Chief Credit Officer

About the role

The Chief Credit Officer provides strategic leadership and oversight to the Bank's credit administration function. This position is responsible for maintaining the overall quality of the loan portfolio, ensuring compliance with regulatory expectations, strengthening credit risk management practices, overseeing the Bank's Current Expected Credit Losses (CECL) and Allowance for Credit Losses (ACL) processes, and enhancing the effectiveness of underwriting, loan review, and portfolio monitoring across the organization. This role plays a critical part in addressing regulatory and examination recommendations, enhancing credit administration processes, supporting well-documented ACL governance, and strengthening the Bank's construction and development lending program.

Essential functions

• Direct and oversee all credit administration activities
• Ensure consistent application of loan policy and underwriting standards
• Lead response to regulatory examination findings and corrective actions
• Enhance internal controls designed to prevent lending limit violations and approval exceptions
• Serve as the Bank's subject matter expert for construction and development lending
• Develop procedures for construction inspections, draw controls, lien waivers, and project monitoring
• Oversee loan grading, criticized assets, problem loan management, and concentration monitoring
• Oversee the Bank's CECL and ACL process in coordination with Accounting/Finance, including methodology governance, qualitative factor support, model inputs, documentation, and management reporting
• Ensure CECL assumptions, segmentation, loss drivers, economic forecasts, specific reserves, and qualitative adjustments are reasonable, supportable, and aligned with portfolio risk
• Present CECL and ACL results, trends, key assumptions, and recommended reserve levels to executive management, the Credit Committee, Audit Committee, or Board as appropriate
• Update and maintain loan policies, approval authorities, and credit administration procedures
• Mentor lenders, analysts, and credit administration staff
• Various other duties as assigned

Qualifications

Education/Certification: Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, or related field. High School Diploma or equivalent required.

Required knowledge: Full knowledge of loan services offered by Peoples Bank and Trust, understanding of all PBT policies and procedures related to loan services provided, working knowledge of CECL, ACL governance, credit loss estimation, qualitative factor analysis, and related regulatory expectations.

Experience required:

• 10+ years commercial banking experience
• 5+ years of senior credit administration or credit leadership experience
• Significant experience with construction and development lending
• Experience working directly with regulators, loan review, auditors, and executive management

Skills/Abilities: Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills, ability to work closely with lenders, credit analysts, loan operations, executive management, and regulators, provide independent credit oversight while maintaining a collaborative and solutions-oriented approach, excellent verbal and written communication skills, ability to mentor lenders and promote a culture of accountability, consistency, and sound credit judgment.

Physical activities and requirements

• Talking: Ability to speak effectively and communicate clearly
• Average hearing: Ability to hear average conversations at a standard level in an office environment around other customers and bank personnel
• Repetitive motion: The employee is regularly required to type throughout the day
• Finger dexterity: The employee is regularly required to use their hands to type and maneuver a mouse
• Average vision: Specific vision abilities required include close vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus with 20/20 vision (with or without the assistance of eyeglasses/contacts)
• Physical strength: The employee may occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds (unassisted), as well as stand or sit for long periods of time

Working conditions

General professional office environment with climate control and adequate lighting. Occasional additional hours outside of regular bank service hours to complete tasks.

Mental activities and requirements

• Reasoning ability: Ability to deal with a variety of variables under only limited standardization
• Mathematics ability: Strong numeric capabilities; ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure using whole numbers and common fractions
• Language ability: Ability to read, analyze, and interpret documents. Ability to communicate clearly.