Sr. Product Owner

Title:  Sr Product Owner – API Services

Salary:  $140K - $155K/yr d.o.e.

Location: Remote OK (2 days on-site if living within 31 miles of Tustin, CA or Austin, TX)

About the Role

We are looking for a Senior Product Owner to lead the execution of key initiatives within our API Services Platform, which powers integrations across our mortgage lending ecosystem. You will play a critical role in translating strategic objectives into tactical deliverables, with a core focus on building and scaling our Lead Ingestion platform—used internally across NAF systems and externally by third-party partners.

This role requires a strong background in API product development, hands-on Agile experience, and familiarity with the mortgage or broader FinTech industry. You will work cross-functionally with engineering, UX, third-party vendors, and internal product stakeholders to deliver robust, scalable APIs that enable faster, smarter, and more integrated digital lending experiences.

Key Responsibilities

1. Discovery & Requirements

• Partner with stakeholders to gather technical and business requirements.
• Perform use case mapping, gap analysis, and stakeholder interviews.
• Conduct competitive/market research to inform API design decisions.
• Translate high-level goals into clear product problem statements.

2. Backlog Ownership & Sprint Planning

• Own, prioritize, and maintain a groomed product backlog aligned with business value.
• Write clear user stories and acceptance criteria for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Plan and articulate clear Sprint Goals in collaboration with the Scrum Master and Engineering team.
• Collaborate with UX/design (as needed) to define user interaction workflows for tools consuming the API.

3. Delivery Execution

• Serve as the point of contact for the development team for scope, prioritization, and clarification.
• Make real-time trade-off decisions to balance business needs, tech constraints, and delivery timelines.
• Review completed stories to ensure feature completeness, usability, and technical soundness.
• Continuously maintain 2–3 sprints worth of ready stories and features.

4. Release Readiness

• Coordinate end-to-end UAT in collaboration with QA and business teams.
• Facilitate release planning and go-to-market coordination with stakeholders.
• Ensure post-release monitoring, support documentation, and feedback loops are in place.

5. Post-Release & Iteration

• Collect usage data and customer feedback for continuous improvement.
• Track KPIs such as API adoption, error rates, usage volume, and partner satisfaction.
• Drive iteration cycles based on insights from monitoring and metrics.

Focus Areas

• API-first product thinking, especially in mortgage workflows.
• Efficient backlog and requirements management.
• Cross-team communication and dependency resolution.
• Close collaboration with Platform Engineering, QA, and Data teams.
• Tactical execution tied to measurable impact.
• Process improvement and Agile team maturity.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, MIS, or equivalent experience.
• 7+ years in product ownership or related roles with custom-developed products.
• Strong hands-on experience building and launching API-based platforms.
• Understanding of RESTful services, webhooks, authentication models (OAuth2), and API governance best practices.
• Prior experience in mortgage lending, consumer finance, or FinTech is strongly preferred.
• Solid grasp of Agile/Scrum delivery practices.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; able to translate between technical and business contexts.
• Adept at tools like Jira, Confluence, Postman, Swagger/OpenAPI, and analytics platforms.
• High attention to detail and delivery discipline; able to manage multiple workstreams simultaneously.

Preferred Skills (Nice to Have)

• Experience with Encompass, Optimal Blue, Total Expert, or other mortgage ecosystem tools.
• Familiarity with event-driven architecture or microservices environments.
• Exposure to partner onboarding or API developer portal management.

Work Authorization: Must be able to verify identity and employment eligibility to work in the U.S.

Other Duties: This job profile is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of job duties and responsibilities, as one may perform additional related duties as assigned in order to meet the needs of the organization.

Physical Demands: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Must be able to lift up to ten pounds. Primary functions require sufficient physical ability and mobility to work in an office setting; to stand or sit for prolonged periods of time; to occasionally stoop, bend, kneel, crouch, reach, and twist; to lift, carry, push, and/or pull light to moderate amounts of weight; to operate office equipment requiring repetitive hand movement and fine coordination including use of a keyboard; and to verbally communicate to exchange information. VISION: See in the normal visual range with or without correction. HEARING: Hear in the normal audio range with or without correction.

[EOE/M/F/D/V. Drug-free workplace.]

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