Wholesale Risk Specialist

BBVA is a global company with more than 160 years of history that operates in more than 25 countries where we serve more than 80 million customers. We are more than 121,000 professionals working in multidisciplinary teams with profiles as diverse as financiers, legal experts, data scientists, developers, engineers and designers.

The Issuer and Underwriting Risk unit sits within the Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) Risk division and holds global responsibility for the evaluation, management, and oversight of credit and market risk related to issuer exposures and primary market underwriting activities. Its scope covers the end-to-end risk lifecycle—ranging from initial risk appetite definition through transaction structuring, sanctioning, portfolio monitoring, and regulatory reporting. The unit oversees dynamic and high-impact portfolios with exposures exceeding EUR 25 billion, including syndicated loans, bilateral lending, and capital markets underwriting of bonds and other debt instruments. It plays a strategic role in safeguarding the bank's balance sheet while enabling business growth across geographies, leveraging real-time risk analytics, policy frameworks, and cross-functional coordination with trading, origination, and legal teams.

About the job:

Role Description:

This is a pivotal, first-line-of-defense leadership role operating under the strict purview of the Wholesale Credit Risk Rule and the Loan & Bond Underwriting Frameworks as well as Issuer Risk for CIB´s Global Markets activity.

The successful candidate will take operational responsibility of an end-to-end risk management lifecycle, providing comprehensive global oversight over a highly diversified, dynamically calibrated pipeline. Operating within frameworks that manage aggregate maximum potential exposures exceeding EUR50 billion (nominal) and EUR2 billion (VaR), you will be the definitive voice challenging deal structures, assessing distribution viability, and ensuring the institution’s risk appetite.

Key Responsibilities:

• Deal Structuring & Preemptive Challenge: Act as the primary risk authority during the credit admission process. Rigorously challenge front-office structuring teams on the inclusion of critical risk-mitigating levers—such as pricing/structural flex provisions, Original Issue Discounts (OIDs), and Non-Payment Insurance (NPI)—to ensure asset marketability during volatile, stressed syndication windows.

• Complex Underwriting Oversight: Evaluate and approve highly structured underwriting proposals ranging from large multinational corporate facilities to SPVs for M&A, Leveraged Lending, and Project Finance.

• Dynamic Distribution Strategy: Monitor and enforce risk-adjusted distribution targets. Ensure primary syndication objectives are met, recognizing the dynamic calibration required across asset classes (e.g., maintaining ~66% distribution for IG core clients, scaling up to 90% for aggressive de-risking in Leveraged Lending and TLBs).

• Advanced Market Risk Alignment: Oversee portfolio limit utilization bridging both credit and market risk methodologies. Ensure all underwriting exposures are strictly monitored against Stressed Value at Risk (SVaR) limits, calibrated against severe market illiquidity windows (e.g., COVID-19 stress scenarios).

• Syndication Pipeline Assessment: Conduct multifactorial evaluations of deal origination channels (internal coverage, third-party invites, stapled financing) to determine the institution’s capacity and appetite for sole versus joint-underwritten arrangements.

What are we looking for?

• Deep Subject Matter Expertise: 8+ years of institutional experience in Wholesale Credit Risk, Syndicated Finance, Leveraged Lending, or Capital Markets Risk. You must intimately understand the mechanics of Term Loans (A/B), RCFs, and Project Finance tranches, Issuer Risk and Debt Capital Markets Syndicate.

• Quantitative & Qualitative Acumen: Fluency in both nominal risk metrics and advanced market risk methodologies (BaU VaR vs. Stressed VaR). You understand how idiosyncratic risks (asset mispricing) and systemic market events translate into capital consumption.

• Executive Gravitas & Negotiation Skills: You possess the fortitude to stand your ground against ambitious coverage units and structuring desks. You are comfortable dictating the necessity of true-sale distributions and structural flexes.

• Strategic Vision: You do not just view risk as a limit-monitoring exercise; you view it as a critical enabler of capital velocity and portfolio diversification.

Please note that priority will be given to candidates who are elegible to work in the UK.

Skills: