SENIOR BUSINESS ANALYST / PROJECT MANAGER

Senior Business Analyst, Underwriting Transformation

Location: Remote

Reports To: SVP, Underwriting Transformation and Strategy

Department: Credit

Position Overview

Logan Finance is hiring a senior-level Business Analyst / Project Manager to serve as a key execution partner to the SVP, Underwriting Transformation and Strategy. This role is dedicated to driving the initiatives that transform how underwriting decisions are made, communicated, measured, and delivered across the organization.

The successful candidate will translate the SVP's strategic priorities, credit decisioning and delegation of authority, customer-first service delivery, underwriting quality and training, technology adoption, workflow and process transformation, offshore underwriting expansion, and underwriting talent development, into clearly structured plans, requirements, and documentation that drive disciplined, measurable execution, with hands-on operational readiness and implementation oversight through go-live and stabilization in partnership with Business Optimization & Change Management (BOCM) and adherence to Change Delivery policies & procedures.

This role requires more than general mortgage origination experience. It requires a professional with credible, hands-on underwriting, quality control, and/or credit policy knowledge, including recent experience underwriting Non-QM loan products (preferred), who can accurately capture requirements, assess operational and credit-risk impact, and partner effectively with Credit, Operations, Sales, Technology, Capital Markets, Quality Control, Appraisal, Condo Review, and third-party service providers.

This individual will operate comfortably as both a delivery leader and a strategic analyst, capable of connecting the SVP's underwriting transformation objectives to detailed, on-the-ground execution plans.

Key Responsibilities

Underwriting Transformation Program Delivery

• Independently manage the portfolio of initiatives supporting the underwriting transformation strategy, including credit decisioning models, delegated authority changes, escalation reduction, and workflow redesign, from initiation through implementation and stabilization.
• Develop and maintain detailed project plans, roadmaps, and delivery milestones aligned to the SVP's underwriting strategy priorities.
• Proactively identify, assess, and mitigate risks, issues, and dependencies across interrelated underwriting workstreams.
• Establish governance, reporting, and escalation routines that give the SVP and cross-functional stakeholders timely visibility into progress, risk, and decisions.
• Drive accountability across Credit, Operations, Technology, and offshore teams to ensure transformation commitments and deliverables are met.

Business Analysis & Requirements, Credit, Quality, and Technology

• Lead requirements gathering, discovery sessions, and stakeholder interviews with to define business, operational, and system requirements for improvement initiatives.
• Analyze underwriting workflows, escalation themes, QC/TPR findings, and productivity data to identify root causes and recommend sustainable process and policy solutions.
• Develop high-quality artifacts such as business requirements documents (BRDs), functional requirements, process flows, gap analyses, and impact assessments that support technology roadmap prioritization and workflow redesign decisions.
• Translate complex credit, risk, and technology concepts into documentation suitable for underwriting staff, underwriting managers, and technology teams.
• Identify opportunities to streamline underwriting workflows, reduce touches and handoffs, and improve productivity without compromising credit quality.

Offshore Underwriting Expansion Support

• Support the design, documentation, and rollout of the offshore business-purpose (DSCR) underwriting operating model, including workflow, escalation, quality, and service-level protocols.
• Document standard operating procedures, training materials, and performance expectations that ensure offshore teams operate to the same credit, quality, and customer-service standards as domestic teams.
• Track implementation milestones, readiness, and risk for offshore expansion initiatives and related business cases.

Change Management & Implementation

• Develop and execute structured change management plans that define scope, stakeholder impact, readiness criteria, and adoption strategies for underwriting process, policy, and technology changes.
• Partner with underwriting leadership and managers to prepare teams for changes to authority levels, decisioning tools, conditions, and workflow.
• Maintain thorough documentation of change control processes, decision logs, and implementation readiness assessments.
• Monitor adoption and effectiveness of implemented changes and recommend adjustments as needed.

Measurement & Performance Reporting

• Develop and maintain reporting and dashboards that measure the performance and impact of implemented underwriting initiatives against defined success metrics, escalating variances to the SVP and stakeholders.
• Analyze post-implementation data and trends to identify and validate emerging risks or improvement opportunities, translating findings into recommended process, policy, or technology adjustments.

