Underwriting Manager

Zippy was founded with one mission: to make getting a loan for a manufactured home simple, fast, and fully online. We believe modern manufactured homes are affordable, well-built, eco-friendly, and stylish, but finding a lender who understands this market can be challenging. That’s why Zippy focuses exclusively on manufactured home loans, offering a seamless, digital experience.

Headquartered in Dallas, TX, with an office in Tempe, AZ, Zippy provides home loans and insurance to manufactured home buyers throughout the United States. Our remote-first team is spread across cities like Dallas, Houston, Knoxville, Omaha, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and several other states and cities. Backed by institutional investors, we offer competitive pay, stock options, and excellent benefits. At Zippy, we pride ourselves on our commitment to finance happiness through the power of home.

We are dedicated to enhancing consumers' financial outcomes and tackling the affordable housing crisis through cutting-edge technology and innovative solutions.

The Underwriting Manager oversees the underwriting department, ensuring all policies, loans, and financial products align with company guidelines, risk standards, and regulatory requirements. This role leads a team of underwriters, reviews complex cases, develops and implements strategies, and drives performance, profitability, and risk management goals.

• Supervise, mentor, and develop a team of underwriters and underwriting assistants.

• Establish clear performance goals, monitor results, and ensure accuracy productivity, and adherence to timelines.

• Execute departmental strategies to achieve key metrics, providing regular coaching, feedback, and motivation to empower team success.

• Provide ongoing training and professional development to maintain consistency and expertise across the team.

• Set the standard for effective communication and collaboration within the department, across functions, and with senior leadership.

• Partner with other managers to align on priorities and influence overall business direction.

• Review and approve complex or high-value applications within delegated authority levels.

• Ensure consistent application of underwriting policies, procedures, and best practices.

• Monitor underwriting quality and risk exposure across portfolios, aligning decisions with company risk appetite and compliance requirements.

• Collaborate with sales, compliance, QA, and processing teams to support business objectives and maintain regulatory alignment.

• Stay current on market trends, emerging risks, and competitor practices to inform risk management and underwriting strategies.

• Contribute to the development and refinement of underwriting policies, pricing strategies, and product guidelines.

• Identify and implement process improvements to increase efficiency, accuracy, and scalability.

• Introduce effective systems for managing initiatives and workflows across upstream and downstream processes.

• Escalate procedural issues to QA or Risk for updates and seek clarity to maintain operational integrity.

• Support technology and automation initiatives to enhance underwriting systems and data-driven decision-making.

• Provide expert guidance and support to operators and dealers on underwriting criteria, policies, and issues.

• Participate in client meetings to discuss terms, negotiate agreements, and resolve complex situations.

• Deliver underwriting insights, portfolio analyses, and performance reports to senior management.

• Education:
  
  Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Risk Management, or a related field (Master’s preferred).

• Experience:
  
  5–10 years of underwriting experience, including at least 3 years in a leadership or managerial role.

• Certifications (Preferred): CPCU, ACII, ARM, or other relevant professional designations.

• Strong analytical and decision-making abilities.

• Excellent communication, negotiation, and leadership skills.

• Proficiency with underwriting software and data analysis tools.

• Deep understanding of…