Head of Embedded Finance

About Origence

With 30 years at the forefront of fintech innovation, we specialize in SaaS lending solutions that lead the industry. Our core mission is customer-centric, focusing on empowering Credit Unions across the United States with the tools to offer accessible, competitive lending services. We're deeply committed to enhancing the financial ecosystem for a broad network of credit unions, members and auto dealers. We invest in our greatest assets, our employees, and foster a culture of innovation and ownership through freedom and responsibility. We celebrate fiscal accountability, operational rigor and efficiency to create a sustainably healthy and robust business for the long term.

The Opportunity

FI Connect is Origence’s embedded-finance business, placing credit union lending directly within consumer purchasing journeys across auto, home improvement and other strategic channels. We are seeking a proven business builder to lead FI Connect as an end-to-end general manager and transform the platform from emerging programs into a scaled, profitable growth engine for Origence and the credit unions we serve.

The Head of Embedded Finance owns the strategy, P&L, partner ecosystem, credit union funding network, product roadmap, operating model and compliance posture. The leader must be equally credible with a credit union CEO, an OEM or retailer executive, a dealer group, and a technology or underwriting team.

Leadership Mandate

• Business builder who is accountable for growth, profitability, execution and partner outcomes.
• Embedded-finance leader with a record of building distribution partnerships across OEMs, digital marketplaces, retailers, dealers and point-of-sale platforms.
• Digital and product-fluent executive who connects APIs, underwriting, decisioning, fraud, AI and customer experience to commercial performance.
• Lending practitioner who understands credit, pricing, funding, indirect lending, contract purchase and lender economics.
• Ecosystem leader who can align consumer-distribution partners, credit union lenders and internal stakeholders around a shared economic model.
• Scale-oriented change leader who converts pilots and bespoke integrations into repeatable channels, operating discipline and sustainable profitability.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy, P&L and Capital Allocation

• Own FI Connect’s P&L, annual operating plan, forecast, revenue, cost structure, contribution margin and unit economics by partner and channel.
• Set the multi-year strategy across auto, home improvement and adjacent lending verticals, including where to invest, scale, partner or exit.
• Build business cases covering market size, pricing, referral fees, dealer reserve, subvention, lender economics, funding capacity and technology investment.
• Report performance, risks, outlook and capital needs to the CFO, executive leadership team and Board.

Channel and Strategic Partner Growth

• Help negotiate and close strategic relationships with OEMs, auto marketplaces, dealer groups, retailers, contractor networks and point-of-sale platforms.
• Lead complex, multi-party negotiations and establish sustainable economics, service levels, governance and joint roadmaps.
• Manage executive-level partner relationships through launch, quarterly business reviews, performance improvement and escalation.

Credit Union Funding Ecosystem

• Build a diversified network of primary, purchasing and backup credit union lenders for every channel.
• Frame the value proposition around member growth, portfolio diversification, disciplined risk-adjusted returns and strategic relevance.
• Track lender capacity, approval rates, pull-through, funding performance, concentration and member experience.

Product, Technology and Customer Experience

• Own the product roadmap and prioritize APIs, prequalification, lender matching, underwriting, decisioning, fraud/KYC, partner integrations and reporting.
• Drive measurable improvement in decision time, approval rates, conversion, funding speed and partner implementation timelines.
• Use data, automation and AI to reduce friction, improve risk selection and create a differentiated digital experience.

Risk, Compliance and Operating Discipline

• Partner with Legal, Compliance and Risk to design programs consistent with Reg B, Reg Z, fair lending, UDAAP, privacy and applicable state licensing requirements.
• Establish channel-level controls, operating metrics, SLAs, governance and audit-ready documentation.
• Create clear go-live, scale and stop criteria, and act decisively when a program is not meeting strategic, economic or risk expectations.

Team and Enterprise Leadership

• Build and lead a high-performing team across partnerships, lender development, product, implementation, program management and operations.
• Work across Origence, including CUDL, Sales and Success, Product, Engineering, Finance, Legal, Compliance, Risk and Lender Solutions.
• Represent FI Connect with partners, credit unions, industry groups, media and investors.

Candidate Profile

Required Experience

• 15+ years in consumer lending, fintech or financial services, including 5+ years in senior leadership.
• Direct experience launching or scaling an embedded or point-of-sale lending business, such as digital auto retail, home-improvement finance, BNPL or another embedded credit product.
• Demonstrated P&L or general-management ownership for a business unit, product line or growth-stage company.
• Strong consumer-lending expertise, preferably in auto finance, including credit, pricing, funding, dealer/OEM economics and loan conversion.
• Track record negotiating strategic partnerships with OEMs, large dealer groups, retailers, marketplaces or origination networks.
• Working knowledge of consumer-lending regulation and the ability to identify structural, licensing and compliance risk early.
• Strong financial modeling, unit-economics and capital-allocation judgment.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, economics or a related field, or equivalent experience.

Preferred Experience

• Experience with credit unions, CUSOs or community financial institutions, including an understanding of member-first decision making and governance.
• Leadership experience within an embedded-lending fintech, digital retail platform, captive finance company, major lender or dealer group’s digital-finance operation.
• A combination of entrepreneurial or venture-backed experience and success operating within a larger regulated institution.
• MBA or comparable advanced degree.

Leadership Competencies

• Commercial judgment: structures transactions that work for the partner, lender, consumer and Origence.
• Product and technology fluency: challenges teams on roadmaps, integrations, data, decisioning latency and customer experience.
• Regulatory instinct: recognizes fair-lending, licensing, pricing and disclosure risk before it becomes a launch issue.
• Executive presence: builds trust with credit union CEOs, boards, partner executives and internal leadership.
• Bias for execution: creates clarity in ambiguity, accelerates decisions and holds teams accountable for measurable outcomes.
• Talent mindset: hires specialists stronger than themselves and builds a culture of speed, ownership and disciplined collaboration.

Why you should apply:

• Flexible Working Environment
• Paid Time Off
• 401k (8% match)
• College Tuition Benefits/ Tuition Reimbursement
• Good Benefits options
• Company Culture! Cultural and Holiday celebrations, Theme days like Star Wars Day & Bring your Kids to Work Day, Monthly Townhalls and Quarterly Company Meetings that ensure awareness, inclusion, and transparency.

The starting salary range for this full-time position in Irvine, CA is $222000- $275,000 per year. This base pay will take into consideration internal equity, candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge and experience among other factors. Origence maintains a highly competitive compensation program. Under company guidelines, this position is eligible for an annual bonus to provide an incentive to achieve targeted goals. Bonuses are awarded at company’s discretion on an individual basis.