Staff Product Manager - Apply & Checkout Experience

About The Role 

We're looking for a Staff Product Manager to lead and evolve Koalafi's Originations product: the end-to-end apply & checkout experiences that serve as the front door to financing for every customer. This is a high-impact role at the center of Koalafi's strategy to accelerate growth by making it easier, faster, and more intuitive for consumers to finance their purchases across both online and in-store channels.  

This role is ideal for a product manager who thrives working at the intersection of strategy, execution, and deep cross-functional collaboration. You'll set the direction for Originations by aligning diverse partners, from Risk and Compliance to Marketing and Sales, around a cohesive strategy that accelerates growth while maintaining a unified vision. 

What You'll Do 

Define and drive the Originations roadmap 

• Lead product vision, strategy, roadmap, and execution for the Originations product as an engine for growth
• Develop the product strategy for apply & checkout flows that are reusable across diverse merchant and consumer contexts – such as a consumer's mobile phone to a store owner's point-of-sale system or e-commerce checkout integration 

Grow and optimize the Originations funnel 

• Drive continuous funnel optimization by identifying conversion opportunities using quantitative data and qualitative insights to ship rapid improvements while balancing profitability and compliance
• Grow Koalafi's distribution across channels by partnering with cross-functional teams to design and ship frictionless experiences that work for both merchants and consumers 

Shape the product for rapid insight generation and experimentation 

• Partner with analytics and engineering to instrument the funnel, generate actionable insights, and run A/B tests to validate hypotheses and measure outcomes
• Mentor other PMs and establish best practices for experimentation and funnel analysis across the broader organization 

Champion the customer experience 

• Champion the customer, bringing curiosity and empathy to every decision to ensure the application experience meets real customer needs
• Conduct user research and map consumer and merchant journeys to uncover usability gaps and unmet needs 

Lead delivery as the embedded product manager for the Originations team 

• Partner continuously with engineering and design to define the what and the why, translating business opportunities and customer insights into user centric solutions, while empowering the team to determine the how
• Maintain a prioritized backlog with crisp epics and stories, clear acceptance criteria, and measurable outcomes
• Partner with analysts and product marketers to define success metrics, ensure releases are instrumented, review post-launch outcomes, and align go-to-market strategy with top-of-funnel campaigns 

About You 

• 7+ years of product management experience, with a track record of owning application flows, onboarding funnels, checkout experiences, or other high-volume conversion-critical surfaces
• Growth-minded and highly analytical, with deep experience in funnel optimization, experimentation, and hypothesis-driven development
• Proficient with analytics and experimentation tools  
• Strong customer empathy and discovery skills
• Demonstrated judgment in balancing short-term business needs with long-term product health and scalability
• Ability to lead and influence cross-functional teams toward a common goal
• Excellent communicator who brings clarity and builds alignment across diverse stakeholders
• Comfortable operating in ambiguous environments and able to create clarity, structure, and momentum over time
• Location Requirement: This position requires regular in-person attendance at one of our two office locations (Richmond, VA or Arlington, VA). Candidates must already be located within a commutable distance to either location, as relocation assistance is not available at this time. 

Preferred Qualifications 

• Experience in fintech, lending, embedded finance, or consumer financial services—particularly in originations or application flow domains
• Familiarity with the tradeoffs between conversion optimization and credit risk management in lending contexts
• Experience with both e-commerce and in-store / point-of-sale product experiences
• Familiarity with multi-merchant or platform business models where the application experience must adapt to diverse merchant contexts