthiness in real-time.
- Portfolio Performance & Monitoring: Oversee the health of the Credit Portfolio through real-time dashboards, managing Key Risk Indicators (KRIs) like NPL ratios, PAR, and provision levels.
- Collections Strategy: Develop data-driven collections and recovery frameworks that use predictive modeling to identify at-risk borrowers before they default.
- Fraud Prevention: Ensure all processes are in place to prevent any fraud losses.
- Compliance & Reporting: Ensure that all executive-level risk reports are finalized and all automated decisions meet local and global regulatory requirements for transparency and fairness.
- Regulatory Framework: Ensure that Khazna’s full operational workflows abide by regulatory guidelines within Egypt and Saudi and uptodate with every change.
- Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration: Build and mentor high-performing Risk teams, while working closely with other stakeholders to reach Khazna’s goals.
Required Skills & Qualifications
- Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Finance, Business, Economics, or a related quantitative field.
- Experience: 7+ years in credit risk management, with at least 3+ years in a fintech or high-growth digital lending environment.
- Strategic Leadership: Proven ability to manage cross-functional teams.
- Analytical Mindset: Expert ability to translate complex data trends into actionable policy adjustments.
- Stakeholder Management: Strong communication skills to liaise between Business Product, Engineering, and Compliance teams.
- Cross functional policy with underwriting, and working with other
- Must handle collection and policy