Make an impact
of your own.

OVERALL PURPOSE

Lula is expanding into higher-value secured funding transactions for established South African SMEs.

We are recruiting a principal transactor, akin to an investment banking deal lead, operating in the SME credit space, to personally originate, structure, and close secured funding transactions through a high-touch, relationship-driven approach We’re offering a career defining opportunity to stand up the operating blueprint for a scalable secured funding function inside Lula.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Transaction Origination & Execution

• Personally originate secured funding transactions in the R5m – R20m range.
• Build trusted relationships with owner-operators, founders, and senior financial decision-makers.
• Lead end-to-end deal execution including opportunity qualification, credit structuring and security design, commercial negotiation, credit committee engagement, legal close and drawdown
• Act as the senior face of Lula for complex, bespoke funding transactions.
  

Product & Structuring Leadership

• Shape Lula’s secured funding proposition in-market, informed by real deal flow.
• Work closely with Credit, Legal, Risk, and Finance to design appropriate security packages, balance risk, speed, and customer experience, and ensure deals are commercially attractive and scalable
• Provide structured feedback to refine product parameters and policy over time.

Greenfields Function Build

• Define the operating model for secured funding origination within Lula.
• Establish origination playbooks, deal qualification standards, pipeline management and governance and, credit handoff and approval workflows
• Leverage Lula’s existing infrastructure (credit, funding, tech, compliance) rather than rebuild it.

Strategic Growth & Future Team Build

• Prove repeatable deal flow through direct origination.
• Define when and how to build a supporting team (e.g. analysts, originators).
• Hire and mentor future team members only once product-market fit is proven.

THE SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE WE’RE AFTER

• 4-7+ years in SME lending, structured credit, private debt, or investment banking-style transactions.
• Proven track record of personally closing secured lending transactions.
• Experience with:
  • Working capital security
  • Asset-backed lending
  • Property security
  • Bespoke credit structuring
• Strong familiarity with South African SME operating realities.
• Exceptional commercial judgement and negotiation ability.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and building from first principles.
• Able to engage confidently with executive presence to seamlessly navigate relationships across senior leadership, external professional advisors, and internal credit risk functions.
• High personal credibility and gravitas.
• Entrepreneurial, hands-on, and execution-obsessed.
• Energised by greenfields builds rather than inherited machines.
• Comfortable being both deal lead and function builder.