Lead Commercial Underwriter

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Job overview

Location

Location:

Location:

Hybrid, Manchester Location is a required field

Working Hours

Hours:

Hours:

35 - Mon to Fri 9am to 5pm - Hybrid Working Closing Date Closing Date:

Advertising Salary:

Salary Details:

Salary Details:

Up to 80000 plus 5500 car allowance Summary We have an opportunity for an experienced Lead Commercial Underwriter to join a high-performing Business & Commercial Credit team, underwriting lending requests to businesses and corporate customers.

This is a senior role, offering exposure to complex, high-value transactions and the opportunity to influence key credit decisions across a diverse portfolio.

The successful candidate will be responsible for assessing new lending opportunities, credit referrals, and exceptions, ensuring decisions align with the Bank’s strategy and risk appetite. Making individual lending decisions up to 2.5m and play a key role in larger transactions up to 100m, including preparing and presenting cases to Credit Approval Committees.

Working closely with the first line relationship management team and their sector specialists, they will evaluate deals, balance risk and reward, and provide clear, well-structured recommendations.

The role also includes oversight of existing lending, conducting annual reviews and renewals while monitoring customer performance and early warning indicators. The role holder is expected to build a good awareness of the overall portfolio performance. Sector exposure includes real estate, housing associations, healthcare, and renewables, with a strong focus on ESG and sustainable lending.

Location:

We operate on a team-ledhybrid approach with at least 1 day a week in the Manchester office.  Our benefits include: 28 days holiday a year plus bank holidays and a holiday buy/sell scheme.

Annual discretionary bonus scheme

Personal pension with matched contributions

Life assurance (6 times annual salary)
Company car allowance Private Medical Insurance Find out more about the fantastic benefits of joining Coventry Building Society here. We reserve the right to close this advert early if we receive a high volume of suitable applications.
For this role you’ll need to have:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with confidence presenting to senior stakeholders and committees

• Strong analytical skills and an ability to translate complex financial statements and non-financial risk factors into structured, articulate credit papers for committee approval

• Ability to balance strict financial metrics (EBITDA, leverage, cash flow) with non-financial drivers (management capability, market headwinds, ESG factors) to form a robust credit opinion

• Proven ability to build and maintain strong relationships across all levels.

• Strong knowledge of the Business & Commercial banking landscape and market developments

• Good understanding of legal and regulatory requirements within corporate credit risk

• Highly organised, with strong time management and the ability to manage multiple priorities.

• Experience in Business & Commercial lending, with a strong grasp of sound lending principles

• Experience leading and underwriting complex lending transactions for Credit Committees, with experience of having a personal mandate.

• Experienced in a number of the following sectors: mid-market trading businesses, syndicated lending, property, healthcare, renewables, or Housing Associations

• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities

• Experience working with credit risk systems, models, and policies.

Experience in these areas would be helpful:

Chartered Banker Institute qualification (or equivalent)
Experience engaging with Credit Approval Committees Previous mentoring or coaching experience

Awareness of emerging trends in credit risk and commercial lending

Experience in managing problem debt  2025, Coventry Building Society purchased The Co-operative Bank. Bringing together our purpose-led building society with the UK’s original ethical bank was the start of an exciting journey.

Trusted by over four million people, we’re a mutually owned business free from shareholders, and with our combined experience of almost 300 years,…