SME, Customer Loan Servicing Directorate (CLS)
Project: USDA Rural Development (RD) Loan Servicing
Division: Customer Loan Servicing Directorate (CLS)
Location: Remote, occasional travel to St. Louis or DC offices may be required.
Schedule: Monday – Friday, core Agency hours between 6:00 AM – 6:00 PM CST (8-hour workdays expected)
Overview:
USDA Rural Development (RD) is the federal government’s investment arm for rural America — providing loans, grants, and loan guarantees to expand access to housing, utilities, broadband, healthcare, and business opportunity in the communities that private markets too often overlook. The Loan Servicing Office manages those loans from the day they close to the day they’re paid off — ensuring families stay in their homes, rural businesses keep their doors open, and communities hold on to the infrastructure investments that keep them running.
USDA RD Loan Servicing is embarking on a transformational effort to increase efficiency, elevate performance, and build operational excellence across its divisions and directorates — all in service of better outcomes for its borrowers. This Subject Matter Expert (SME) will work directly with the Head of Customer Loan Servicing Directorate (CLS) to lead organizational change through KPI design, business process improvement, and strategic planning across the contact center.
Desired Experience:
- Extensive knowledge of end-to-end loan servicing operations, including account maintenance, payment processing, escrow administration, loss mitigation, delinquency management, and customer assistance programs.
- Demonstrated expertise in interpreting and applying federal, state, and agency-specific regulations, servicing guidelines, and policy requirements related to mortgage and consumer loan programs.
- Proven ability to analyze complex servicing issues, identify root causes, and recommend effective operational, procedural, or system-based solutions.
- Strong change management toolkit (e.g., Prosci ADKAR), including stakeholder engagement, communications, training adoption, and sustainment plans.
- Skilled at connecting executive priorities to operational roadmaps.
- Executive presence: succinct storytelling, sharp executive summaries, and strong facilitation with senior stakeholders.
- Excellent written communication, policy interpretation, and ability to convert complex analytics into clear options and recommendations.
- Controls and Compliance: Privacy, data protection, and records management.
- Experience with reporting tools such as Tableau, Power BI, Qlik, etc.
- Experience developing, reviewing, and implementing servicing policies, standard operating procedures, workflows, and quality controls.
- Strong data analysis skills with the ability to evaluate servicing trends, monitor performance metrics, and prepare reports to inform leadership decisions.
- Effective communication skills, including the ability to present technical information clearly to internal teams, leadership, and external stakeholders.
- Experience training staff, mentoring teams, and providing authoritative guidance on servicing processes, best practices, and compliance requirements.
- Ability to collaborate across departments—including Customer Assistance, Payment Processing, Compliance, IT, and Program Leadership—to ensure consistent and compliant servicing outcomes.
- Demonstrated capability to support system enhancements, UAT testing, and process modernization initiatives related to loan servicing platforms.
- Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced servicing environment.
Communication & Leadership:
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, capable of drafting guidance, job aids, policy clarifications, and training.
- Ability to collaborate with USDA leadership, quality teams, and cross-functional groups.
- Skilled at representing the program area as the technical expert during internal meetings, audits, and external reviews.
