Engineering Director, Lending (Clasp Finance)

Engineering Director, Lending (Clasp Finance) Remote (ET & CT time zones only – some travel required) About Us Clasp is a venture-backed, mission-driven startup transforming access to education and career pathways. We are revolutionizing the way employers attract and retain critical talent and the way colleges and universities support their students through education financing — all while tackling the student debt crisis. (Yep, we think BIG.) We like to think of ourselves as more than a fintech; we're a catalyst for economic mobility. A Forbes fintech 50 company, portfolio company of SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management — the largest HR organization out there!) and recipient of "Startup of the Year" by StartUp Boston, Clasp is driven by our commitment to social impact and innovation. Our work spans two business lines: Clasp Talent helps healthcare employers attract and retain critical talent by connecting them with diverse candidates and using student loan repayment as a powerful recruiting and retention tool. We meaningfully connect employers, educational institutions, and learners to drive mutual benefit. Clasp Finance equips colleges and universities with lending technology to launch and operate their own private student loan programs, enabling schools to step in and support their students directly with financial aid. Recent federal financial aid changes are reshaping how institutions think about supporting their students, and Clasp Finance is poised to meet this moment. Join us on our journey to give power to learners and unlock fulfilling careers that drive positive change in their communities and beyond. What We Need Clasp is searching for an Engineering Director to own the technical heart of Clasp Finance. This is a fun role: you will lead a small, high-impact engineering team, drive technical debt resolution, and hold the long-term health of the platform to a high standard. We’re looking for a hands-on modern technical leader who leverages AI to ship meaningful improvements, can evaluate and implement tooling across various technical stacks, and remains close enough to the work to earn respect from their teammates. While they can be doers, their real leverage is the team around them. They grow people deliberately, partner genuinely with others, and move on good ideas without waiting for permission. You will be embedded in the Clasp Finance business line, working directly with our Senior Product Manager for Lending to build an enterprise-grade loan origination platform, as well as partnering directly with stakeholders on critical data pipelines, and servicing and collections efforts. You will report to Engineering Leadership and have a dotted reporting line to the GM of Clasp Finance. We want someone who is excited by fintech and the unique challenges that the lending industry affords; they are willing to lean into hard problems and work with others to deliver meaningful features for internal and external stakeholders. We need someone who is a deep systems thinker and who loves to develop talent to asymmetrically scale teams and their impact. What You'll Do Own the Technical Roadmap: Define and drive the engineering strategy for Clasp Finance in close partnership with the GM and Product Manager, and cross-functional stakeholders across lending operations, compliance, and sales. Translate business priorities into a sequenced technical plan – balancing new feature delivery against platform investment and regulatory requirements. Lead and Grow the Team: Manage a small engineering team, setting clear goals, running effective 1:1s, and creating an environment where engineers do their best work. Partner with the Engineering Leadership on development, leveling, and team structure as Clasp Finance scales. Be a hands-on contributor where it matters — code reviews, architecture decisions, and unblocking the team on hard problems. Partner Cross-Functionally : Work closely with compliance and legal to ensure the platform holds up under regulatory scrutiny. Understand our internal customer needs to streamline operations. Think in Multipliers: You'll be working with a lean team against a big surface area. That means constantly asking where AI, automation, contracted staffing and tooling can create leverage and building the systems that make each engineer on your team significantly more productive than they'd be anywhere else. Scale the Platform : Collaborate with Clasp Talent engineering leadership to detangle co-mingled codebases across business lines, align on shared services, and maintain a coherent overall technical architecture. Make principled trade-offs between build vs. buy, and communicate cost implications clearly to leadership. Ensure the loan origination system, credit model tooling, and school-facing administrative platform are reliable, scalable, and auditable. What You'll Need Experience in Engineering Leadership: Experience managing engineers in a fintech, lending, or regulated domain environment. This role is not for first-time managers as it will require you to hit the ground running, juggling stakeholder management, technical execution, and people management. Technical Depth: 5+ years of hands-on software engineering experience, with recent and meaningful depth in Python, JavaScript and/or TypeScript. Experience with Next.js and modern state management patterns. You can credibly review code, diagnose architectural problems, and make technology choices your team will trust. Cloud & Architecture Experience: Experience working with cloud-based applications and infrastructure. Our platform leverages Firebase and Firestore, so experience with NoSQL document modeling is strongly preferred. Familiarity with GCP is a plus, though equivalent experience in AWS or Azure environments is also valued. Communication Skills: Strong verbal and written communication, with the ability to explain complex ideas to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, including executive leadership and external school customers. Strategic Thinking: Ability to leverage both qualitative and quantitative data to inform all decisions, and to make confident calls under uncertainty. What We Give In Return Competitive cash and equity compensation Health benefits (health, dental, & vision) Student loan repayment benefits 401k matching Commuter benefits Flexible PTO policy Opportunities to grow and perform in a fast-paced environment alongside a stellar team Salary The salary range for this position is competitive and will be commensurate with the candidate's experience, qualifications, and industry knowledge, ranging between $180,000 to $210,000 annually. In addition to the base salary, we offer an attractive equity component as part of our compensation package, providing an opportunity for eligible employees to share in the success and growth of our company. We are committed to offering competitive compensation and benefits packages to attract and retain top talent. Closing If you are a driven engineering leader with deep fintech expertise and a passion for building systems that meaningfully serve the people who rely on them, we want to hear from you. Join us in reshaping how schools support their students and making a lasting impact on the future of higher education financing. Apply now to be part of our growing team! We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace where all employees feel valued, respected, and empowered to contribute their unique perspectives and talents. Clasp is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. We embrace diversity and are dedicated to providing equal employment opportunities to all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.