About Onate

Onate is a fast-growing real estate lender operating across Ireland and Spain. We finance property investors and developers across residential, mixed-use and commercial assets, including refurbishment, change of use, developer-exit projects, and other value-add strategies.

We combine speed and certainty of execution with disciplined credit judgement. Our institutional funding relationships provide significant capacity to grow, and our Madrid team is building a leading alternative property lending business in Spain.

Our approach is practical and commercial: understand the project, challenge the assumptions and make clear decisions. This appointment will strengthen our ability to assess and monitor larger and more complex Spanish transactions.

The business was founded by three serial entrepreneurs with a proven track record,

having previously built multiple companies, including two now listed on the London

Stock Exchange. Their vision is to establish Onate as a market-leading bridge lender in the Spanish market.

Launched in 2021, Onate has already achieved this in Ireland, where it has completed over 350 loans and secured its position as the market leader. Onate opened its Madrid office in early 2024 and to date has originated almost 100 loans in the Spanish market.

Onate has multiple funding lines - including a large international bank - providing both diversity of capital and significant scalability.

You can read more about Onate through our regularly updated blog here.

The Opportunity

We are seeking a highly experienced construction and real estate professional to lead Onate’s internal technical assessment and monitoring of larger and more complex Spanish loans. You will bring first-hand experience of delivering projects on site, the confidence to challenge developers and contractors, and the judgement to translate technical findings into lending recommendations.

You will assess whether a project can be completed for a realistic budget, within an achievable programme and with the necessary approvals. You will also determine whether the remaining funding is sufficient to finish the works and what evidence supports each proposed advance.

Working closely with Origination, Credit and Portfolio Management, you will carry out internal reviews and site inspections, and scope, oversee and challenge external project monitors where required. Independent or specialist reports will continue to be commissioned where required by the transaction, Onate’s policies or funding arrangements.

This is a senior appointment with ownership of the internal technical view and a direct influence on lending decisions. The role provides lender-side advice; project delivery and statutory construction appointments remain with the borrower’s professional team, and lending and funds-release approvals remain within Onate’s approval framework.

Working Environment

Based in our Madrid office on Paseo de la Castellana, you will work directly with the Spanish lending team and senior decision-makers. You will help build Onate’s technical standards, contribute to live transactions and see the impact of your judgement throughout the loan lifecycle.

Regular travel across Spain is an integral part of the role, including site inspections and meetings with developers, contractors and professional teams.

The environment rewards ownership, sound judgement and early escalation. We value people who can resolve issues pragmatically,



explain what matters and maintain high standards under short decision timelines.

Candidate Profile

Essential Experience

- Substantial relevant experience, typically 10+ years, with significant hands-on responsibility for live construction projects in Spain. You will have worked directly with developers, contractors and professional teams through construction and completion, with personal accountability for budgets, programme or delivery.
- A relevant qualification in Arquitectura Técnica / Aparejador, Ingeniería de Edificación, Architecture, Quantity Surveying, Civil Engineering or a related construction discipline. Strong cost-management capability is essential across all professional backgrounds.
- A proven ability to inspect works, assess vigente progress and challenge budgets, quantities, rates, procurement, variations, contractor claims and costs to complete. You must be comfortable forming your own view and defending it with evidence.
- Experience assessing refurbishment, conversion or partially completed projects, including hidden defects, incomplete scope, contractor changes and the risks of restarting stalled works.
- Strong practical knowledge of Spanish construction processes, planning and licensing, technical documentation, contracts and completion requirements, with the ability to identify where legal or specialist advice is needed.

Strongly preferred experience

- Technical due diligence, project monitoring or drawdown review for a bank, property lender, real estate debt fund or institutional investor, either in-house or through a monitoring consultancy. The strongest candidates will combine this with substantial developer-side or contractor-side site experience.
- Experience of staged funding, funding-shortfall analysis, distressed or stalled projects and overseeing external monitors. Relevant professional membership, including RICS, and experience across commercial or mixed-use assets are also valued.

Judgement, communication and practical skills
- The confidence to challenge senior developers and advisers constructively, escalate concerns early and recommend that a transaction or drawdown be paused when the evidence does not support proceeding.
- A commercial understanding of how cost overruns, delays, defects and approval risks affect completion, property value and repayment of the loan.
- Clear, concise reporting for non-technical decision-makers, with quantified risks, practical mitigants and an explicit recommendation.
- Fluent written and spoken Spanish. Professional working English is strongly preferred for internal reporting and discussions with institutional funding partners.
- Strong spreadsheet and financial-analysis skills, plus working knowledge of cost and programme tools.
- The ability to manage several live transactions independently, prioritise material risks and work to demanding deadlines.
- Independence of judgement, professional integrity and a willingness to take ownership of the technical recommendation.




- A full driving licence and willingness to travel regularly across Spain.

Key Responsibilities

Opportunity screening & technical underwriting

- Provide an early technical view on larger, complex or staged-drawdown opportunities, identifying material risks, missing information and the further diligence required.
- Inspect assets and assess the feasibility of the proposed scope, including refurbishment, change of use, extensions and completion of work in progress.
- Independently challenge budgets and cost-to-complete estimates against quantities, market rates and site conditions. Identify omissions, professional fees, applicable taxes, contingencies and other costs that could create a funding gap.
- Assess construction programmes, critical-path dependencies, procurement and the capability, capacity and contractual commitments of the developer, contractor and professional team.
- Review designs, specifications, planning and licensing with the relevant advisers, identifying dependencies or restrictions that could affect construction, occupation, sale or refinancing.
- Work with Credit to test the project’s funding plan, including equity contributions, the timing of advances, contingencies and the adequacy of funds available to complete.
- Prepare concise technical recommendations for Credit, stating the key assumptions, quantified risks, mitigants, required conditions and any reasons to decline or defer.

Site monitoring and drawdown review
- Carry out proportionate site inspections and maintain a clear record of progress, quality concerns and departures from the approved scope, budget and programme.
- Reconcile drawdown requests and works certificates to the approved budget, measured progress, invoices and site evidence. Distinguish completed and installed works from materials, deposits and advance payments; investigate discrepancies and prevent duplicate funding.
- Update the full cost to complete, including unpaid work, variations, retentions and contingency. Compare this with undrawn loan commitments and verified equity available when needed, identifying funding shortfalls before further advances.
- Identify delays, overruns, defects, contractor distress and licence deviations early. Recommend practical actions, such as additional equity, revised scope, contractor changes or enhanced monitoring.
- Recommend whether an advance should proceed, be reduced or be deferred, specifying the supporting evidence and conditions required under the approved facility and applicable Onate and funder requirements.
- Assess completion, snagging, warranties and the technical approvals needed for occupation, sale or refinancing, including the treatment of final advances.

External advisers, portfolio support and technical standards
- Support Credit, Portfolio Management and Legal on amendments, restructurings and problem loans, including realistic completion and recovery scenarios.
- Recommend the appropriate internal review and external monitoring scope. Brief and oversee external advisers, assess the adequacy of their reports, challenge unsupported conclusions and resolve material gaps before reliance or funding.
- Maintain concise project risk records, site evidence and action logs that allow colleagues and funding partners to understand the technical position.
- Build practical review templates, cost benchmarks and drawdown controls, ensuring consistent technical standards and proportionate use of external specialists.

📌 Senior Technical Manager (Madrid)
🏢 Onate
📍 Madrid