Vice President Funding

Job Description

Job Description

Description:

 

Why This Role Is Different  

Two things you should understand before you apply. 

First: you will fund the first contracts yourself. There is no funding department, no procedure manual, no stipulation matrix, no dealer funding guide, and no queue to inherit. You will build all of it, and in the early months you will personally review packages, call dealers, and release deals. This role is for someone who wants to build a funding operation, not administer one. 

Second: your mandate is to build a department that needs as few people as possible. Funding is the most automatable function in auto finance. Document intelligence, automated income and employment verification, and rules-based validation can carry the majority of clean deals with no human touch. We want the person who finds that exciting rather than threatening. Your team should exist to work exceptions and make judgment calls — not to re-key data a machine could read. 

What you get in return:  

• Real authority. You own the funding decision, the stipulation standards, the tooling, the vendor selections, the org design, and the budget. 
• A blank page. Every funding leader has a list of things they would do differently if they could start over. This is that opportunity, and we want to hear the list in the interview. 
• A path. This seat grows into VP, Originations Operations as it absorbs dealer onboarding, document management, and the broader pre-boarding stack. 

Position Summary

The Vice President, Funding Operations owns the contract funding lifecycle for Findara Auto Finance, LLC — from receipt of the contract package through verification and compliance review to the funding handoff to Accounting for ACH release. 

This is the control point where money leaves the building. Every funded contract must satisfy federal and state regulation, internal credit policy, and warehouse facility eligibility criteria. A defective package is not a paperwork problem — it is an ineligible receivable sitting in a facility we have already drawn against. 

In the build phase, this role designs and stands up the entire funding operation: workflow, platform configuration, stipulation standards, verification procedures, dealer-facing process, title perfection tracking, e-contract vaulting, controls, and reporting. In the operating phase, this role owns funding performance measured on two axes simultaneously — speed to the dealer and accuracy of the contract. 

This is a founding leadership position.

What You Will Own

Funding & Verification

• The funding queue end to end: contract package receipt, review, verification, funding decision, and handoff to Accounting for ACH release 
• Build the stipulation matrix and the sufficiency standards behind it — what is required at each credit tier, and what a satisfactory document actually looks like. The core set includes: 
• POI (Proof of Income) — paystubs with YTD, W-2, 1099 or returns for self-employed applicants, bank statements for cash income, award letters for SSI, SSDI, pension, or VA income
• POE (Proof of Employment) — verbal VOE to an independently verified employer number, written VOE, or third-party verification
• POR (Proof of Residence) — utility bill, lease, mortgage statement, or bank statement with matching name and address
• Proof of Identity — valid government photo ID, signature match, SSN validation, CIP and OFAC clearance
• Insurance — full coverage binder or declarations page, comprehensive and collision within deductible limits, Findara Auto Finance, LLC named as lienholder and loss payee, effective on or before contract date
• References — verified working numbers with confirmed relationships
• Down payment verification — cash down confirmed, deferred down payment agreements documented
• MLA and SCRA — DMDC covered-borrower check at origination
• Retail Installment Contract review: executed, dated, complete, unaltered, terms matching the approval, required provisions intact, disclosures accurate 
• Full contract package validation — credit application, buyer's order, odometer disclosure, FTC Buyers Guide, title and lien documents, trade documentation and payoff, ancillary product contracts and their cancellation and refund disclosures, privacy notice, dealer certification 
• Collateral validation — VIN consistency across contract, title application, and insurance; book value supporting the advance; mileage; title brand check; prior lien release 
• Deal structure validation against approval — term, rate, amount financed, LTV, PTI, backend product caps, and state-specific rate, fee, and document fee limits 
• Kick, cure, and re-fund workflow; funding SLA and turn-time management 
• Fraud detection at funding: document alteration, income and employment fabrication, straw purchases, synthetic identity, and dealer-originated fraud patterns 

