How To Become A Senior Mortgage Loan Officer: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior mortgage loan officer and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a senior mortgage loan officer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $17.36 an hour? That's $36,112 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 12,600 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreSenior Mortgage Loan OfficerUS Average

Salary

2.8

Avg. Salary $36,112

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.3

Growth rate 4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.48%

Asian 6.10%

Black or African American 9.16%

Hispanic or Latino 15.88%

Unknown 4.64%

White 63.75%

Gender

female 35.77%

male 64.23%

Age - 44

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44

Stress level

7.3

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.8

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.6

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a senior mortgage loan officer

Explore senior mortgage loan officer education requirements

Most common senior mortgage loan officer degrees

Bachelor's

67.3 %

Associate

16.3 %

Master's

7.2 %

Start to develop specific senior mortgage loan officer skills

Skills	Percentages
Origination	9.52%
USDA	9.20%
Financial Statements	8.59%
Loan Programs	7.80%
FHA	7.78%

Complete relevant senior mortgage loan officer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New senior mortgage loan officers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a senior mortgage loan officer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real senior mortgage loan officer resumes.

Research senior mortgage loan officer duties and responsibilities

Train and certify in all aspects of bank compliance/procedures as well as underwriting guidelines and several loan origination software programs.
Volunteer for residential construction-to-permanent loan origination training.
Originate conventional, jumbo, sub prime and hard money loans.
Top tier VA mortgage originator within a values-orient, culturally fun call-center company.

Get senior mortgage loan officer experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a senior mortgage loan officer. The most common roles before becoming a senior mortgage loan officer include loan officer, senior loan officer team lead and branch manager.

Prepare your senior mortgage loan officer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your senior mortgage loan officer resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a senior mortgage loan officer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable senior mortgage loan officer resume templates

Build a professional senior mortgage loan officer resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your senior mortgage loan officer resume.