Tala provides financial services to the global underbanked using next generation mobile technology and data science.
The Role
The VP of Product will define the strategy for Tala's lending ecosystem, enhance customer experiences, and lead product teams while achieving sustainable growth and financial inclusion.
Summary Generated by Built In
About Tala
At Tala, we’re applying advanced technology and human creativity to solve what legacy institutions can’t or won't. We are a global financial infrastructure company on a mission to unleash the economic power of the global majority, recognizing that today’s financial infrastructure doesn’t work for most of the world’s population.
We’re the first and only platform to combine the intelligence of a credit bureau, the payments execution of a fintech, and the relationship expertise of a bank into one vertically integrated solution. Our platform is powered by an expansive moat of proprietary data and AI/ML decisioning technology, enabling us to deliver instant, reliable liquidity personalized to every customer's needs. Through our flagship credit app, we’ve disbursed over $7 billion in credit to more than 12 million customers across Latin America, Southeast Asia, and East Africa. These customers have leveraged Tala products to start and expand small businesses, manage day-to-day needs, and pursue their financial goals.
Our pioneering work and proven impact have earned us consistent recognition, including being named to:
CNBC’s Disruptor 50 for five years.
CNBC’s World's Top Fintech Companies for two consecutive years.
Forbes’ Fintech 50 list for nine consecutive years.
Visionary investors, persuaded by the economic power of the global majority, have committed half a billion dollars in equity and debt to Tala's success.
Given the global nature of our team, we operate on a remote-first approach with office hubs in Santa Monica, CA (HQ); Nairobi, Kenya; Mexico City, Mexico; Manila, the Philippines; and Bangalore, India.
Most Talazens join us because they connect with our mission. If you are energized by the impact you can make at Tala, we’d love to hear from you!
The Role
We are seeking a strategic VP – Lending & Retention to define and drive the future of Tala’s lending ecosystem. This leader will be responsible for building customer-first lending experiences, maximizing portfolio performance, and deepening long-term customer relationships. The successful candidate will also help operationalize and expand our capital market initiatives. This role sits at the heart of Tala’s growth engine. You will craft a differentiated lending strategy that balances customer delight, risk management, and profitability. You’ll partner across engineering, data science, credit, operations, and marketing to ensure Tala continuously evolves with customer needs while advancing financial inclusion at scale.This is a pivotal leadership opportunity to shape how millions of underserved customers access and retain financial services, while positioning Tala for sustainable growth.
What You'll Do
- Define Product Vision & Strategy
- Develop and communicate a bold product roadmap for lending and retention aligned with Tala’s mission and growth objectives.
- Balance innovation with portfolio health, risk, and regulatory compliance.
- Capital Markets & Funding Leadership:
- Partner closely with Finance & Capital Markets to ensure sustainable and diversified funding
- Translate portfolio and product performance into narratives that resonate with investors and regulators
- Anticipate and influence macroeconomic and regulatory shifts that impact capital and credit supply
- Own the Customer Lifecycle
- Lead product strategy across the entire lending journey and customer conversion funnel – acquisition, underwriting, disbursement, repayment, and re-engagement.
- Design retention initiatives that drive repeat usage, loyalty, and lifetime value.
- Build & Lead Teams
- Lead, mentor, and grow a world-class product team focused on lending, and retention.
- Foster a culture of impact, innovation, and accountability.
- Lead Best-in-Class Repayments and Recoveries plans
- Identify optimization opportunities to enhance our repayments rates ratio
- Leverage 3rd party best practices and partners to significantly drive recoveries financially
- Global to Local Balance:
- Build a product strategy that drives global lending performance while tailoring execution for local customer, cultural, and regulatory contexts
- Collaborate closely with GMs and market teams to ensure product decisions resonate locally while supporting the enterprise portfolio.
- Drive Performance & Insights
- Establish KPIs for lending product performance, including portfolio quality, customer engagement, and unit economics.
- Leverage data, experimentation, and customer insights to continuously optimize.
- Cross-Functional Leadership
- Partner with risk, operations, finance and marketing to ensure lending products deliver strong financial and social outcomes.
- Collaborate with design and engineering to create seamless, mobile-first experiences.
- Innovation & Differentiation
- Stay ahead of fintech, credit, and retention best practices globally.
- Identify opportunities to introduce new credit features, loyalty programs, or adjacent financial products.
What You Need
- 15+ years of product leadership experience, ideally in fintech, lending, digital banking, or consumer financial services
- Proven track record of scaling lending or retention products in high-growth environments
- Strong understanding of credit dynamics, risk management, and unit economics
- Customer-obsessed with deep empathy for underserved populations and emerging markets
- Experienced leading global, cross-functional teams across product, engineering, and operations
- Analytical and data-driven, with expertise in experimentation, A/B testing, and customer insights
- Strategic thinker who can operate at both vision and execution levels
- Excellent communicator and influencer across executive teams, investors, and regulators
- Champion of diversity, inclusion, and building mission-driven cultures
Our vision is to build a new financial ecosystem where everyone can participate on equal footing and access the tools they need to be financially healthy. We strongly believe that inclusion fosters innovation and we’re proud to have a diverse global team that represents a multitude of backgrounds, cultures, and experience. We hire talented people regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
Top Skills
Data Science
Engineering
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The Company
What We Do
Tala is a global technology company on a mission to build a financial system that works for everyone. More than 6 million people have borrowed through Tala’s smartphone app, which provides instant credit scoring, lending, and other personalized financial services in emerging markets. We are present in the United States, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines and India.
Why Work With Us
We are on a global mission to serve the underserved. We use mobile technology and data science to make financial services simple, inclusive, and accessible. We are expanding across product offerings, countries and crypto and are looking for people who have an entrepreneurial spirit and are passionate about the mission.
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