Senior Director of Product Management

At Koalafi, we believe in a world where no one has to put an important purchase on hold. That's why we're making it easier for more people to pay for big purchases over time.

Retailers across the country rely on us to offer flexible lease-to-own financing to their non-prime consumers, while increasing sales and strengthening customer loyalty. Their 2M+ customers love us because we provide a flexible way for them to make payments and give them an opportunity to improve their credit. Our 200+ Koalafi teammates enjoy inspiring and challenging work that accelerates their careers.

Interested in learning more about how we're transforming the financing experience and joining our team?

What You'll Do

We're hiring a Senior Director of Product Management to lead one of the most impactful product groups at Koalafi—responsible for how we originate leases, make credit decisions, and integrate with merchant partners. This is a people-management role for a product leader who is excited to scale high-functioning teams, own essential systems end-to-end, and shape the roadmap for how Koalafi grows its lending footprint responsibly and efficiently.

You'll report to the Chief Product & Technology Officer (CPTO) and work closely with Engineering, Data, Design, Risk, Revenue, and Partnerships to drive results across multiple product surfaces and technical domains.

• Team Leadership: Manage and grow a team of 2–3 Product Managers, supporting their development, aligning priorities, and scaling their impact
• Domain Ownership: Own product strategy and execution across:
• Lease Origination – customer and merchant flows, backend orchestration, risk controls
• Credit Decisioning – data pipelines, underwriting models, decision systems, compliance alignment
• Partner Integrations – platform extensibility, APIs, third-party onboarding, long-tail merchant enablement
• Cross-Functional Execution: Align deeply with Engineering, Data Science, Risk, and Partnerships to ship high-quality work that balances growth, operational efficiency, and risk mitigation
• Strategic Impact: Help shape our roadmap for responsible growth—balancing product innovation with scalability, trust, and regulatory resilience
• Org Building: Contribute to how we build, communicate, and execute product work at Koalafi—helping evolve our tools, rituals, and standards
  

What Success Looks Like

• You and your team deliver product outcomes that accelerate merchant conversion, improve customer access, and increase portfolio health
• The systems you own are scalable, compliant, and extensible, enabling faster iteration across teams
• You foster a high-trust, feedback-rich environment that helps your PMs grow into strong leaders and decision-makers
• You partner seamlessly with cross-functional leads, translating business goals into clear product strategies and trade-offs
• You elevate the strategic thinking and execution quality across the broader product org
  
  

About You

• You are a people-first leader who also loves solving hard product and systems problems
• You've managed and grown PMs before, ideally in a startup or high-growth environment
• You bring strong technical fluency—enough to work confidently across decision engines, APIs, and data flows
• You understand the nuance of credit, compliance, and risk—or are excited to dive deep and learn
• You're motivated by building resilient, long-term systems and strategies—not just short-term wins
• You are data-driven and use data and analytics to inform your decisions, but also recognize when to act without perfect information
• You have extensive experience with a/b testing and optimization and are adept at using a variety of experimentation tools
  
  

Qualifications

• 10+ years of product management experience
• 3+ years managing PMs (or tech leads in a player/coach capacity)
• Experience working on platform, credit, fintech, or operationally complex systems
• Excellent communication and cross-functional leadership skills
• Adept at agile principles and committed to full-stack product management where PMs not only think strategically but also execute in partnership with engineering
• Prior experience in lending, embedded finance, or regulated products is a strong plus
• Location Requirement: This position requires regular in-person attendance at one of our two office locations (Richmond, VA or Arlington, VA). Candidates must already be located within a commutable distance to either location, as relocation assistance is not available at this time.
  
  

Why choose Koalafi: A career at Koalafi means opportunities to tackle exciting challenges every single day. We take pride in a culture of innovation, trust, and ownership. You'll get outside your comfort zone, build meaningful relationships, and most of all, take charge of projects that ultimately help people get the things they need most.

Benefits:

At Koalafi, you will have a direct impact on our products and help shape the company's success. We offer competitive compensation & benefits packages to keep you at your best:

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• 20 PTO days + 11 paid holidays
• 401(k) retirement with company matching
• Student Loan & Tuition Reimbursement
• Commuter assistance
• Parental leave (maternal + paternal)
• Inclusion and Associate Engagement Programs
  
  

Who we are & what we value:

• We focus on what's most important
• We set clear expectations and deliver
• We embrace challenges to reach our full potential
• We ask, "How can this be better?"
• We move fast together