SVP, Mortgage Operations

Finance of America•,

12h

About The Position

Finance of America helps homeowners 55+ access the equity they’ve built while staying in full control of their home and their financial future. Through a range of reverse mortgage solutions, we help customers shape the retirement they’ve earned while continuing to evolve how we serve and work together. Joining Finance of America now means stepping into a period of momentum and growth, with teams actively shaping what comes next and opportunities to make an impact and grow your career. The SVP, Mortgage Operations provides executive leadership and strategic direction for end-to-end mortgage operations across the Company's retail and wholesale channels, including processing, underwriting, appraisal, closing, funding, post-closing, securitization compliance for loan-level diligence, and operations enablement. This role is accountable for operational performance, transformation, scalability, quality, customer and business-partner experience, capacity, and compliance within a regulated lending environment. The mandate is transformation: partnering with operations leadership to deliver a step-change in operational productivity and cost to produce in direct support of the Company's 2027 operating plan. The SVP, Mortgage Operations modernizes the operating model by using data, process redesign, artificial intelligence, automation, and the existing technology environment to improve speed, quality, productivity, and capacity—delivering a step-change in cost to produce and end-to-end cycle time while scaling volume on a headcount-neutral basis. The role establishes clear operating standards and measurable performance expectations, develops the Operations leadership team, and partners across Technology, Product, Risk, Quality Control, Capital Markets, and other functions to support sustainable growth and scalable product delivery.

Requirements

Requires a minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in mortgage operations, lending operations, financial services operations, banking, fintech, or a closely related field, including significant senior leadership responsibility.
Demonstrates experience leading a large, multi-functional operations or fulfillment organization through functional leaders in a regulated lending or financial-services environment.
Demonstrates a record of transforming and modernizing operational functions as the accountable owner, with measurable improvements in cycle time, unit cost, productivity, capacity, throughput, quality, and/or customer experience, including at least one transformation that produced a step-change (25%+ improvement) in unit cost or cycle time.
Demonstrates hands-on experience implementing AI, intelligent automation, workflow technology, or comparable digital capabilities within core operational processes in production and at scale, with measured productivity or unit-cost impact.
Possesses strong knowledge of mortgage fulfillment functions, including processing, underwriting, appraisal, closing, funding, post-closing, and securitization loan-level diligence, and the regulatory and investor requirements applicable to those functions.
Demonstrates the ability to establish and manage performance through data, KPIs, service standards, dashboards, reporting, forecasting, and consistent management routines.
Demonstrates experience driving meaningful operational change through an existing technology stack using process redesign and automation rather than relying solely on platform replacement.
Possesses sufficient technical fluency to partner effectively with Technology, Engineering, Data, and Product leaders and to evaluate build-versus-buy decisions.
Demonstrates strong executive leadership capabilities, including leadership assessment, coaching, organizational design, change leadership, succession planning, and development of high-performing teams.
Demonstrates sound judgment in balancing operational speed, innovation, customer experience, regulatory compliance, investor requirements, risk management, and quality.
Demonstrates effectiveness leading teams and maintaining performance, engagement, communication, and accountability in a geographically distributed or remote work environment.
Communicates effectively with senior executives and cross-functional stakeholders and demonstrates the ability to influence enterprise-level decisions beyond the Operations function.
Demonstrates an evidence-based, adaptable approach to solving complex operational problems and leading significant organizational change.
Reverse-mortgage experience is not required; relevant transformation experience in forward mortgage, banking, fintech, consumer lending, unsecured lending, or another regulated financial-services environment may be considered.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree.

Responsibilities

Provides executive leadership and strategic direction for end-to-end Mortgage Operations across retail and wholesale channels, ensuring alignment with Company objectives, customer expectations, and regulatory requirements.
Diagnoses the current operating model using data and end-to-end process analysis to identify capacity constraints, cycle-time opportunities, quality issues, cost drivers, handoff friction, and opportunities for material improvement.
Develops and executes an operational transformation strategy focused on simplification, standardization, scalability, automation, and measurable improvements in productivity, quality, capacity, and customer experience, with explicit cost-to-produce and turn-time targets set jointly with Finance and quarterly milestones visible to the executive team.
Designs and implements responsible uses of AI and intelligent automation within fulfillment workflows, including document intelligence, data extraction, exception handling, decision support, quality review, and workforce augmentation. Deploys these capabilities to production at scale and redesigns roles and staffing models around the automated capacity. Sets AI-proficiency expectations for Operations leaders and staff and manages adoption and output as performance metrics.
Maximizes the effectiveness of the existing loan origination and technology environment through process redesign, workflow automation, and disciplined evaluation of build-versus-buy opportunities.
Establishes and manages objective performance standards, service levels, KPIs, dashboards, operating cadences, and capacity measures that create transparency and accountability across a distributed organization, including per-person productivity measures reviewed monthly with timely action on sustained underperformance.
Partners with Technology, Product, Data, Quality Control, Risk, Compliance, Capital Markets, and channel leadership to implement operational improvements and support scalable product delivery.
Ensures operating processes comply with applicable FHA, Ginnie Mae, investor, securitization, regulatory, quality, and Company requirements while maintaining appropriate controls and oversight.
Leads cross-functional process redesign initiatives that reduce unnecessary complexity, improve handoffs, and create sustainable improvements in cycle time, cost per loan, throughput, quality, and capacity.
Evaluates transformation and technology initiatives using measurable business outcomes and uses data to guide priorities, resource allocation, and continuous-improvement decisions.
Promotes a culture of accountability, adaptability, continuous learning, and evidence-based decision-making.