Mortgage Lending Operations Manager

My client is an award winning, established, successful, fast growing and ambitious specialist Mortgage Lender. The company's main aim is to enable its clientele to secure the mortgage for their property that they desire, whilst providing them with the very best level of service.

Due to successful business growth the company are currently keen to hire a Mortgage Lending Operations Manager. Within this position the Operations Manager will lead a team of Mortgage Underwriters and Case Managers that underwrite/administer often complex/specialist mortgage case's, which are often manually underwritten.

Following on from a strong 2025 performance, the lender aims to increase the amount in which in lent last year by another 50% during 2026.

This is a hybrid role whereby the successful candidate would work from a Central Glasgow based office on a three days per week basis and you will have the opportunity to work from home remotely on two days per week. Alternatively, if you would like to work from an office on a more regular basis then this will be suitably arranged.

This is a Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 5:30pm based role.

• Leading the end-to-end operational delivery of the lenders residential mortgage underwriting process. Primarily to drive continuous improvement, efficiency, scalability, and performance across the lending process, working closely with the credit risk, sales, compliance, operations, and technology teams.
• Overseeing mortgage origination operations from pre-application queries through initial packaging, underwriting support, mortgage offer and conveyancing queries. Whilst ensuring that all processes are scalable, well controlled, that they deliver high quality outcomes, and that they are aligned to the FCA's regulatory requirements.
• Whilst this role is crucial to lending, it does not specifically involve underwriting mortgages. The focus is entirely on the operational infrastructure that surrounds the underwriting process, such as: how the cases are received, routed, tracked, supported, and completed; how bottlenecks within the process are identified and eliminated; and how the lenders operational controls align with regulatory requirements.

• New lending operations management
  - To be accountable for the day-to-day new lending operations across the mortgage origination lifecycle, from pre application queries through to packaging, underwriting, mortgage offer and conveyancing queries, as well as post-completion lending decisions.
• Process improvement and continuous improvement
  - Lead a structured, data-driven programme to continuously identify, prioritise, and deliver process improvement initiatives across mortgage origination, targeting measurable gains in processing speed, throughput, quality, and unit cost per case.
• Team leadership
  - To lead, coach, and develop mortgage operations team (from junior to senior level) to deliver high-quality, strong service, competitive turnaround times, and compliant outcomes, in conjunction with the Underwriting Team Leader who owns the first line of defence (LOD) for the underwriting team and is responsible for their training and development.
• Risk, controls, and compliance
  - Work with the lenders credit risk function to ensure mortgage operations are delivered in line with internal lending policies, risk appetite, and FCA regulatory obligations.
• Customer service
  - To assist within delivering a high-quality experience for customers and their intermediaries throughout the new lending journey.
• Stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration
  - To work closely with the Head of Underwriting, and the Risk, Sales, Compliance, and Technology teams to support effective new lending operations and delivery of process improvements.

• Proven experience within mortgage operations, with strong exposure to the new lending process for residential lending in an intermediary environment.
• Strong understanding of the mortgage origination lifecycle, including application processing, case management, underwriting and conveyancing.
• Experience of leading operational teams within a regulated mortgage or lending environment.
• E…