Commercial Credit Operations Manager

Credit Union West has been named a ‘Top Company to Work for in Arizona’ for the 14th year in a row (2014-2026)! This prestigious award announced by BestCompaniesAZ is earned by achieving stellar marks in a comprehensive workplace survey, where employees are asked to rate and share feedback including culture, leadership and overall satisfaction.

Credit Union West continuously looks for ways to improve employee satisfaction and experience. In addition to high paying wages, Credit Union West also offers the following:

• Full-time employees receive 100% paid health, dental & vision insurance
• Earn incentives up to 20%, depending on position
• 401K plan with employer matching funds up to 5%
• Profit Sharing
• Tuition reimbursement
• Gym membership reimbursement
• Paid time off for holidays, vacation, and sick days
• Credit Union West membership and discounts

Be part of our award-winning team!

POSITION SUMMARY

The Commercial Credit Operations Manager embodies the essence of servant leadership, prioritizing the needs of employees, members, and communities. The Commercial Credit Operations Manager will be committed to fostering a positive and inclusive workplace culture. They will promote an environment where all employees feel valued, respected, and empowered to contribute to the organization's success.

The individual serves as a champion of the credit union’s strategic direction, leading by example to innovate, adapt, and drive initiatives that propel Credit Union West towards a shared vision of growth, financial stability and community prosperity.

Enhances the quality of life for members and team members by actively leading, reinforcing, and consistently modeling the WEST service model, ensuring teams meet or exceed service and by leading the commercial credit operations function and ensuring accurate, timely, compliant, and well-controlled execution of commercial lending activities.

The Commercial Credit Operations Manager provides day-to-day leadership for commercial loan underwriting, commercial analysis, processing, closing, and related support functions.

This position is responsible for managing team workflow, maintaining credit quality standards, supporting sound lending decisions, overseeing the small business lending process, administering the commercial loan origination system, and partnering with Commercial Lending, Business Services, Credit Administration, Operations, Treasury Management, Information Technology, Compliance, and leadership to strengthen member experience, operational efficiency, portfolio quality, and scalable commercial lending growth.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS & RESPONSIBILITIES

• Leading Talent – Hire, train, direct and evaluate employee performance and behaviors to serve the member experience. Build, develop and lead an effective, cross-functional, and high performing team. Allocate resources to meet operational needs within the department. Provide leadership, coaching, and direction for their team members ensuring they have the support and development opportunities to become well-trained employees excelling in their roles.
• Commercial Credit Operations Management - Oversee the day-to-day workflow for commercial underwriting, financial analysis, processing, documentation coordination, closing preparation, funding readiness, post-closing follow-up, and related operational activities. Ensure commercial loan requests, renewals, modifications, extensions, and annual reviews are analyzed accurately and consistently in accordance with loan policy, credit standards, approval authority requirements, risk appetite, and sound lending practices. Review and provide guidance on credit memorandums, financial spreads, risk summaries, collateral analysis, guarantor analysis, repayment assessment, policy exceptions, covenants, and recommended loan structures.
• Small Business Lending Process Ownership - Oversee the small business lending process, including intake, underwriting workflow, documentation requirements, credit decision support, loan processing, closing coordination, exception handling, reporting, and continuous improvement of streamlined small business loan delivery.
• Commercial LOS Administration - Serve as the primary business administrator for the commercial loan origination system, including user access coordination, workflow configuration support, queue management, template maintenance, system testing, issue escalation, vendor or internal partner coordination, reporting support, and process documentation.
• Pipeline, Workflow & Service Level Management - Monitor commercial and small business loan pipelines, assign work, manage priorities, identify bottlenecks, track turnaround times, and ensure loan requests move efficiently from application through underwriting, approval, documentation, closing, and funding.
• Process Improvement, Standardization & Reporting - Develop, document, and improve underwriting, analysis, processing, closing, LOS, and small business lending procedures, templates, checklists, reports, and workflows to improve consistency, efficiency, accuracy, and scalability. Prepare, maintain, 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.
• Risk Management & Controls - Identify and escalate credit, operational, compliance, documentation, collateral, policy, system, workflow, and portfolio risks; recommend appropriate controls, corrective actions, training, and process enhancements.
• Portfolio Monitoring Support - Support annual reviews, covenant tracking, exception monitoring, maturing loan review, borrowing base review, reporting, quality control, audit responses, and identification of emerging risk trends within the commercial and small business loan portfolios.
• Cross-Functional Partnership - 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.
• Technology Leadership – Encourage the responsible adoption and effective use of emerging technologies, including AI, to improve operations, employee effectiveness, and member experience while ensuring appropriate governance, risk management, and compliance with organizational policies.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS

EDUCATION:

Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, accounting, economics, management, or related field preferred or equivalent experience.

EXPERIENCE:

5-8 years of leadership experience in a financial institution or similar industry with commercial lending, commercial credit analysis, commercial loan underwriting, commercial loan operations, portfolio management, or related financial services experience preferred.

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 preferred.