Senior Manager, HELOC Growth, Experience and Strategy

PenFed is hiring a (Hybrid) Senior Manager, HELOC Growth, Experience and Strategy at our San Antonio, Texas; Irving, Texas or Phoenix, Arizona location.  The Senior Manager, HELOC Growth, Experience & Market Strategy is the single-threaded owner PenFed’s Refinance and Home Equity (HELOC) products. This role consolidates the pre-funnel and in-funnel view of both products into one accountable seat, translating market, competitive and member-journey insight into prioritized action rather than additional reporting. The incumbent is an individual contributor with no direct reports but carries senior decision-making authority: setting the growth and experience vision for Refinance and HELOC lending products, sequencing the work by impact, and personally driving execution through Shared Enablement, Delivery, Marketing, Data Analytics and Operations partners. The role is expected to be deeply AI-enabled, both as a builder of AI-assisted analysis and agent-supported workflows, and as a daily consumer of AI outputs so that strategy is produced and refreshed at market speed. The incumbent recommends marketing strategy, content library direction and product positioning, owns final creative approval for Refinance and HELOC assets, and operates within the budget parameters established by the VP, HL Sales Refinance and HELOC, who retain budget ownership and allocation authority.

Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. This is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of job duties, and the position will perform other duties as assigned.

• Own the growth strategy for Refinance and HELOC, identifying where the opportunity is, where the products are underperforming, and why, then converting that view into a sequenced, prioritized plan of action.
• Define product offer strategy at the pre-funnel stage, including audience targeting, segment prioritization, market expansion opportunity and channel mix recommendations.
• Develop and own draw activation and utilization plays for the HELOC portfolio, sequenced by expected impact, including post-close draw behavior, re-borrowing patterns and refinance timing triggers.
• Recommend marketing strategy, campaign direction and content library needs and build the content and campaign pipeline ahead of demand rather than in reaction to it.
• Serve as final creative approver for Refinance and HELOC creative and content prior to publication, ensuring consistency with product positioning, member-first plain language standards and brand requirements.
• Operate within the marketing and program budget parameters. Provide investment recommendations and expected-return rationale to inform allocation decisions.
• Walk the end-to-end Refinance and HELOC origination journey on a recurring basis and maintain a living, prioritized friction log with named owners and target resolution dates.
• Own the digital customer experience view for both products, including landing pages, digital application flow, application abandonment and drop-off by funnel stage.
• Diagnose and drive resolution of Sales-to-Operations and Operations-to-Servicing handoff breakdowns, partnering with the accountable function to close the gap.
• Establish and maintain the voice-of-member feedback loop- reviews, complaints, survey results and social sentiment- and translate recurring themes into experience and messaging changes.
• Design and interpret A/B and multivariate tests across campaigns and digital experiences, including Intent-to-Proceed capture and lead-to-application conversion, and apply the read-outs to the next cycle.
• Maintain continuous rate, pricing and competitive intelligence for Refinance and HELOC, including bank, credit union and fintech home equity competitors, and translate competitive movement into positioning and offer recommendations measured in days rather than quarters.
• Advice on product positioning and messaging shifts driven by the rate environment, including when cash-out versus rate-and-term framing should change.
• Identify emerging Refinance and HELOC product, segment and partnership opportunities and present them with a supported business rationale.
• Delivery competitive rate position and market share perspective as a standing input to pricing and product decisions owned by the Head of Sales.
• Build and maintain AI-assisted workflows, prompts, and agent-supported analysis that convert raw funnel, campaign, competitive and member-feedback data into decision-ready strategy on a continuous cycle.
• Partner with Data Analytics and AI Agent teams to instrument the Refinance and HELOC funnel, define the required data model, and ensure plays are measurable from lead through funding.
• Use AI tooling to accelerate content ideation, competitive scanning, sentiment analysis and scenario modeling, applying human judgment and compliance review before any output is acted upon or published.
• Evaluate and recommend emerging AI capabilities that improve member experience, conversion or speed of decision-making for Refinance and HELOC.
• Set direction for Shared Enablement and Delivery partners, who build the campaigns, landing experiences and content; operate a weekly priority handoff, monthly scorecard review and quarterly strategy reset.
• Own a single, unified Refinance and HELOC scorecard covering lead-to-application, pull-through, funded units, journey friction and competitive rate position, present results and recommended actions to senior leadership.
• Lead through influence rather than reporting lines, building durable working relationships with Marketing, Digital, Operations, Servicing, Data Analytics, Compliance and Information Technology.
• Assist with maintaining PenFed’s compliance with all applicable federal, state and local laws, regulations and ordinances by abiding by PenFed compliance program and all policies, procedures, rules and regulations, and by routing all member-facing content and campaign strategy through required Compliance and Legal review.

*This role is responsible for ensuring business continuity.*

Equivalent combination of education and experience is considered.

• Bachelor’s Degree in a related field is required.

• Minimum of seven (7) years of progressively responsible experience in mortgage, home equity, consumer lending or financial services, with direct ownership of product, growth, marketing strategy or funnel performance.

• Minimum of three (3) years of experience leading initiatives or coaching others without direct reporting authority is required.

• Demonstrated experience with AI and generative AI tooling in a business setting — including prompt design, agent-assisted analysis, or AI-supported content and insight generation — is required.

• Working knowledge of Home Lending products, pricing dynamics, origination workflow and the competitive landscape, including fintech home equity entrants, is required.

• Proven ability to translate data into strategy and strategy into executed change; strong analytical, storytelling and executive communication skills required.

• Experience with digital marketing execution, customer journey mapping, conversion optimization and A/B testing is required.

• Proficiency with mortgage origination platforms, CRM, business intelligence and marketing automation tooling is required.

• Ability to operate independently, set direction, and influence cross-functional partners in a matrixed environment is required.

• Experience in using A.I. tools preferred.

Supervisory Responsibility

This position will not supervise employees.

Licenses and Certifications

There are no additional licenses and/or certifications required.

Work Environment

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly exposed to an indoor office setting with moderate noise.

*Most roles require working in an office setting with moderate noise and the ability to lift 25 pounds.*

Travel

Ability to travel to various worksites is required. Occasional travel is expected for industry conferences, competitive research and partner site visits.

Pay Transparency 
The anticipated starting salary range for this role is $84,700.00 - $196,080.00
This position is eligible for an organizational performance based annual bonus, subject to board discretion and approval.
This position is eligible for an individual performance based annual bonus.

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