Lead Loan Specialist

Lead Loan Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Phoenix, Arizona, Denver, Colorado, Saint Petersburg, Florida, Atlanta, Georgia, Saint Paul, Minnesota, Cleveland, Ohio, Nashville, Tennessee, Houston, Texas, Roanoke, Virginia

Salary Range: $76463 - $99404 Per Year

Job Summary: The Loan Production Team Lead (LPTL) is in a Loan Guaranty Service (LGY) field location. The primary purpose of this position is to ensure loan origination services are provided to Veterans and other program stakeholders in a timely and accurate manner protecting the financial interests of VA. The LPTL performs the functions of directing, planning, training, setting priorities and assignment of work to an assigned team of loan specialist with most of the team at the GS-11 level.

Major Duties:

• Specific duties include: Coaches the LP team in the selection and application of appropriate problem-solving methods and techniques, provides advice on work methods, practices and procedures, and assists the team and/or individual members in identifying the parameters of a viable solution Responsible for tracking and monitoring overall LP performance goals established by LGY and reporting any out of line or potential situations to LP management Responsible for all normal case reviews, which include the underwriting of all prior approval loan applications, early payment default reviews, giving technical guidance for more complex and unusual cases including inquiries on disapproved prior approval loans Required to work on special projects for LGY and such assignments may involve liaison with or visits to other LGY locations. Special projects will require creating and achieving project goals, communicating recommendations and outcomes to LGY leadership and serving as a change management champion for new initiatives or LGY directives To ensure employee decisions and recommendations are accurate, conducts frequent formal and informal reviews of work and analyses of operations to verify work produced complies with law, regulation, manual requirements, local and agency directives and good business practices. Makes recommendations to the Assistant Loan Production Officer (ALPO) and Loan Production Officer (LPO) founded in program data regarding changes to increase efficiency and economy in the section Responsible for reporting unique problems or out-of-line workflow situations along with recommendations for correction. Must be familiar with and assist in preparation of the annual Systematic Analysis of Operations (SAO's) and quarterly/monthly briefings. There must be ongoing interaction, communication, and cooperation between all employees. Ensures that the organization's strategic plan, mission, vision and values are communicated to the team and integrated into the team's strategies, goals, objectives, work plans and work products and services. Communicates to the team the assignment, project, problem to be solved, actionable events, milestones, and/or program issues under review, and deadlines and time frames for completion Establishes and maintains complete and accurate Loan Production (LP) section records, both those prescribed by LGY and those created locally to assure that current information is available for timely report preparation and for maintaining proper controls over all work phases Responsible for conducting and maintaining a comprehensive program of training materials for program participants to include Veterans, Lenders, Realtors, and other program stakeholders. Incumbent must be able to present training to groups of all sizes or conduct training at distance locations Promotion Potential: None Work Schedule: Full time, Monday through Friday 6:00 am - 6:00 pm Compressed/Flexible: Available Telework: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Lead Loan Specialist; PD 39038A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement:03/09/2026. INDIVIDUAL OCCUPATION REQUIREMENT (IOR): This position does have an IOR (Individual Occupational Requirement) that must be met in addition to the basic Specialized Experience qualifications. In order to qualify for this position, you must have the education or experience listed below: IOR EDUCATION: This position requires Undergraduate and Graduate Education: Major study -- finance, business administration, economics, accounting, insurance, engineering, mathematics, banking and credit, law, real estate operations, statistics, or other fields related to the position, such as agriculture, agricultural economics, farm, livestock or ranch management, or rural sociology. OR IOR EXPERIENCE: Experience that demonstrated competence in agricultural, commercial, realty, or other types of loans. Experience may have been gained in such work as reviewing and passing upon applications for agricultural, commercial, bank or mortgage loans; servicing a loan portfolio of a bank or other loan association; performing financial analysis of commercial concerns for investment purposes; appraising real estate to determine property valuation; or similar work. AND TIME-IN-GRADE REQUIREMENT: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements. For a GS-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11 level. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. MINIMUM QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENT: You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: For the GS-12 you must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-11 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized Experience is defined as experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-11 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as demonstrating a thorough knowledge and expertise in all phases of the loan guaranty program. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Specialized experience which includes (1) applying advanced underwriting practices to income credit and quality borrowers across a variety of employment types to include self-employment for government guaranteed loan program(s); (2) reviewing and making program eligibility recommendations for borrowers is characterized by a thorough knowledge and demonstrated expertise of underwriting practices required of government guaranteed loan program(s); (3) collaborating with a broad range of real estate professionals to include realtors, lenders, servicers, appraisers and other professionals to educate and support access to government guaranteed loan programs(s). There is no education substitution for this grade level. Volunteer Experience: Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Full vs. Part-Time Employment: Full-time employment is considered to be at least 35 hours per week. Part-time experience will be credited on a pro-rated basis; when including part-time employment in your resume you must specify the average hours worked per week. Physical Requirements: The work is mostly sedentary; however, there may be some walking, standing, and carrying of light items such as papers, books, folders, and files. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

How to Apply: Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit. https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/merithiring-plan-resources/applicant-guidance-on-the-two-page-resume-limit/ Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply and be considered for this position, you must complete all required questionnaires, assessments and submit all required documentation as specified in the How to Apply and Required Documents section. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. The application process is as follows: Click the Apply Online button. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date. If you are required to complete any USA Hire Assessments, you will be notified after submitting your application. The notification will be provided in your application submission screen and via email. The notification will include your unique assessment access link to the USA Hire system and the completion deadline. Additionally, in USAJOBS you can click "Track this application" to return to your assessment completion notice. Access USA Hire using your unique assessment link. Access is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Review all instructions prior to beginning your assessments. You will have the opportunity to request a testing accommodation before beginning the assessments should you have a disability covered under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. Set aside at least 3 hours to take the USA Hire Assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue later, you can re-use your unique assessment link. Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us.

Application Deadline: 2026-03-09