Consumer Lending Underwriter

Kansas City Credit Union•Kansas City, MO

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, the Consumer Lending Underwriter is responsible for timely, consistent, and well-documented decisions on direct and indirect consumer loan applications, along with selected loan-operations and portfolio-monitoring duties. This role involves evaluating credit history, income, debt obligations, collateral, and other risk factors to approve, conditionally approve, counteroffer, or decline loan applications within delegated authority. The underwriter must also identify fraud indicators, ensure compliance with lending policies and regulations, and manage the underwriting queue to meet service levels. Additionally, the position supports workflow and lending operations, monitors portfolio performance, and reports on trends and emerging concerns to management. The underwriter must exercise independent credit judgment and maintain confidentiality of sensitive information.

Requirements

Three or more years of progressively responsible consumer lending or underwriting experience, with meaningful experience in auto and unsecured lending.
Demonstrated ability to analyze credit reports, income, cash flow, debt obligations, collateral, risk-based pricing, and loan structure.
Working knowledge of direct and indirect consumer lending, lending documentation, fair-lending expectations, and applicable consumer-credit regulations.
Experience using a loan origination system, core platform, credit-bureau tools, and automated decisioning or scorecard solutions.
Strong written communication, attention to detail, time management, independent judgment, confidentiality, and ability to explain decisions clearly and respectfully.

Nice To Haves

Credit union or community financial institution experience, including direct and indirect auto underwriting.
Experience with loan quality control, post-booking review, portfolio reporting, or lending-system testing.
Bachelor's degree in business, finance, accounting, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience; lending or underwriting certification is a plus.

Responsibilities

Review and decision direct and indirect consumer loan applications, including auto, personal, credit card, share-secured, and other consumer products assigned to the centralized underwriting queue.
Evaluate credit history, income, debt obligations, collateral, loan-to-value, term, member relationship, and other relevant risk factors; approve, conditionally approve, counteroffer, or decline within delegated authority.
Structure loan amount, down payment, term, collateral, pricing, and stipulations in accordance with lending policy and product guidelines; use automated decisioning and scorecards as decision-support tools.
Identify fraud indicators, inconsistent application information, identity concerns, and unusual activity; pause decisioning and escalate concerns through established channels.
Document the credit rationale, conditions, exceptions, overrides, and adverse-action reasons clearly and accurately.
Apply lending policy consistently and comply with applicable consumer-lending, fair-lending, and member-protection requirements; escalate compliance concerns promptly.
Verify that required supporting documentation and underwriting stipulations are satisfied before final approval or handoff for closing and funding.
Maintain complete and timely loan-system records and participate in loan reviews, audits, examinations, and corrective-action work involving consumer credit decisions.
Manage the underwriting queue to established service levels, prioritize time-sensitive indirect and member-facing requests, and communicate delays or missing information promptly.
Communicate decisions, conditions, counteroffers, and structure guidance clearly to Consumer Loan Specialists and member-service staff.
Perform assigned post-decision quality checks and support exception tracking, procedure maintenance, lending-system testing, and resolution of application or documentation issues.
Train staff on application quality and lending requirements and recommend workflow, policy, scorecard, and system improvements to the Chief Operating Officer.
Monitor approval, decline, counteroffer, exception, override, and turnaround-time trends and report meaningful findings to the Chief Operating Officer and management.
Review early-payment defaults, delinquency, charge-offs, collateral performance, dealer trends, and loan vintages to identify emerging underwriting concerns.
Assist with periodic validation of underwriting guidelines, pricing tiers, decision models, policy limits, and delegated authority.
Identify concentrations, repeat exceptions, documentation weaknesses, or adverse trends; recommend corrective action and maintain the confidentiality of member and credit information.
Make consumer credit decisions only within authority formally delegated under Board-approved lending policy.
Independently decision applications within delegated authority and document the rationale.
Escalate policy exceptions, amounts above delegated authority, new or unusual products, material fraud concerns, or unresolved compliance questions to the Chief Operating Officer before approval.
Maintain independent credit judgment and do not allow loan-production goals or sales pressure to influence decisions.
Reassign applications involving the underwriter, an immediate family member, or another conflict of interest.