Director of Mortgage Technology

Director of Mortgage Technology

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Direct Mortgage Loans

Location

Remote; candidates local to the Maryland area are a plus

The Opportunity

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Direct Mortgage Loans (DML) is seeking an experienced Director of Mortgage Technology to lead the systems, people, and technology priorities that support our mortgage business.

This is a hands-on leadership role combining technology strategy, team development, project execution, and deep mortgage technology expertise. The ideal candidate can set direction, create structure, partner effectively across departments, and step into the technical details when needed.

This is not a traditional infrastructure-only role, a strategy-only position, or simply an Encompass administrator position. DML's infrastructure and frontline IT support are largely supported by external partners. The Director of Mortgage Technology will lead our internal Technology team, own the mortgage technology roadmap, and help DML build a more proactive, scalable, and measurable technology function.

Key Responsibilities

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• Develop and maintain a technology roadmap aligned with company priorities, mortgage production needs, compliance requirements, and available team capacity.
• Lead, coach, and develop the Technology team, including hiring, training, role clarity, project assignments, performance management, accountability, cross-training, and succession planning.
• Own the health and evolution of DML's mortgage technology ecosystem, with particular responsibility for Encompass configuration, workflows, business rules, custom fields, milestone conditions, templates, releases, integrations, reporting, and data quality.
• Maintain sufficient hands-on technical expertise to investigate, configure, and troubleshoot complex Encompass workflows, rules, reporting, and integrations while developing the team's capabilities.
• Establish a disciplined process for technology intake, scoping, prioritization, and change management to ensure appropriate stakeholders are involved and downstream impacts are understood before changes are implemented.
• Balance day-to-day production support and service tickets with strategic initiatives, ensuring appropriate resources are dedicated to both immediate business needs and long-term system improvements.
• Evaluate new technology, upgrades, and vendor integrations based on DML's customized environment, operating costs, productivity needs, security requirements, and company goals, and present clear, objective recommendations to leadership.
• Identify opportunities to automate manual work, simplify processes, improve reporting, and provide leaders with better access to reliable information.
• Manage technology vendors and service providers, including contracts, pricing, invoices, renewals, service levels, product roadmaps, security reviews, and escalations.
• Ensure the team can diagnose and resolve application, integration, plugin, and user-level issues across the mortgage technology stack while addressing recurring issues at their source.
• Partner with Sales, Operations, Compliance, Finance, Human Resources, and executive leadership on technology needs, regulated mortgage workflows, and cross-functional business process improvements.
• Coordinate with internal and external partners on access controls, vendor risk, information security, audit readiness, incident response, and business continuity.
• Maintain clear documentation, shared access, and cross-training to reduce key-person risk across critical systems and processes.
• Communicate releases, system changes, and process updates clearly and ensure affected teams receive appropriate training, documentation, and support.
• Provide the President and executive leadership with clear reporting on technology priorities, progress, risks, resource needs, vendor performance, and decisions requiring leadership involvement.

Leadership Approach

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The successful candidate will

• Translate business needs into practical technical solutions and communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Listen before implementing changes, ask thoughtful questions, and understand the full business problem before recommending solutions.
• Build strong working relationships across Sales, Operations, Compliance, Finance, Human Resources, and executive leadership.
• Remain calm and practical when priorities compete, systems experience issues, or proposed changes require additional evaluation.
• Challenge requests when appropriate, clearly explain tradeoffs, and recommend better solutions while remaining approachable and service-minded.
• Demonstrate sound judgment, professionalism, and discretion when interacting with employees, executives, vendors, and business partners.
• Address disagreements constructively and maintain positive working relationships across departments.
• Delegate effectively, develop technical expertise across the team, and create clear accountability without becoming the department's sole technical resource or bottleneck.

Required Experience Skills

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• 8+ years of experience in mortgage technology, mortgage systems administration, or a closely related financial-services technology function.
• Recent experience directly managing employees, including hiring, coaching, performance reviews, addressing underperformance, workload prioritization, and accountability.
• Strong current Encompass knowledge, including recent personal experience investigating, configuring, or troubleshooting workflows, business rules, reporting, or integrations.
• Demonstrated success establishing priorities and balancing daily support, urgent production needs, and longer-term strategic initiatives within a small or lean technology team.
• Experience managing technology implementations, upgrades, integrations, vendors, and cross-functional process changes.
• Strong understanding of mortgage operations and the downstream business, compliance, and customer impacts of technology decisions.
• Strong executive communication skills with the ability to explain technical risks, tradeoffs, and recommendations in clear business terms.
• Working knowledge of project management, information security, business continuity, data governance, and technology vendor management.
• Strong organizational, analytical, and interpersonal skills with sound judgment, discretion, and a practical, solutions-focused approach.
• Willingness to travel periodically to DML's Hunt Valley, Maryland office and other company locations as business needs require.

Preferred Experience

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• Experience with Total Expert, nCino or SimpleNexus, Motivity, Jira, or comparable mortgage technology and project management platforms.
• Experience helping a mortgage organization scale its systems, processes, and technology governance while maintaining responsiveness to the business.
• Encompass Administrator certification or comparable demonstrated expertise.
• Bachelor's degree in technology, business, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

What Success Looks Like

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Success in this role means

• The Director earns trust by listening, understanding the current technology environment, and establishing role clarity before making significant organizational or system changes.
• DML has a visible, prioritized technology roadmap with clear owners, decisions, and realistic timelines.
• The Technology team maintains strong service levels while increasing its focus on strategic and proactive work.
• Business departments engage Technology early enough to properly evaluate impact and implement changes effectively.
• Documentation, shared access, and cross-training reduce key-person risk across critical systems and processes.
• Technology investments produce measurable improvements in efficiency, reliability, employee experience, and/or customer experience.

Compensation Benefits

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The anticipated salary range for this position is $180,000–$220,000 annually. Actual compensation will be determined based on the candidate's experience, qualifications, geographic location, and other job-related factors.

Direct Mortgage Loans offers a comprehensive benefits package, including medical benefits through an Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA), dental and vision coverage, life and disability insurance, a 401(k) plan, paid time off, and paid holidays.

Physical Requirements

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Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.

Equal Employment Opportunity

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Direct Mortgage Loans is an equal opportunity employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Reasonable accommodations are available to qualified individuals with disabilities throughout the application and employment process.