Dealer & Customer Interface

• All dealer and customer communication regarding verifications, stipulations, funding exceptions, and problem resolution 
• Dealer escalation and negotiation where debtor information is inconsistent or documentation is deficient 
• Publish and maintain the dealer funding guide, stipulation expectations, and turn-time commitments 
• Dealer enrollment approval — Dealer Relations sources the dealer; Funding approves the enrollment file: executed agreement, current license, W-9, verified banking, OFAC clear 
• Own dealer funding scorecards — defect rate, stipulation quality, title timeliness — and feed them back into Dealer Relations and Credit 

Compliance & Covenant Control

• Ensure every funded contract complies with federal and state regulation, internal credit policy, and warehouse facility eligibility criteria and covenants 
• Own the funding-side compliance stack: OFAC and CIP, Red Flags, MLA and SCRA, Regulation Z disclosure accuracy, state licensing, and state-specific contract and fee requirements 
• Own the funding defect log, root-cause analysis, and the feedback loop into credit policy, dealer scorecards, and training 
• Serve as the operational owner for collateral audits, warehouse eligibility reviews, and investor due diligence on origination files 
• Bankruptcy program: where Findara originates to borrowers in an active Chapter 13 plan, funding is gated on the court order granting the motion to incur debt. This is a hard legal gate with no analog in standard auto finance, and it belongs in the stipulation matrix. 

Title & Collateral Perfection

• Title is a shared responsibility with Servicing. Funding owns origination-side execution; Servicing owns portfolio title integrity. 
• Verify title application completeness and correct jurisdiction at funding; confirm lien recording fees paid 
• Capture and validate lien receipts — confirm correct lienholder name, address, VIN, and lien position, not merely that a receipt was received 
• Title float tracking and aging from funding through confirmed perfection, with defined escalation thresholds 
• Dealer follow-up and exception resolution on missing or defective title work 
• Electronic lien and title (ELT) enrollment and jurisdiction setup 
• Hand off to Servicing at confirmed perfection 

E-Contracting & Vault

• Operational ownership of the e-contracting workflow and the e-vault deposit process 
• Contract integrity — complete, properly executed, tamper-evident, and eligible for transfer of control 
• Implement and maintain dual control over transfer of the authoritative copy, segregated from the individual who funded the deal 
• Partner on selection and configuration of the e-contracting and vaulting stack 

Reporting & Analytics

• Define and own the funding reporting suite: funding volume and turn time, same-day funding rate, stipulation clear rate, defect and exception rate, kick reasons, title float aging, touchless funding rate, and cost per funded contract 
• Produce origination-side reporting for executive management, warehouse lenders, and investors 

Team & Organization

• Own the staffing model, hiring plan, training program, and quality standards for the funding team 
• Write every funding policy and procedure from scratch 
• Recruit, hire, train, and develop the department 

Requirements:

Required

• 8–12 years in indirect automotive finance operations, including 4+ years leading a funding, contract operations, or loan operations team 
• Non-prime or subprime experience specifically. Prime funding is largely clean-package processing. Non-prime is stipulation verification, dealer negotiation, and fraud detection — a materially different job. 
• You have built or materially rebuilt a funding department — its procedures, its stipulation matrix, and its controls. Not just run one that already existed. 
• Deep working knowledge of retail installment contract compliance and multi-state documentation, disclosure, and titling requirements 
• You have operated inside warehouse eligibility criteria and can explain why a defective contract package is a borrowing base problem, not a filing problem 
• You have held the line with dealers and with an internal sales organization, and can describe a specific instance in detail 
• Strong verbal and written communication — this role is on the phone with dealers and customers daily, often delivering answers they do not want 

Strongly Preferred

• E-contracting and e-vault implementation experience, including transfer of control and authoritative copy handling 
• Has implemented funding automation — document AI, automated income or employment verification, or rules-based auto-funding 
• Experience at a lender operating under a warehouse facility or securitization 
• Multi-state licensed lending environment experience 
• Familiarity with bankruptcy-related origination requirements 

Education

Relevant experience is what matters for this role. A degree is welcome but not required.