VP, Product Management - Core Lending

The Vice President, Product Management- Core Lending is the general manager of Kapitus' core lending products including term loan and line of credit with responsibility to own and manage the P&L, the product strategy, go-to-market plans, and the associated outcomes. You will work in close partnership with the Product Delivery organization, which builds and operates the technical platform underlying these products and with Risk, Finance, Sales, Operations, and Executive Leadership to define and execute a strategy to make Kapitus' core lending products the most competitive in the small business lending market. What You Will Do: Ownership of Revenue & Cost Drivers: • Own and manage the revenue and cost drivers for core lending products, tracking key performance metrics regularly to understand what moves them, and make product decisions that improve them while managing the unit economics of each product to make trade-offs accordingly. Present business performance to executive leadership monthly and drive to prioritization decisions. • Identify and quantify the gap between current performance and competitive benchmarks and build the case for investments that close those gaps. • Partner with Finance to build and maintain a product-level P&L model that connects roadmap decisions to financial outcomes. Go to Market Strategy & Execution: • Define the go-to-market strategy across segments and channels and own the positioning narrative, ensuring it is reflected consistently across the application flow, marketing materials, and partner communications. • Own the product pricing strategy in partnership with Risk and Finance, making recommendations on rate structures, fee design, and promotional offers grounded in competitive analysis and borrower behavior data. • Lead the launch planning for new product features, underwriting enhancements, and market expansions by defining the launch objectives, coordinate across Sales, Marketing, Operations, and Compliance, and measure outcomes against pre-defined success metrics. • Develop and maintain a competitive intelligence cadence: quarterly analysis of competitor pricing, product features, underwriting criteria, and GTM approaches from key competitors and other relevant players. Translate competitive findings into specific product recommendations. Product Strategy & Roadmap: • Define a rolling 12-18 month product vision for Line of Credit and Term Loan grounded in market opportunity, borrower need, competitive positioning, and Kapitus' strategic objectives. Present this vision to executive leadership at least quarterly and update it in response to market signals. • Translate the product vision into a prioritized roadmap of initiatives in partnership with Product Delivery and work closely with Delivery leadership to ensure requirements accurately reflect business outcomes desired. • Identify opportunities to use AI and machine learning to improve product outcomes, such as faster decisioning, better underwriting accuracy, personalized offer design, and automated borrower communication. • Ensure the product roadmap reflects regulatory and compliance requirements, proactively engaging Legal and Compliance on initiatives that touch borrower data, underwriting logic, adverse action reasoning, etc. Team Leadership & Talent Development: • Directly lead a team of PMs supporting the core lending products, owning their development, performance and growth as well as their domain expertise in small business lending. • Model the product behaviors you expect of your team: outcome-driven thinking, data-grounded prioritization, proactive stakeholder communication and disciplined business case development. • Hire and develop product talent that combines business acumen with technical fluency and customer empathy.Inspire and create a motivating environment through coaching, mentoring, and enablement • Provide opportunities to participate in both formal and informal developmental activities • Working with senior leaders and department head, set expectations for all team members and hold employees accountable for results • Lead hiring, performance management, and compensation, and evaluation of team members • Collaborate with Kapitus leadership and HR to continually refine and modify career growth and succession plans to meet changing business needs What We're Looking For: • 8-12+ years in Product Management with demonstrated ownership of full product P&L in a fintech, banking, or lending environment. Experience leading multi-product portfolios at the Director or VP level is required. • Proven track record of owning and improving financial metrics, such as approval rate, conversion rate, renewal rate, LTV, cost per acquisition and ability to build and defend financial business cases. • Deep understanding of small business or consumer lending economics, including how underwriting decisions affect portfolio performance, how pricing interacts with approval rate and default rate, how renewal rates compound into LTV, etc. • Experience owning a go-to-market strategy with success measurements for a financial product, including pricing decisions, channel strategy, launch planning, competitive positioning. • Experience operating in a regulated financial services environment, familiarity with UDAAP, fair lending, adverse action notification, and CFPB guidelines as they apply to small business lending. • Experience working within or alongside an Agile Product Delivery organization with solid understanding of the Product Owner / Product Manager distinction and ability to partner on roadmap development and execution. • Ability to present product strategies, competitive analyses and business cases to executive leadership with confidence and clarity and in a way that generates clear decisions. • Demonstrated ability to lead and develop a team of PMs with varying experience levels as well as partner and influence cross functional partners without direct authority. Kapitus Total Rewards Package Includes: • Competitive Base Salary Range of $187,200-$300,300 Kapitus is providing this as a good faith salary range to comply with applicable law. The applicant's final salary will depend on a number of factors including the applicant's geographic location, skills, and experience. • Annual Incentive Compensation Eligibility -Up to 20% annually • Health Insurance: Comprehensive medical, dental, and employer-paid vision plans through UnitedHealthcare (UHC), with various coverage levels available to meet the needs of our employees and their families. Additional perks through UHC include: Sweat Equity, free subscription to the Calm App, UHC rewards, Real Appeal, and Quit For Life. • Flexible Spending Account: Set aside pre-tax dollars from your paycheck to pay for qualified out-of-pocket medical, dental, vision, pharmacy or dependent care expenses. • Lifestyle Spending Account: Employer sponsored post-tax benefits that allow reimbursement for expenses related to physical, mental and financial well-being. • 100% Company Paid Insurances: Kapitus fully covers the cost of basic short-term and long-term disability insurance, as well as vision insurance, ensuring our employees have comprehensive protection without any personal expense. • Voluntary Insurance: Supplemental life insurance as well as enhanced short- and long-term disability coverage are available through Mutual of Omaha, providing additional security for our employees. Additionally, Colonial Accident and Hospitalization insurances are also available, offering further protection against unforeseen events. • Paid Maternity and Parental Leave: Beyond state-mandated leave policies, Kapitus provides company-paid maternity and parental leave, supporting our employees during important family milestones. • Commuter Benefits: We offer pre-tax benefits on parking and commuter expenses to cover travel to and from work. • LifeBalance Program: Enhance your lifestyle with our LifeBalance membership, which offers discounts on outdoor activities, the arts, health, and fitness. Additional benefits include: • Pet and car insurance discounts. • Financial services such as LegalShield. • Relaxation and stress management tools. • Plum Benefits Discount Program: Access exclusive discounts on shows, travel, car rentals, and more, enriching your personal and family life. • Tuition Reimbursement: Pursue further education with up to $5,000 annually in tuition reimbursement, plus opportunities to attend relevant conferences and career development events. Managed through our LSA plan, Kapitus Academy. • Travel Reimbursement: We also offer travel reimbursement for all work-related travel, supporting your involvement in career and personal development activities. • Paid Time Off and Sick Time. • Retirement Benefits: Our 401K plan is managed through Fidelity. To support your long-term financial goals, the company provides a 25% match on your contributions, up to 6% of your annual salary. Consideration will be given to qualified remote candidates residing in states where Kapitus and/or one of its subsidiaries has an established physical presence.