Real Estate Underwriting Manager

Description

Salary Range: $110,300.00 - $136,000.00 Exact compensation may vary based on skill and experience.

Hybrid opportunity requiring a local candidate to the greater Sacramento region.
Why SAFE?

SAFE offers so much more than just full medical, vision, dental, 401k matching, HSA, and FSA! Learn more about how we support our workforce!

• Professional Development Opportunities : Offering training programs, workshops, and mentorship.
• Recognition and Appreciation : Regularly acknowledging employee achievements and contributions.
• Flexible Work Arrangements : Providing options for remote work and flexible scheduling.
• Positive Company Culture : Fostering an inclusive, collaborative, and supportive work environment.
• Career Growth : Clear paths for career advancement and internal promotions.
• Work-Life Balance : Encouraging a healthy balance between professional and personal life.
• Employee Empowerment : Allowing employees to make decisions and have autonomy in their roles.
• Space of Belonging: ERGs, YOUnity Council and a focus around diversity, equity inclusion and belonging.
• Wellness Programs : Promoting physical and mental health through wellness initiatives and resources.
• Strong Leadership : Having leaders who inspire, support, and guide their teams effectively.
• Sense of Purpose : Creating a sense of mission and aligning company goals with employees' personal values.

POSITION PURPOSE

The Real Estate Underwriting Manager provides strategic leadership and oversight of real estate underwriting operations, including the Underwriting Supervisor/Team Lead and Real Estate Loan Underwriters. This role is accountable for ensuring sound credit decision-making that aligns with SAFE's risk appetite, portfolio performance objectives, and service standards.

The Manager ensures underwriting practices comply with all applicable federal and state regulations, investor guidelines (FNMA/FHLMC), and internal credit policy, while achieving consistent turnaround times and high-quality member and partner experience. The role serves as a key thought partner to Real Estate Lending Leadership and Credit Risk in maintaining a strong and sustainable credit culture.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS AND BASIC DUTIES

• Lead, coach, and develop underwriting leadership and staff, fostering a culture of accountability, consistency, and continuous improvement
• Establish clear, measurable performance goals for direct reports; ensure timely and meaningful performance evaluations, feedback, and development planning.
• Maintain overall accountability for credit quality and risk management across all real estate originations.
• Partner with the VP, Credit Risk and Real Estate Lending Leadership to develop, maintain, and refine credit policy, underwriting standards, and risk evaluation frameworks aligned with Board-approved credit culture and risk tolerance.
• Monitor underwriting exceptions, trends, and decision outcomes; ensure fair, consistent application of guidelines using appropriate compensating factors.
• Analyze underwriting guidelines to identify emerging risk trends or growth opportunities; present data-supported recommendations for policy enhancements.
• Collaborate with Credit Risk and portfolio teams to monitor loan performance and assess whether underwriting guidance adjustments are warranted.
• Ensure underwriting quality control by overseeing the review of underwriter decision samples (approvals, declines, counters) and implementing corrective actions, training, or process improvements as needed.
• Perform monthly quality reviews of Underwriting Supervisor/Team Lead decisions.
• Maintain expert knowledge of applicable federal, state, and investor regulatory requirements; implement policy and procedural changes as required.
• Review Quality Assurance findings and collaborate with QA leadership and Real Estate management to address root causes and improve loan quality.
• Serve as a subject matter expert to internal stakeholders including Secondary Marketing, Product Development, Marketing, and enterprise project teams.
• Support a culture of compliance, ethics, inclusivity, and sound risk management.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS

Education/Certification:


Bachelor's degree from an accredited four-year college or university; or equivalent combination of education and relevant industry experience.

• CERTIFICATION: NMLS preferred
• Direct Endorsement (DE) preferred

Required Knowledge:

• Demonstrated ability to lead managers, supervisors, and professional underwriting staff.
• Deep expertise in residential real estate lending, mortgage and equity underwriting, and investor guidelines (FNMA/FHLMC).
• Strong understanding of regulatory requirements including fair lending, ATR/QM, HMDA, and state-specific real estate lending laws.
• Proven ability to assess credit risk using qualitative judgment and quantitative analysis.
• Experience influencing policy and process decisions through data-driven recommendations.
• Strong communication, executive presence, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Ability to translate risk strategy into practical underwriting guidance and operational execution.

Experience Required:

• Minimum of 7+ years of progressive experience in real estate underwriting or credit risk, including leadership responsibility
• Experience managing underwriting teams and/or supervisors strongly preferred

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.


WORK ENVIRONMENT/PHYSICAL DEMANDS SUMMARY

LANGUAGE SKILLS

• Ability to read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, or governmental regulations.
• Ability to comprehend and author procedures, reports, and business correspondence.
• Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from groups of managers, peers, vendors, and the general public.

MATHEMATICAL SKILLS AND REASONING ABILITY

• Ability to work with mathematical concepts such as probability and statistical inference.
• Ability to apply concepts such as fractions, percentages, ratios, and proportions to practical situations.
• Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists.
• Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit and talk or hear, and use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools, or controls.
• The employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; reach with hands and arms; and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.
• The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 10 pounds.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision.
• The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

INTENT AND FUNCTION OF JOB DESCRIPTIONS

This is not necessarily an all-inclusive list of job-related responsibilities, duties, skills, efforts, requirements or working conditions. All descriptions have been reviewed to ensure that only essential functions and basic duties have been included. Peripheral tasks, only incidentally related to each position, have been excluded. Requirements, skills, and abilities included have been determined to be the minimal standards required to successfully perform the positions. While this is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current job, management reserves the right to revise the job or to require that other or different tasks be performed as assigned.

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, it is possible that requirements may be modified to reasonably accommodate disabled individuals. However, no accommodations will be made which may pose serious health or safety risks to the employee or others or which impose undue hardships on the organization.

Job descriptions are not intended as and do not create employment contracts. The organization maintains its status as an at-will employer. Employees can be terminated for any reason not prohibited by law.