Senior Mortgage Underwriter

Friday Harbor; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in a fast-growing AI company

Relocation assistance

Dental and vision coverage

401(k)

Job summary

Friday Harbor, a Seattle-based tech company, is seeking a Senior Mortgage Underwriter to evaluate complex residential mortgage applications using traditional underwriting practices and AI-enabled tools. This full-time, hybrid role involves collaborating with engineering and cross-functional teams to refine underwriting rules and improve workflow efficiency.

You will review income, credit, assets, and collateral while guiding risk assessment, onboarding new team members, and supporting

Qualifications

• 5+ years experience underwriting conventional, government, and non-agency loans.
• Strong expertise in Mortgage Industry and Mortgages, including current guidelines and regulatory requirements.
• Clear written and verbal communication for cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate complex residential mortgage applications using traditional underwriting practices and AI-enabled tools.
• Review income, assets, credit, and collateral to ensure adherence to guidelines.
• Collaborate with loan officers, processors, and product teams to resolve issues and improve workflows.
• Provide guidance on risk assessment and help refine underwriting rules within the platform.
• Onboard new team members and support customer-facing underwriting inquiries.

Skills

Mortgage underwriting

Regulatory guidelines

Communication skills

Team collaboration

Customer service

AI tools familiarity

Education

Bachelor's or related degree

DE, LAPP, SAR designations preferred

Tools

Ellie Mae Encompass

AUS platforms (DU/LP)

Job description

Friday Harbor is a Seattle-based tech company that builds AI-native pre-underwriting for mortgage lenders. Our product moves underwriting intelligence upstream to the application stage, identifying issues in a loan file early in origination, driving measurable pull-through gains for our lender customers. Friday Harbor helps originators cleaner loan files to underwriters, resulting in faster clear-to-close timelines and fewer underwriting touches per file.

We're a Fannie Mae approved technology service provider for the income calculator, and we received Brody Gapp LLP's first AI governance attestation letter. We work with over 40 lenders, including 3 of the top IMBs in the country, spanning depositories, credit unions, and independent mortgage banks. We're a fast-growing, VC-backed AI company that was born out of the Allen Institute for AI Incubator in Seattle.

Role Description

The Senior Mortgage Underwriter is a full-time, hybrid role responsible for evaluating complex residential mortgage applications using both traditional underwriting practices and AI-enabled tools. In this position, the individual reviews credit, income, assets, collateral, and supporting documentation to ensure adherence to investor, regulatory, and internal guidelines. We're hiring a full-time underwriter to work alongside engineering. You'll be the underwriting subject matter expert inside the company, not at a lender.

The role involves reviewing the Friday Harbor system's findings for income, credit, assets, collateral, reviewing conditions, and collaborating with loan officers, processors, and product teams to resolve issues and improve workflows. The Senior Mortgage Underwriter will provide guidance on risk assessment, support the refinement of underwriting rules within the platform, and help optimize processes to increase speed and accuracy in loan approvals.

You will:

• Pinpoint areas where our system can better reflect real underwriting judgment
• Serve as the underwriting subject matter expert for our engineering team, full time
• Write and maintain evals that test our models against real underwriting judgment
• Help onboard new team members on underwriting fundamentals
• Support customer-facing triage on underwriting questions and edge cases

Qualifications

• DE, LAPP, and SAR designations strongly preferred
• Strong expertise in the Mortgage Industry and Mortgages, including current guidelines, products, and regulatory requirements.
• 5+ years experience underwriting conventional, government, and non-agency loans
• Advanced skills in Mortgage Underwriting and Underwriting, with a proven track record in complex residential loan decisions.
• Strong customer service instincts, this role involves some interactions with customers, not just internal teams
• Ability work collaboratively within a small team
• Willingness to get hands-on with evals, documentation, and process, not just file reviews
• Several years of experience as a senior or lead mortgage underwriter
• Clear written and verbal communication skills for collaborating with cross-functional teams and explaining credit decisions.
• Familiarity with AUS platforms (e.g., DU, LP) and loan origination systems (Ellie Mae / Encompass especially); experience with AI or data-driven tools is a plus.
• Relevant professional certifications or training in mortgage underwriting or finance are beneficial; associate or bachelor’s degree in a related field is preferred.

Compensation and benefits

• Equity in a fast-growing, VC-backed AI company
• Dental and vision coverage
• 401(k)
• Relocation assistance for candidates moving to Seattle

Location

This role requires being on-site in our Seattle headquarterse 3 days per week. We will provide relocation assistance for strong candidates.