Underwriting Lead

Aldermore Bank; Manchester; On-site; GBP 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading UK bank is seeking an Underwriting Lead in Manchester to oversee a team of mortgage underwriters. The role emphasizes underwriting excellence and alignment with business strategy while ensuring strong relationships with brokers and customers. Candidates should possess proven leadership in property credit underwriting and be commercially minded. Competitive salary and benefits offered.

Benefits

10% pension

30 days holiday

Annual bonus

Qualifications

• Proven leadership experience in property credit underwriting.
• Strong credit function and operational management expertise.
• Commercially minded with analytical decision-making skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of expert underwriters.
• Manage mandate frameworks for responsible lending.
• Act as the go-to escalation point for underwriting decisions.

Skills

Leadership in property credit underwriting

Analytical decision-making

Regulatory knowledge

Job description

Overview

We're looking for a Underwriting Lead to lead and develop a team of specialist mortgage underwriters, delivering profitable growth across the property portfolio. This role ensures underwriting excellence, adherence to risk appetite, and alignment with business strategy while maintaining strong broker and customer relationships.

What will your day look like?

Reporting to the Property Operations Manager, you'll:

• Lead and develop a team of expert underwriters handling high-value and complex mortgage applications.
• Manage mandate frameworks that ensure responsible lending across specialist residential and buy-to-let sectors.
• Provide first-line technical capability across portfolio lending, corporate financials, and property credit risk.
• Take ownership of delegated underwriting authority, ensuring decisions align with our Lending Policy and Group Risk Appetite.
• Act as the go-to escalation point for new business exceptions, appeals, and loan restructuring.
• Build strong, trusted relationships with brokers, distribution partners, and internal teams.
• Drive underwriting KPIs to reinforce our proposition as a leading specialist lender.
• Identify and mitigate bad debt drivers, working with partner teams to enhance controls.

Qualifications / Experience

• Proven leadership experience in property credit underwriting.
• Strong credit function and operational management expertise.
• A track record in shaping risk and credit policy.
• Commercially minded with analytical decision-making skills.
• Confident communicator with regulatory knowledge.
• A people leader who develops talent and inspires high-performing teams.

About Aldermore

We're Aldermore - the award-winning bank, trusted and highly rated by over a quarter of a million customers for more than a decade. With our range of specialist mortgages, savings accounts and business finance solutions, we're backing more people to go for it.

Culture & Benefits

• We thrive by saying "yes" to our customers. We respect the ingenuity of entrepreneurs and their startups; we give first-timers a leg-up onto the property ladder; we open up the lending market to many; and thousands of customers chose MotoNovo Finance every week to buy their next car, van or motorbike.
• This is where you come in. We are on a journey. A journey defined by a destination; to deliver on our purpose.
• Still curious? Join us and we'll make the same promises to you as a colleague, as we do to each of our customers. We're committed to building a working environment that values respect, diversity, and compassion.
• We welcome people regardless of age, disability, gender identity, marital status, race, faith or belief, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, and whether you're pregnant or on family leave.
• Please note: we have a thorough screening and referencing process, which includes criminal record checks.
• Competitive salary and a great range of core benefits including 10% pension, 30 days holiday and annual bonus.
• A friendly and flexible culture, the same as how we work with our customers.
• A growing organisation that means there's lots of opportunities to progress.
• A drive for continuous improvement, which you will be empowered to get behind from day one.