Engineering Director, Lending ( Clasp Finance)

Clasp

28d•$180,000 - $210,000•Remote

About The Position

Clasp is a venture-backed, mission-driven startup transforming access to education and career pathways. We are revolutionizing the way employers attract and retain critical talent and the way colleges and universities support their students through education financing — all while tackling the student debt crisis. Clasp is a Forbes Fintech 50 company, portfolio company of SHRM (Society of Human Resource Management — the largest HR organization out there!) and recipient of "Startup of the Year" by StartUp Boston, Clasp is driven by our commitment to social impact and innovation. Our work spans two business lines: Clasp Talent helps healthcare employers attract and retain critical talent by connecting them with diverse candidates and using student loan repayment as a powerful recruiting and retention tool. We meaningfully connect employers, educational institutions, and learners to drive mutual benefit. Clasp Finance equips colleges and universities with lending technology to launch and operate their own private student loan programs, enabling schools to step in and support their students directly with financial aid. Recent federal financial aid changes are reshaping how institutions think about supporting their students, and Clasp Finance is poised to meet this moment. Join us on our journey to give power to learners and unlock fulfilling careers that drive positive change in their communities and beyond.

Requirements

Experience in Engineering Leadership: Experience managing engineers in a fintech, lending, or regulated domain environment. This role is not for first-time managers as it will require you to hit the ground running, juggling stakeholder management, technical execution, and people management.
Technical Depth: 5+ years of hands-on software engineering experience, with recent and meaningful depth in Python, JavaScript and/or TypeScript. Experience with Next.js and modern state management patterns. You can credibly review code, diagnose architectural problems, and make technology choices your team will trust.
Experience managing Cloud Infrastructure: This application leverages Google Firebase / Firestore, so experience with NoSQL document modeling is a must. It’d be helpful to have familiarity with GCP basics or other cloud technology equivalence
Communication Skills: Strong verbal and written communication, with the ability to explain complex ideas to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, including executive leadership and external school customers.
Strategic Thinking: Ability to leverage both qualitative and quantitative data to inform all decisions, and to make confident calls under uncertainty.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with GCP basics or other cloud technology equivalence

Responsibilities

Own the Technical Roadmap: Define and drive the engineering strategy for Clasp Finance in close partnership with the GM and Product Manager, and cross-functional stakeholders across lending operations, compliance, and sales. Translate business priorities into a sequenced technical plan – balancing new feature delivery against platform investment and regulatory requirements.
Lead and Grow the Team: Manage a small engineering team, setting clear goals, running effective 1:1s, and creating an environment where engineers do their best work. Partner with the Engineering Leadership on development, leveling, and team structure as Clasp Finance scales. Be a hands-on contributor where it matters — code reviews, architecture decisions, and unblocking the team on hard problems.
Partner Cross-Functionally: Work closely with compliance and legal to ensure the platform holds up under regulatory scrutiny. Understand our internal customer needs to streamline operations.
Think in Multipliers: You'll be working with a lean team against a big surface area. That means constantly asking where AI, automation, contracted staffing and tooling can create leverage and building the systems that make each engineer on your team significantly more productive than they'd be anywhere else.
Scale the Platform: Collaborate with Clasp Talent engineering leadership to detangle co-mingled codebases across business lines, align on shared services, and maintain a coherent overall technical architecture. Make principled trade-offs between build vs. buy, and communicate cost implications clearly to leadership. Ensure the loan origination system, credit model tooling, and school-facing administrative platform are reliable, scalable, and auditable.