The Opportunity:

The Third Party Residential Underwriting Division, as a Division of First National Financial provides underwriting expertise and services on behalf of other financial institutions to the Canadian Mortgage Broker channel.

Reporting to the Assistant Vice President, Third Party Underwriting, the Director provides leadership to a management team in meeting the goals of the Division. Residential Underwriting teams consist of Underwriters, Associate Mortgage Underwriters and Funders. Under the guidance and leadership of the Vice President, the Division is responsible for the assessment of mortgage applications, for third party clients, in making lending decisions in adherence with the established mortgage underwriting policies and guidelines set by the client. The teams also have responsibility for reviewing required documentation for accuracy, completion for closing and advancing funds on approved mortgage applications while maintaining a consistent focus on service excellence.

Management Responsibilities:

• Manage workflow so that established turn-around targets are met
• Review internal and external auditing results to ensure company guidelines and procedures are properly adhered to
• Implement appropriate action plans to ensure teams are in compliance with policies and processes
• Communicate monthly status reports to the team
• Control and manage the branch's underwriting activities adhering to the underwriting guidelines
• Analyze credit and property risk
• Review approved and rejected applications to assess risk
• Approve mortgages applications within appropriate assigned limits escalating to the appropriate level as required
• Communicate policy changes and updates to division
• Build and maintain broker relationships including escalations and concerns
• Build and maintain third party client relationship
• Communicate rate changes
• Develop and maintain relationships with brokers to build loyalty to the Third Party Underwriting team.
• Attend management meetings
• Adheres to policies/procedures to ensure AML requirements are met, when applicable
• Complete special projects as assigned

Team Management Responsibilities:

• Ensure the team has a solid understanding of clients' policies, product knowledge and industry standards
• Provide direction to team members on policy interpretation/corporate lending guidelines
• Facilitate regular team meetings to provide updates on team performance, communicating changes in policies and procedures, and linking company and department goals to individual performance
• Encourage participation and feedback from team leaders on how to continuously improve processes
• Identify team and individual performance gaps; communicate performance gaps, sets action plans and provide training to improve performance
• Provide feedback to team leaders on various quality audit reviews
• Coach Managers on performance and customer service expectations, providing specific training in key skill areas, as necessary
• Participate in the recruitment process
• Salary administration
• Conduct annual performance reviews and set performance goals, as well as, have checkpoint meetings with individuals throughout the year, as necessary

The Requirements Needed:

• Post-secondary education and/or equivalent work experience required
• People management skills-coaching, feedback, development of individuals and teams
• Ability to build and maintain positive relationships
• Strong aptitude for service excellence
• Ability to manage and resolve conflict
• Strong communication skills-both written and verbal
• Strong analytical skills
• Organizational and time management skills
• Positive team player with desire and ability to mentor others
• Effective problem solving and decision making skills
• Fully competent in working with basic pc software and working knowledge of the suite of Microsoft office products
• Ability to manage pressure in an environment of high volume processing with tight turnaround times

In accordance with the FSRA, if a successful candidate is not already licensed, upon starting with First National, they will be registered for the applicable educational courses and upon successful completion of the exam, First National will register them with FSRA to complete the licensing process.

Working Environment and Physical Demands Analysis:

• Office environment
• Periods of high volume with tight timelines
• Long periods of stationary position/sitting
• Prolonged periods of repetitive movement (i.e. using a keyboard and mouse)
• Long periods of time in viewing a computer screen
• Multi-tasking may include speaking to customers on a telephone call while looking up information on a computer program.