Head of Real Estate Servicing Operations

As the Head of Servicing Operations, the leader will be responsible for teams supporting the Commercial Bank’s Commercial Real Estate (CRE) lines of business and Non-CRE businesses and their portfolios of loans, tax credits & letters of credit.

The CRE lines of business include Commercial Term Lending (CTL), Off Balance Sheet (OBS aka Agency), Community Development Bank (CDB) and Real Estate Banking (REB).

This new role will oversee a broad, global and diverse team including 200 FTEs and spanning 8 cities in 3 countries. The products supported include traditional revolving and term lending, and also include a significant construction loan and tax credit portfolio, subscription lending and Agency portfolio including Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae loans.

The leader will be responsible for $180 billion portfolio. This new team will be a combination of the loan servicing portions of the prior CTL, Commercial Real Estate Loan Administration (CRELA), OBS and Loan Accounting teams.

With the ongoing integration efforts related to the First Republic integration (FRB) plus the expansion of off-balance sheet lending, the complexity of lending products and servicing requirements continue to increase.

The team operates on two primary loan systems (Strategy and Advanced Commercial Banking System) and post FRB integration, and all four CRE businesses will have deals spanning both systems.

The Ops leader will need to create the vision and strategy for significant transformation agenda to address these increasingly complex needs of the business and customers.

The leader will have to synthesize and rationalize the operating models and develop a roadmap envisioning the future state of our technology, automation, site-strategy and talent all while improving our risk and controls environment.

This executive leadership role will drive a strong people and controls agenda across the WLS Real Estate organization and lead with the firm’s vision and values.

The individual will also be responsible for leading & driving common initiatives across WLS as needed. Full P&L responsibility for the Servicing Operations Cost Centers, including Activity Based Costing (ABC) rates used to allocate costs back to the LOBs.

The individual will report to the Head of the WLS Real Estate Product Vertical and be a member of the leadership team.

Job Responsibilities :

• Management oversight of a large scale operations team through 5 to 6 Executive Directors and Vice Presidents and their staff responsible for executing the departmental objectives.
• Building a presence with all WLS employees promoting diversity, equity & inclusion, employee engagement, and culture and representing WLS in cross functional working groups.
• Responsible for capacity plan based headcount decisions and overall performance management of the team
• Creating and driving strategic innovations focused on improving the client and employee experience, while improving the team’s effectiveness
• Developing and maintaining key partnerships with Risk, Banking, Technology, and WLS
• Maintaining a strong risk and control environment which aligns with the firms control agenda
• Staying abreast of industry and competitor trends and work with strategy teams to continue to improve the overall client delivery
• Overseeing the management and evolution of key KPIs; provide regular executive management updates to partners and senior management

Required Qualifications, capabilities and skills :

• Minimum of 15+ years in commercial loan operations and large team management experience;
• Commercial real estate Lending experience preferred, not required;
• Exceptional leadership qualities with high-energy as a leader and passionate to drive the organization forward
• Proven ability to influence and collaborate across a highly matrixed organization
• Deep experience managing complex client impacting functions; strong analytical and financial acumen and expertise in operational management and governance
• Demonstrated ability to lead and implement transformational change in a fast paced and complex environment
• Management of a multi-million dollar budget with demonstrated results
• BA / BS degree required
• Ability to travel on an as needed basis

Preferred Qualifications, capabilities and skills :

• MBA Preferred
• Experience with Government-Sponsored Enterprises Preferred
30+ days ago