Senior Specialist Mortgage Underwriter | Complex Lending

The Nottingham Building Society; Long Clawson; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medicash healthcare scheme

Annual discretionary bonus

29 days annual leave + bank holidays

Job summary

The Nottingham Building Society is looking for a Specialist Senior Mortgage Underwriter to assess and approve both standard and complex mortgage applications within delegated authority, delivering fair, timely outcomes for customers and brokers.

You will manage specialist cases, including complex income structures, adverse credit, non-standard properties and EOB scenarios, while mentoring colleagues and helping develop underwriting policy to ensure high-quality decisions across the Society.

Qualifications

• Extensive mortgage underwriting experience with strong expertise in credit risk, affordability assessment and responsible lending.
• In-depth knowledge of complex and specialist residential lending, including non-standard income, adverse credit and higher-risk cases.
• Strong understanding of regulatory requirements, including MCOB, Consumer Duty, AML, Financial Crime and Data Protection.
• Proven ability to assess complex customer circumstances and make clear, balanced and well-reasoned lending decisions.
• Confidence managing policy exceptions, multiple risk factors and complex stakeholder discussions.
• Excellent communication, influencing and relationship management skills, with the ability to coach and support colleagues.

Responsibilities

• Assess and approve residential mortgage and further advance applications within delegated authority.
• Manage complex and specialist cases, including self-employed applicants, adverse credit, multiple income streams, non-standard properties and Extraordinary Borrower (EOB) scenarios.
• Review affordability, creditworthiness, property security and customer circumstances to make informed lending decisions.
• Refer cases outside mandate or risk appetite appropriately.
• Deliver fair, consistent and risk-based lending decisions aligned to policy and risk appetite.
• Consider customer vulnerability, affordability sustainability and foreseeable harm in all decisions.
• Identify and elevate credit, fraud, conduct or operational risks where appropriate.
• Maintain clear and robust decision records.
• Act as a subject matter expert for complex underwriting cases.
• Support colleagues with referrals, technical guidance and best practice.
• Share insights on emerging risks, market trends and specialist lending.
• Build strong relationships with brokers, customers and internal stakeholders.
• Communicate lending decisions, requirements and conditions clearly and professionally.
• Support the delivery of excellent customer and broker outcomes.
• Contribute to specialist lending propositions, underwriting policy and process improvements.
• Support changes to products, policy, systems and decisioning tools.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of regulation, market developments and emerging risks.

Skills

Mortgage underwriting

Credit risk

Affordability

Responsible lending

Regulatory knowledge

Job description

The Nottingham Building Society is looking for a Specialist Senior Mortgage Underwriter to assess and approve both standard and complex mortgage applications within delegated authority, delivering fair, timely outcomes for customers and brokers.

You will manage specialist cases, including complex income structures, adverse credit, non-standard properties and EOB scenarios, while mentoring colleagues and helping develop underwriting policy to ensure high-quality decisions across the Society.