Commercial Credit Operations Manager

Credit Union West•Glendale, AZ

About The Position

The Commercial Credit Operations Manager provides day-to-day leadership for commercial credit operations, including commercial loan underwriting, financial analysis, processing, documentation coordination, closing preparation, funding readiness, post-closing follow-up, and related support. The role ensures commercial lending activities are accurate, timely, compliant, well controlled, and consistent with loan policy, credit standards, approval authority requirements, risk appetite, and sound lending practices. It also oversees the small business lending process and serves as the primary business administrator for the commercial loan origination system. The manager leads and develops a high-performing team, allocates resources, manages workflow and service levels, and supports sound lending decisions and portfolio quality. The role partners across Commercial Lending, Business Services, Credit Administration, Operations, Treasury Management, Information Technology, Compliance, vendors, and leadership to improve member experience, operational efficiency, and scalable commercial lending growth. The position also supports responsible adoption of emerging technologies, including AI, while following organizational governance, risk management, and compliance requirements.

Requirements

5–8 years of leadership experience in a financial institution or similar industry, with experience in commercial lending, commercial credit analysis, commercial loan underwriting, commercial loan operations, portfolio management, or related financial services preferred.
Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, accounting, economics, management, or a related field preferred, or equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience with commercial real estate, C&I, small business lending, equipment financing, lines of credit, owner-occupied real estate, loan documentation, closing coordination, loan origination systems, and credit union or banking operations.

Responsibilities

Hire, train, direct, coach, and evaluate employees; develop a high-performing cross-functional team and allocate resources to meet department needs.
Oversee daily commercial underwriting, financial analysis, processing, documentation coordination, closing preparation, funding readiness, post-closing follow-up, and related operations.
Ensure loan requests, renewals, modifications, extensions, and annual reviews are analyzed accurately and consistently under applicable policies, standards, authority requirements, risk appetite, and sound lending practices.
Review and provide guidance on credit memorandums, financial spreads, risk summaries, collateral and guarantor analyses, repayment assessments, policy exceptions, covenants, and recommended loan structures.
Oversee the small business lending process, including intake, underwriting workflow, documentation requirements, credit decision support, processing, closing coordination, exception handling, reporting, and process improvement.
Administer the commercial loan origination system, including coordinating user access, supporting workflow configuration, managing queues, maintaining templates, testing systems, escalating issues, coordinating with vendors and internal partners, supporting reporting, and documenting processes.
Monitor commercial and small business loan pipelines, assign work, manage priorities, identify bottlenecks, track turnaround times, and move loan requests efficiently through funding.
Develop, document, and improve underwriting, analysis, processing, closing, LOS, and small business lending procedures, templates, checklists, reports, and workflows.
Prepare and communicate pipeline updates, workflow metrics, exception trends, service-level results, LOS issues, small business lending activity, underwriting volume, and operational recommendations for leadership review.
Identify and escalate credit, operational, compliance, documentation, collateral, policy, system, workflow, and portfolio risks; recommend controls, corrective actions, training, and process enhancements.
Support annual reviews, covenant tracking, exception monitoring, maturing loan reviews, borrowing base reviews, reporting, quality control, audit responses, and identification of emerging portfolio risk trends.
Collaborate with Commercial Bankers, Relationship Managers, Business Services, Treasury Management, Credit Administration, Operations, Compliance, Information Technology, vendors, and leadership to resolve issues, align priorities, and improve the commercial lending experience.
Encourage responsible and effective use of emerging technologies, including AI, with appropriate governance, risk management, and compliance with organizational policies.
Perform other duties as assigned.