Director of Loan Operations

Hours: Monday – Friday, 8:00 am-5:00 pm; must be available to work any hours, including evenings and weekends, when necessary

Location: Headquarters3035 SW Topeka BlvdTopeka, KS 66611 Essential Functions & Responsibilities: Provide leadership and oversight of the Bank's centralized loan operations functions, including loan processing, documentation, closing, funding, servicing, collateral administration, and related activities. Establish departmental goals, operating standards, performance expectations, service levels, and procedures aligned with the Bank's business objectives. Ensure loan operations effectively support commercial, consumer, and real estate lending activities across applicable markets and lending channels. Monitor operational performance, workloads, staffing capacity, service levels, and quality, implementing corrective actions and resource adjustments as needed. Establish consistent operating practices while accommodating legitimate differences in loan products, structures, and customer needs.

Loan Processing & Documentation: Oversee the accurate and timely preparation, review, processing, closing, and funding of loan transactions in accordance with approved credit terms, Bank policies, and applicable requirements. Ensure loan documentation accurately reflects approved terms, collateral requirements, guarantees, covenants, repayment terms, and other applicable conditions. Maintain appropriate controls to verify required approvals, documentation, collateral conditions, and funding requirements prior to disbursement. Coordinate with lenders, Credit Administration, legal counsel, title companies, and other parties to resolve documentation, closing, and funding issues or expectation. Monitor processing quality and recurring deficiencies and implement appropriate procedural, training, or system improvements.

Loan Servicing & Collateral Administration: Oversee ongoing loan servicing activities, including payment processing, loan maintenance, billing, payoffs, escrow administration, renewals, extensions, modifications, advances, participations, and other assigned servicing responsibilities. Ensure loan accounts, terms, rates, payment schedules, collateral information, and other required system data are accurately established and maintained. Oversee operational processes for collateral documentation, lien perfection, recording, tracking, insurance monitoring, releases, and other post-closing requirements. Establish appropriate authorization, review, and exception-management controls for servicing and collateral activities. Ensure servicing errors, customer concerns, missing documentation, and collateral exceptions are identified, escalated, and resolved timely.

Operational Risk, Compliance & Quality Assurance: Establish and maintain effective internal controls throughout loan processing, documentation, closing, funding, servicing, and administration. Ensure loan operations are performed in accordance with applicable laws and regulations, Bank policies, approved credit terms, and applicable investor or program requirements. Partner with Compliance, Risk Management, Credit Administration, Information Security, Internal Audit, and other stakeholders to identify and address operational and regulatory risks. Maintain appropriate segregation of duties, approval authorities, transaction verification, quality-control, and exception management, practices. Oversee the investigation and remediation of operational errors, control deficiencies, audit findings, examination concerns, suspected fraud, and other significant exceptions. Maintain current procedures and training to reflect regulatory product, system, and process changes.

Systems, Technology & Continuous Improvement: Provide business ownership and operational oversight of assigned loan systems, workflows, and related technology in partnership with Information Technology and designated system owners. Identify and implement opportunities to improve system utilization, automate manual activities, streamline workflow, reduce rework, and strengthen processing accuracy. Coordinate operational requirements, testing, training, and implementation for system enhancements, upgrades and new solutions. Monitor key performance indicators, including processing volumes, turnaround times, error rates, backlogs, quality productivity, and staffing capacity. Lead process improvement initiatives that enhance efficiency, consistency, scalability, operational reliability, and customer experience. Provide executive management with meaningful reporting regarding departmental performance, significant operational risks, resource needs, and improvement initiatives.

Service Delivery & Business Partnership: Establish productive working relationships with lending teams, Credit Administration, Retail Banking, and other internal partners. Ensure loan operations provide timely, accurate, and responsive support throughout the lending and servicing lifecycle. Establish clear service expectations, communication practices, and escalation procedures for operational requests and issues. Partner with lending and credit leadership to evaluate the operational impact of new products, complex loan structures, policy changes, and business growth. Promote operational practices that support a positive customer experience while maintaining appropriate controls, documentation standards, and regulatory compliance.

Business Continuity & Third-Party Management: Ensure critical loan operations functions have documented and tested business continuity and contingency procedures. Identify critical personnel, systems, vendors, data, and other dependencies necessary to maintain or restore loan operations during disruptions. Coordinate recovery requirements and testing with the Bank's Business Continuity and Operational Resilience functions. Oversee assigned loan operations vendor relationships and monitor service quality, processing accuracy, issue resolution, and adherence to established expectations. Partner with Vendor Management, Information Technology, Compliance, and other stakeholders regarding vendor performance, risk, contractual requirements, and contingency planning.

Leadership & Talent Management: Lead, coach, and develop loan operations managers, supervisors, and employees. Establish clear responsibilities, performance expectations, accountability, and appropriate delegation throughout the department. Ensure employees receive appropriate onboarding, technical and regulatory training, cross-training, and ongoing professional development. Support succession planning and knowledge-transfer practices to reduce key-person dependencies and strengthen departmental capabilities. Evaluate organizational structure, staffing levels, employee capabilities, and resource allocation to effectively support current operations and future growth. Promote a culture of accuracy, service, accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and effective risk management. Please note this description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Experience: Significant progressive experience in banking loan operations, including loan processing, documentation, closing, funding, servicing, or related lending support functions. Demonstrated experience leading loan operations employees and managing complex lending processes. Strong working knowledge of commercial and consumer lending operations, loan documentation, collateral administration, and servicing practices. Experience establishing and maintaining operational procedures, internal controls, quality-assurance practices, and regulatory compliance processes. Experience managing operational performance, resolving complex processing or servicing issues, and implementing process improvements. Experience working with loan origination, documentation, servicing, core banking systems and related loan systems. Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with lending, Credit Administration, Compliance, Risk Management, and other banking functions.

Preferred: Experience overseeing centralized loan operations supporting multiple markets, branches, or business lines. Experience with commercial loan documentation, complex loan structures, participations, and specialized servicing requirements. Experience implementing or enhancing loan origination, documentation, workflow, or servicing technology. Experience supporting significant operational changes, system conversions, or organizational growth. Experience managing loan operations in a community or regional banking environment.

Education: Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Finance, Accounting, Banking, or a related field preferred; an equivalent combination of education, training, and relevant banking experience may be considered. Relevant professional certifications or specialized training in lending operations, loan documentation