Operational Readiness & Implementation Oversight

• Lead operational readiness assessments in advance of underwriting process, policy, and technology go-lives, confirming staffing, training completion, system configuration, job aids, and escalation paths are in place across domestic and offshore teams.
• Develop and track readiness checklists, entrance/exit criteria, and go/no-go recommendations, and present readiness status to the SVP and stakeholders ahead of key milestones.
• Provide hands-on implementation oversight during rollout, actively engaging with underwriting managers, Technology, and vendors to monitor adoption, performance, and emerging issues in real time.
• Coordinate cutover and go-live logistics, including sequencing, contingency/rollback planning, and communication to affected teams.
• Remain actively engaged with business owners through stabilization, identifying readiness or performance gaps and driving them to resolution.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as a liaison between the SVP, underwriting leadership, Credit, Operations, Sales, Technology, Capital Markets, Quality Control, Appraisal, Condo Review, and third-party vendors.
• Facilitate workshops, working sessions, and decision forums to drive alignment on underwriting transformation initiatives.
• Communicate project progress, risks, and key decisions clearly and effectively to stakeholders at all organizational levels, including executive leadership.
• Build strong working relationships that foster trust, transparency, and collaboration across credit and operational functions.

Documentation & Knowledge Management

• Create and maintain comprehensive procedural, operational, and training documentation that supports standardized, consistent underwriting execution across teams, products, channels, and locations.
• Ensure documentation is structured, accessible, and usable by both underwriting and technology audiences.
• Establish documentation standards and best practices to improve clarity, consistency, and long-term maintainability.

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) & Implementation Support

• Plan and coordinate UAT for enhancements and other underwriting technology changes, including test planning and scenario development grounded in real underwriting workflows.
• Ensure deliverables meet defined underwriting business requirements and operational expectations.
• Facilitate issue triage and resolution in partnership with Technology and vendor teams.
• Support implementation readiness and post-deployment stabilization for underwriting technology and process changes.

Qualifications

Required Experience

• Minimum 5 years of experience in the mortgage origination industry, with strong familiarity across the full loan lifecycle.
• Hands-on mortgage underwriting, quality control, or credit policy experience, including direct underwriting of Non-QM loan products within the last 3 years.
• 2+ years of hands-on project management experience, leading complex, cross-functional initiatives.
• Demonstrated success managing multiple concurrent projects with measurable business impact.
• Proven experience performing business analysis, requirements definition, and process documentation as part of project delivery, ideally within an underwriting, credit, or risk organization.
• Strong experience synthesizing complex, multi-disciplinary information, credit, operations, technology, and compliance, into clear documentation and actionable plans.

Preferred Experience

• Experience working with Encompass LOS, underwriting decisioning platform(s), and integrated mortgage technology ecosystems (POS, CRM, PPE, servicing interfaces, document systems, and third-party vendors).
• Experience supporting underwriting, credit, or operational transformation initiatives, including offshore or outsourced underwriting models.
• Familiarity with QC and Third-Party Review processes, and with regulatory and compliance considerations impacting underwriting and credit decisioning.

Key Skills & Competencies

• Exceptional analytical thinking and structured problem-solving ability, with credible fluency in credit and underwriting concepts.
• Advanced documentation and communication skills, with the ability to tailor messaging for underwriting, technology, and executive audiences.
• Strong ability to connect strategic underwriting objectives to operational execution.
• High attention to detail combined with strong organizational discipline.
• Ability to lead through influence across Credit, Operations, Technology, and third-party stakeholders.
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and driving clarity in complex, credit-sensitive initiatives.
• Strong facilitation, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Demonstrated intellectual curiosity and ability to rapidly learn new underwriting products, guidelines, and risk themes.

Technical Competencies

• Proficiency in project and work management tools (e.g., Smartsheet, Jira, Azure DevOps, or similar platforms).
• Experience with process mapping and documentation tools (Visio, Lucidchart, Miro, or equivalent).
• Working knowledge of mortgage underwriting and origination workflows, decisioning tools integrations, and operational dependencies.
• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office tools, particularly Excel, PowerPoint, and Word for analysis and documentation.

Reporting Structure

This role reports directly to the SVP, Underwriting Transformation and Strategy, and serves as a critical execution partner in advancing the organization's underwriting transformation strategy, including credit decisioning, customer experience, underwriting quality and training, technology adoption, workflow and process transformation, offshore underwriting expansion, and underwriting talent development.