Mortgage Underwriter Team Leader

Family: Business Operations

Level: C

We are recruiting for a Mortgage Underwriter Team Leader to join our team at Admiral Money!

About us

Admiral Money is the dynamic lending arm of Admiral Group, offering personal loans, motor finance, and homeowner loans since 2017. We’re building something special for our customers and are looking for curious, driven individuals ready to learn, take on challenges, and make an impact.

We’re proud to be a certified Great Place to Work for over 25 years, with recognition for Women and Wellbeing. Our inclusive culture empowers everyone to Be You.

Need support during the recruitment process? Just let us know – we’re here to help.

Please note: The successful candidate will be expected to attend the Cardiff office a minimum of two times per week with working hours variable between Monday-Friday 8am-6pm.

The role

We are seeking an experienced and motivated Mortgages Underwriter Team Leader to lead and support a team of mortgage underwriters. This role is critical in ensuring that lending decisions are made in line with company policies, regulatory requirements, and risk appetite, while maintaining high standards of customer service. The successful candidate will combine strong technical underwriting expertise with proven leadership skills to drive performance, ensure compliance, and contribute to the growth of the mortgage portfolio. You will work in a friendly and supportive team who are ambitious in nature and always striving for the best outcomes.

We are looking for people who are keen to learn, excited about getting stuck in and are ready for a challenge to help us to achieve our aim of being the best specialist lending business in the UK.

What you will be doing

• Lead, motivate, and develop a team of mortgage underwriters, providing coaching, mentoring, conducting regular one to ones and ongoing training.
• Review and authorise complex mortgage applications in line with credit policy, risk frameworks, and regulatory standards.
• Act as a referral point for escalated cases, providing clear guidance and sound decision-making. (High Mandate holder)
• Support the Underwriting Team in shaping and improving underwriting policies, procedures and risk controls.
• Collaborate with colleagues across Sales, Risk, Compliance, and Servicing to resolve queries, enhance processes, and deliver an excellent customer journey.
• Ensure compliance with FCA, PRA, and other relevant regulatory requirements, maintaining up-to-date knowledge of industry trends and changes.
• Foster a positive team culture that values integrity, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Reviewing MI, reporting and QA outputs to identify trends, improve insights, and drive departmental KPI performance.
• Lead on QA analysis and adapting team focus, including acquisition-based approaches and non‑BAU support needs.
• Acting as an underwriting SME, provide technical guidance, handling referrals, and supporting colleagues at all levels.
• Supporting implementation of new systems, processes and QA structures
• Delivering and overseeing training, including new starter onboarding, product-specific training, and updates to policies and procedures.
• Working closely with Risk teams, feeding back rule improvements, clarifying guidance, reviewing rule changes, and identifying accept/decline trends.
• Ensuring underwriting teams are fully briefed on upcoming changes and guidance prior to release.
• Supporting data and MI improvements, collaborating/ support implementing Power BI on validation, segmentation and arrears analysis. (Case reviews)
• Contributing to wider strategy, credit risk decisions and product development, enhancing customer journeys through automation and Open Banking improvements.
• Taking a hands-on operational approach. 

Essential requirements

• Preferably CEMAP qualified
• Proven experience as a mortgage underwriter with in-depth knowledge of Second Charge or Specialist lending.
• Previous experience in a leadership or supervisory role within financial services or mortgage underwriting.
• Strong understanding of credit risk assessment, affordability, and regulatory requirements (FCA, PRA, AML, GDPR, etc.).
• Excellent analytical and decision-making skills with strong attention to detail.
• Confident communicator with the ability to influence and support team members at all levels.
• Highly organised with the ability to manage workloads, prioritise tasks, and deliver against deadlines.

If you would like to arrange a POC please reach out to Kyle Hughes, or the Talent Acquisition contact for this position, Eden Davies.

Salary, Benefits and Work-Life Balance

At Admiral, we are proud to be a diverse business where we put our people and customers first. We want you to have an element of freedom to define a working lifestyle that supports this, so we accommodate flexible hours wherever possible. If you have any queries regarding flexible working, you can email your Talent Acquisition colleague here.

Overall package is negotiable dependant on your experience. Due to the sheer variety of opportunities within Admiral, we understand that it can sometimes be confusing as to what “level” of role is being advertised compared to your current job. If you’re unsure whether the role can match or better your current package, and would like to talk to us about this, please click here to email your Talent Acquisition colleague. 

As a Disability Confident Leader, for candidates with a disability or long-term health condition, that opt into the Disability Confident scheme, we’ll invite a fair and proportionate number of applicants that meet the essential requirements of the role to the first stage of our selection process.

If you need any adjustments or support with your application or during the recruitment process, just let us know. Please do email eden.davies39@admiralgroup.co.uk or contact us on   07780038264. This number is dedicated to supporting candidates that require reasonable adjustments or support during the application process.