Mortgage Operations Manager Jobs in Santa Rosa, CA

Mortgage Loan Officer Subject Matter Expert 

Location: United States (Onshore; Remote with periodic travel) 

Employment Type: Full-Time 

About SAI Group 

SAI Group is a private investment firm that has committed $1 billion to incubate and scale revolutionary AI-powered enterprise software application companies. Our portfolio, a testament to our success, comprises rapidly growing AI companies that collectively cater to over 2,000+ major global customers, approaching $600 million in annual revenue, and employing a global workforce of over 4,000 individuals. 

SAI Group invests in new ventures based on breakthrough AI-based products that have the potential to disrupt existing enterprise software markets. SAI Group's latest investment, JazzX, is a pioneering technology company which is building a platform that will not only shape the future of enterprise AI applications but also offer practical solutions to real-world challenges. 

Role Overview 

As JazzX's Mortgage Loan Officer SME, you will be the single-domain authority for the front end of the mortgage business — lead intake, borrower consultation, qualification, structuring, pricing, locking, and application handoff — across product, engineering, and operations. You will own how loan officer workflows, incentives, and borrower interactions are defined, explained, and operationalized into the JazzX Mortgage Application, ensuring that AI-assisted sales and origination experiences faithfully reflect how loan officers actually work and win business. 

This is a hands-on position. You will work representative borrower scenarios end-to-end, document how loan officers qualify, structure, and price loans, map the lead-to-lock-to-submission journey, and sit with product managers and engineers daily to translate that knowledge into detailed product requirements, decision logic, and acceptance criteria. 

JazzX is building AI products that automate and assist U.S. residential mortgage origination and fulfillment. Our product and engineering teams bring deep AI and software expertise, but they do not come from the mortgage industry. This role exists to close that gap: you will embed with the product team as a hands-on domain expert, bringing real operational mortgage experience into product design and product build at a very detailed level — from workflow maps and edge cases down to field-level definitions, decision rules, and acceptance criteria. 

What You'll Do 

Hands-On Origination & Scenario Documentation 

• Work representative borrower scenarios across purchase, rate-term refinance, cash-out, FHA, VA, conventional, and non-QM contexts — from initial inquiry through pre-qualification, pre-approval, structuring, pricing, lock, and submission to processing. 

• Document the questions loan officers ask, the data they collect, the calculations they run (income, DTI, LTV, assets-to-close), and the judgment calls they make — in a format product and engineering teams can implement as exacting product behavior. 

• Capture how loan officers handle common friction points: marginal credit, complex income (self-employed, commission, rental), gift funds, buydowns, DPA programs, and competing offers. 

Product Design Partnership 

• Embed with the product team as the voice of the loan officer persona; review and pressure-test product specs, UX flows, prompts, and AI assistant behaviors against real-world sales practice. 

• Define what "good" looks like for AI-assisted borrower conversations, qualification, scenario comparison, and pricing presentation — including tone, compliance boundaries, and escalation points to a human LO. 

• Write detailed acceptance criteria, edge cases, and test scenarios for loan-officer-facing features. 

Workflow, Persona & Handoff Mapping 

• Map the end-to-end front-of-funnel workflow: lead sources and referral partners, CRM and POS touchpoints, disclosure triggers, intent-to-proceed, lock desk interaction, and the handoff to processing. 

• Identify data dependencies, rework loops, and failure modes between loan officers, LOAs/production assistants, processors, and the lock desk — and recommend how the product should eliminate them. 

Pricing, Products & Compliance Context 

• Explain how product and pricing engines, rate sheets, LLPAs, lock policies, and LO compensation rules shape loan officer behavior, and ensure product designs reflect those realities. 

• Flag regulatory boundaries relevant to the front end (RESPA, TRID timing, ECOA/fair lending, state licensing, advertising rules) so AI experiences are designed defensibly from the start. 

Validation & Knowledge Transfer 

• Blind-test AI assistant outputs (qualification answers, scenario structuring, borrower communications) against how an experienced loan officer would handle the same situation; quantify gaps and prioritize fixes. 

• Train product, engineering, and design teams on mortgage sales fundamentals; build and maintain playbooks, glossaries, and persona documentation. 

What We're Looking For 

Required Qualifications 

• 7+ years of hands-on U.S. residential mortgage loan origination experience as a producing loan officer (retail, consumer-direct, or broker channels), with a strong personal production track record. 

• Active NMLS licensure (current or recent) and working knowledge of federal and state origination compliance requirements (TRID, RESPA, ECOA, state licensing). 

• Deep familiarity with agency (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac), government (FHA, VA, USDA), and common non-QM product guidelines as they apply to qualification and structuring. 

• Practical experience with POS, CRM, LOS, and product & pricing engine platforms (e.g., Encompass, Blend, ICE PPE/Optimal Blue or similar) and how data flows between them. 

• Demonstrated ability to articulate the loan officer's day-to-day in detail: lead management, borrower consultation, qualification math, pricing and lock decisions, and pipeline management. 

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to document workflows, rationale, and requirements clearly for non-mortgage audiences. 

Skills & Competencies 

• Ability to translate sales judgment and tribal knowledge into explicit rules, decision trees, and structured requirements. 

• Comfort working daily with product managers, designers, and engineers in a fast-moving software environment. 

• Strong attention to detail with a builder's mindset — energized by turning operational expertise into product capability rather than personal production. 

• Credibility and influence: able to represent the loan officer persona convincingly to internal teams and customer stakeholders. 

Preferred 

• Experience as a branch manager, sales manager, or top producer mentoring other loan officers. 

• Prior involvement with mortgage technology vendors, POS/AI pilot programs, or digital origination initiatives. 

• Exposure to consumer-direct call-center origination models in addition to distributed retail.