Product Manager

PRODUCT MANAGER

MORTGAGE LENDING, REIMAGINED

AHL is building the future of mortgage lending by combining frontier AI with proven lending operations. The company was formed when Saaf, an AI-first fintech startup, merged with American Heritage Lending, an Ellington Financial portfolio company. Today AHL is a top-10 private lender processing billions in loan volume, and AI is how we're accelerating that growth.

The U.S. mortgage market moves roughly $6 trillion a year, yet it still runs on fragmented systems, PDFs, email chains, and manual decisions designed decades ago. We're applying AI agents, RAG infrastructure, and modern engineering to that problem from first principles - across underwriting, processing, borrower communication, and pricing for products like DSCR and RTL (fix-and-flip) loans.

We're asking questions like:

• How do people and AI agents work together instead of competing?
• Can agents execute meaningful work across multiple lending systems end to end?
• What does a loan look like when it's designed AI-native, not digitized after the fact?

Unlike most fintechs, we don't have to imagine our users or wait for distribution. The loan officers, underwriters, brokers, and real-estate investors we build for are already here, and the data from real funded loans shapes every decision. We're looking for builders who move fast, learn constantly, and care more about creating something category-defining than protecting how things have always been done.

THE ROLE: PRODUCT MANAGER

Location: New York City (on-site / hybrid) · Type: Full-time · Team: Product

We're hiring a Product Manager to own the experience of the AI-powered lending platform used across AHL - by borrowers and brokers on the outside, and by loan officers, processors, and underwriters on the inside. You'll work directly with the founders, the AI team, and engineering to turn complex, data-intensive mortgage workflows into products that are simple, fast, and measurably better.

This isn't a greenfield startup role or a maintenance role at a legacy lender. It's both at once: you'll ship to real users at real loan volume, while redesigning how those workflows should work when AI agents do much of the work. You'll bring the user's voice into every decision and make sure what we build is technically sound, compliant, and a delight to use.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Lead user research and UX. Run interviews, surveys, and usability tests with borrowers, brokers, loan officers, processors, and underwriters - many of whom sit in our own offices. Turn pain points into clear product direction, and prototype solutions with design in Figma or with AI prototyping tools.
• Design human + AI workflows. Decide where an AI agent should act, where a person should review, and how hand-offs, exceptions, and audit trails work. Partner with the AI and forward-deployed engineering teams to turn agent capabilities into dependable product features.
• Own a data-driven roadmap. Prioritize by measurable impact on outcomes like loan throughput, time-to-close, pull-through, and cost per loan. Define success metrics up front and track them against real funded-loan data.
• Write specs engineering can build from. Translate user needs into detailed requirements and acceptance criteria. Work with engineers on APIs, data models, and integrations with our loan origination system and lending stack.
• Bring lending operations and compliance along. Work with Ops, Underwriting, Capital Markets, Sales, and Compliance so launches fit credit guidelines and regulatory requirements, and so teams are trained and ready on day one.
• Run agile execution. Keep a prioritized backlog in Linear, document decisions in Notion, run planning, grooming, and retros, and coordinate releases. Shorten the loop from user feedback to shipped change.
• Partner on go-to-market. Work with Product Marketing and Sales on launches of new programs and features for investors and brokers, and feed field insights back into the roadmap.

WHAT YOU BRING

MUST-HAVE

• 4+ years in product management, ideally in fintech, lending, or mortgage technology.
• Hands-on user research experience (interviews, surveys, usability testing) and a track record of turning insights into shipped product.
• Technical fluency: you can discuss APIs, data flows, and system architecture with engineers, and you write clear, detailed specs.
• AI fluency: you use AI tools daily to research, prototype, and write, and you understand where LLMs and agents are reliable and where they need guardrails.
• Data-driven: you define KPIs, can pull and interpret your own data (SQL or BI tools a plus), and always ask "what problem does this solve, and how will we measure it?"
• Strong communicator who can simplify complex ideas and build consensus across engineering, operations, compliance, and leadership.
• Thrives in fast-moving environments; hands-on and execution-oriented.
• Based in or willing to work regularly from our New York office.

NICE TO HAVE

• Experience with business-purpose or non-QM lending (DSCR, fix-and-flip/RTL, bridge, construction).
• Exposure to loan origination systems (e.g., Encompass), pricing engines, or underwriting workflows.
• Experience shipping AI agent, RAG, or workflow-automation products to production.
• Startup or 0-to-1 experience, or experience bringing a startup product into a larger operating business.
• Proficiency with Figma, Linear, Notion, Slack, and GitHub.

WHY AHL

Real scale from day one. A top-10 private lender with billions in loan volume means your work reaches real borrowers and moves funded loans right away, not after years of chasing distribution.

Your users are down the hall. Loan officers, underwriters, and operations teams are colleagues, not a research panel. You can watch a workflow, ship a fix, and see the result the same week.

AI-first means AI-first. We don't bolt AI onto old processes. You'll build on real agent, RAG, and automation infrastructure alongside the team that builds it.

Ownership without layers. Work directly with the founders and leadership, own your product area end to end, and help shape how product management works across the combined company.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

• Competitive salary and equity
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision
• Professional development budget

AHL is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds.