Principal, Banking Consultant

Alkami Technology•Bentonville, AR

2d•$140,000 - $175,000•Remote

About The Position

The Principal Banking Consultant is Alkami’s foremost individual-contributor authority on bank and credit union lending operations and loan origination platform strategy. The role translates complex financial institution needs into scalable, compliant solutions and durable customer outcomes, drawing on deep expertise in credit origination, software implementation, and operational transformation. It advises executive customer stakeholders and senior internal leaders on high-impact decisions spanning products, processes, and customer engagements. The consultant leads the design and optimization of end-to-end credit origination processes, translates business needs into finalized functional requirements for software implementation, and serves as the primary subject matter expert guiding Product, Engineering, and Delivery teams, including on product demonstrations. Through customer advisory, reusable methods, implementation documentation, and shared expertise, the role strengthens customer outcomes and Alkami’s lending capabilities over time. This is a remote-first role in the United States, with travel as required by customer engagements, up to 25–50%.

Requirements

15+ years of experience in business consulting, process engineering, or lending origination strategy within financial institutions or financial technology, spanning credit origination, consumer and commercial lending, credit risk management, and enterprise financial technology implementations, including executive advisory and organization-wide influence on complex customer and product decisions.
Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Information Systems, Banking, or a related field; equivalent relevant experience may be considered.
Deep expertise in lending operations and credit origination across consumer and commercial lending, including credit risk management practices.
Comprehensive knowledge of financial institution credit products and workflows.
Proven track record in business consulting or process engineering within financial institutions, including setting direction for complex enterprise implementations and customer operational transformation.
Strong ability to translate complex lending workflows into clear functional specifications and technical software requirements.
Experience creating, structuring, and maintaining technical and process documentation for software implementations.
Demonstrated experience collaborating directly with software engineers, quality assurance, and solution architects to validate functionality and guide demonstration scenarios.
Ability to connect customer business strategy, banking operations, platform capabilities, and product priorities.
Exceptional executive advisory, facilitation, negotiation, presentation, and communication skills, with a track record of managing senior customer relationships across customer and internal audiences.
Expertise in evaluating operational, implementation, integration, and customer readiness risks.
Ability to influence senior cross-functional stakeholders and establish scalable consulting practices.
Strong judgment, analytical, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills in ambiguous, high-impact situations requiring tradeoffs across customer outcomes and platform strategy, with acute attention to detail.
Proficiency in business process mapping tools such as Visio or Lucidchart and Google Workspace.
Ability and willingness to travel as required by customer engagements, up to 25–50%.
Candidates must be eligible to work in the United States; Alkami cannot offer employment sponsorship at this time.

Nice To Haves

Experience shaping lending strategy or product direction within fintech, SaaS, digital banking, or financial services.
Recognized industry thought leadership in lending, credit origination, or financial institution operations.
Experience advising C-suite or executive banking stakeholders on enterprise transformation.
Prior experience with enterprise loan origination systems (LOS), point-of-sale (POS) lending platforms, or digital banking platforms, including core and third-party banking integrations.
Experience developing enterprise consulting methodologies, implementation standards, or operating frameworks.
Experience mentoring senior consultants or serving as a principal advisor across multiple strategic engagements.

Responsibilities

Define strategic solution direction for lending engagements by assessing customer business models, operational priorities, regulatory considerations, and Alkami platform capabilities.
Advise customer stakeholders on lending strategy and platform adoption, connecting business objectives with practical implementation and optimization opportunities.
Map, analyze, and optimize financial institutions’ current lending processes to design streamlined, compliant, and scalable credit origination workflows.
Lead customer discovery sessions to capture, refine, and finalize business and technical requirements, translating complex lending workflows into clear functional specifications.
Set consulting approaches for lending implementations by establishing principles and decision frameworks that guide solution design.
Shape Alkami’s loan origination product strategy by synthesizing customer needs, industry developments, operational risks, and platform capabilities into recommendations for Product and Engineering leaders.
Influence loan origination system (LOS) roadmap priorities by evaluating emerging customer requirements and industry practices and advocating for broadly valuable capabilities.
Serve as the core subject matter expert on credit origination workflows and software capabilities, partnering with software engineers to structure, validate, and execute product demonstrations.
Create and maintain implementation lifecycle and software configuration documentation, including business requirements documents, workflow diagrams, functional specifications, and user guides.
Resolve high-impact implementation and operational challenges by identifying root causes across processes, configurations, integrations, and organizational readiness, and directing teams toward durable solutions.
Guide cross-functional leaders on loan origination system (LOS) and point-of-sale (POS) implications of major implementation decisions, clarifying tradeoffs, dependencies, risks, and customer impacts.
Establish reusable operating models, advisory frameworks, and implementation standards for aligning financial institution workflows with Alkami capabilities.
Serve as the senior escalation advisor for customer concerns, aligning executive stakeholders and internal teams on resolution paths, risk mitigation, and long-term outcomes.
Evaluate customer LOS and POS operations, lending practices, and platform usage; identify systemic process gaps and control considerations; and recommend improvements to credit decisioning, risk management, operational efficiency, and adoption.
Set standards for complex hosted user acceptance testing and operational readiness, validating software builds against finalized requirements and assessing workflow, configuration, and launch risks.
Prepare executive-level updates, steering committee reports, and quantitative progress reports for senior management and customer C-level executives.
Represent Alkami’s lending expertise in strategic customer discussions, communicating complex operational and platform considerations to executive, technical, and delivery audiences.
Develop lending thought leadership and implementation guidance by translating customer engagement insights and industry trends into practical resources.
Assess proposed lending solutions for scalability, customer experience, operational sustainability, and alignment with Alkami’s product direction.
Build trusted long-term relationships with executive stakeholders at strategic financial institutions and internal Engineering, Product Management, and Delivery teams by anticipating needs and providing candid, evidence-based guidance.