Director of Lending Operations

Central Bank Of Kansas City • Kansas City, MO

4d • Onsite

About The Position

The Director of Lending Operations leads and continuously improves Central Bank of Kansas City's lending operating platform. Reporting to the Chief Lending Officer, this position translates lending strategy into clear workflows, responsibilities, service standards, controls, and measurable execution across Commercial Lending Coordination, Loan Documentation, and Loan Operations. The Director leads assigned teams, manages capacity and priorities, strengthens coordination among Lending, Credit, Documentation, Operations, and control functions, and ensures issues are identified and escalated early. Success requires a hands-on operating leader who develops people, uses data to identify constraints, improves systems and processes, and balances customer service and speed with disciplined risk management.

Requirements

• 5+ years in commercial lending operations, loan documentation, credit administration, commercial banking, or a closely related financial-services function.
• Demonstrated experience leading employees, managing performance and capacity, developing talent, and implementing cross-functional change.
• Strong working knowledge of the commercial loan lifecycle, including underwriting handoffs, approval conditions, documentation, collateral, closing, booking, servicing, and portfolio administration.
• Experience developing or improving workflows, procedures, operational controls, service standards, dashboards, and management reporting.
• Ability to establish priorities and make sound operating decisions within approved policy while recognizing matters that require executive, credit, legal, compliance, or audit involvement.
• Strong leadership judgment, communication, organization, systems thinking, problem-solving, and ability to build structure without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor's degree in business, finance, accounting, economics, or a related field is preferred; equivalent relevant banking and leadership experience may be considered.
• Advanced banking, commercial lending, operations, process-improvement, technology, or leadership education and experience.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the Chief Lending Officer to design and improve the lending operating model; translate priorities into clear workflows, decision rights, service standards, management routines, and measurable outcomes.
• Lead, coach, and develop assigned managers and employees; set performance expectations, allocate and reprioritize resources, address performance concerns, build career paths, and maintain cross-training and backup coverage.
• Maintain visibility from active credit request through underwriting, approval, closing, booking, post-closing, and portfolio administration; ensure material work has a clear owner, status, next action, and expected completion date.
• Lead documentation and closing operations, establish pre-closing and booking-ready quality standards, require unresolved issues to be corrected or appropriately approved, and monitor documentation defects, booking errors, and post-closing exceptions.
• Maintain consistent standards for Commercial Lending Coordination and proactive tracking of annual reviews, maturities, financial reporting, covenants, insurance, collateral, and other portfolio obligations while preserving lender and Credit accountability.
• Advance an electronic-first operating environment; strengthen electronic loan-file, naming, checklist, and retention practices; and evaluate approved automation and technology that reduce duplicate work and unnecessary handoffs.
• Develop practical dashboards and performance measures for workflow aging, cycle time, service levels, documentation turnaround, exceptions, portfolio deadlines, booking quality, workload, and capacity; use results to identify constraints and drive improvement.
• Reinforce adherence to Bank policy, approved credit terms, and procedures; partner with Credit, Compliance, Internal Audit, legal counsel, vendors, and other stakeholders; and promptly escalate material operational, customer, capacity, or control concerns.
• Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director