Senior Underwriter

We’re looking for an experienced Senior Underwriter to join our Mortgage Underwriting team at Darlington Building Society.

This is an opportunity for an accomplished mortgage underwriter to join a mutual organisation where responsible lending, sound risk management and delivering great outcomes for our members are at the heart of the role. All our mortgage cases are manually underwriter ensuring there is always a person behind our lending decisions.

You’ll take ownership of mortgage applications from Decision in Principle through to Offer, using your experience and judgement to assess risk, affordability and lending criteria and make well-reasoned decisions within your mandate. You’ll also play an important role in supporting and developing less experienced underwriters, providing technical guidance on more complex lending scenarios.

We’re specifically looking for someone with extensive hands-on mortgage underwriting experience. You must have previously held an individual underwriting mandate of at least £750,000 and have experience of independently underwriting complex residential mortgage cases.

If your experience includes areas such as Buy to Let, Later Life lending, foreign currency income and other complex residential lending scenarios, we’d love to hear from you.

To be successful in this role, you’ll need:

• Extensive mortgage underwriting experience, specifically within residential mortgage lending.
• Previous responsibility for an individual underwriting mandate of at least £750,000.
• Significant experience of independently assessing and making decisions on complex residential mortgage applications.
• Experience across more specialist lending scenarios, including areas such as Buy to Let, Later Life and foreign currency income.
• Strong technical knowledge of mortgage lending, affordability, lending risk and underwriting principles.
• The ability to identify, assess and manage risk while working within lending policy and risk appetite.
• Experience of reviewing complex income, affordability and supporting documentation and reaching well-reasoned lending decisions.
• The confidence to clearly document and explain the rationale behind your lending decisions.
• Experience dealing directly with customers and mortgage intermediaries, including communicating complex information clearly.
• Strong decision-making skills, accuracy and attention to detail.
• A clear understanding of the financial services regulatory environment and the importance of delivering good customer outcomes.
• The ability to provide technical guidance, coaching and support to less experienced underwriters, particularly around complex cases or applications outside their mandate.

This isn't an entry-level underwriting opportunity. We’re looking for someone who can bring significant residential mortgage underwriting experience and technical judgement to the team from day one.

As a Senior Underwriter, you’ll:

• Underwrite mortgage applications from Decision in Principle through to Offer, ensuring risks are identified and appropriately managed.
• Make informed lending decisions within your underwriting mandate and in line with lending policy and risk appetite.
• Assess complex residential mortgage applications, including affordability, income and supporting documentation.
• Ensure decisions are thoroughly considered, clearly documented and deliver appropriate customer outcomes.
• Provide clear recommendations to more senior mandate holders when a case falls outside your individual authority.
• Provide technical advice on complex underwriting queries to colleagues, customers and other areas of the Society.
• Act as a mentor and technical point of support for less experienced underwriters, particularly on more complex lending scenarios.
• Support coaching, training, quality reviews and colleague development within the Underwriting team.
• Identify and contribute to improvements in underwriting processes, controls and service.
• Provide underwriting expertise to wider projects and change activity when required.
• Recognise and appropriately support customers in vulnerable circumstances.
• Maintain your technical knowledge and competence and operate in accordance with relevant regulatory and conduct requirements.

At Darlington Building Society, our colleagues are central to what we do, and our benefits and recognition package is designed to support colleagues both inside and outside of work.

Our benefits include:

• Competitive, benchmarked salaries.
• 10% employer matched pension contribution
• A generous holiday offering, including a birthday holiday and MyDay
• Opportunities for learning, development and career progression.
• Opportunities to volunteer and give back to our local communities.
• Salary sacrifice car scheme
• A range of additional recognition, rewards and colleague benefits designed to support you to flourish at work and outside it.

Most importantly, you’ll join a Society that believes in developing its people and supporting colleagues to grow their careers.

If you’re an experienced mortgage underwriter with a £750,000+ mandate, significant experience of complex residential lending and the confidence to make sound lending decisions and support others, we’d love to hear from you.

Visit our Careers page to learn more about our benefits and what it's like to work with us.

Job Information
Location: Darlington (Hybrid working non-negotiable. Three days a week on site at Head Office)
Contract: Full-Time, Permanent
Salary: £41,086.45 to 46,242.33 dependent on experience

Ready to take the next step?

If you're looking for a role where your expertise is valued, your development is supported, and your decisions genuinely make a difference, we'd love to hear from you.

Apply today and help us make homeownership possible for more people.