Deployment Strategist Lead

About the Company

Valon is building the AI-native operating system for regulated finance, starting with mortgage servicing.

We're a Series C company backed by a16z, transforming industries that others have written off as too complex to innovate.

Rather than build on top of broken legacy systems, we took a different approach: we built and operate our own mortgage servicing business managing $110+ billion in loans. This wasn't the end goal, it was how we deeply understood the complexity needed to build software that actually works in regulated industries.

The results speak for themselves. We've transformed mortgage servicing from a 0% margin business into 60%+ margins while dramatically improving customer experience. Major enterprise contracts are now deploying across the industry.

ValonOS is our unified platform that makes every process structured and programmable and it is perfectly positioned for the AI era. When everything flows through one system with rich data, AI agents don't just automate tasks, they continuously improve entire operations. Mortgage servicing is just the beginning of our vision to transform regulated industries and beyond.

What You’ll Do

• Lead major enterprise deployments: Drive complex, high‑stakes rollouts on time and in budget, with clear success metrics tied to operational and financial outcomes.

• Orchestrate cross‑functional strike teams: Coordinate Deployment Strategy (DS), Forward‑Deployed Engineers, Engineering, Product, and Analytics from discovery through migration, UAT, cutover, and post‑go‑live stabilization.

• Codify the playbook: Build reusable accelerators such as migration frameworks, QA protocols, change‑management templates, and stakeholder comms that improve speed and quality across deployments.

• Be the voice of the customer: Synthesize field signals into crisp product requirements, shape the R&D roadmap, and close the loop by validating that shipped capabilities deliver measurable customer value.

• Manage risk with precision: Surface critical path, anticipate blockers in messy legacy environments, and implement mitigation plans that keep delivery on track.

• Drive continuous value creation: After go‑live, lead iterative workflow redesign and AI agent introduction to expand impact quarter over quarter.

• Lead cross‑functional teams: Set direction and standards for the deployment team you’re staffed with (DS, FDEs, engineers, product, analytics) through influence and operating cadence. Team structure may evolve over time, including potential line‑management scope.

• Own the engagement end‑to‑end: Act as deal/case lead across scope, SOWs, change orders, timelines, risk, budget, and value tracking. Maintain single‑threaded ownership from discovery to steady state.

• Run executive steering and stakeholder comms: Drive cadence with customer senior leadership, align on objectives and success metrics, and ensure rapid decision‑making.

• Lead staffing and throughput Define needed skills and capacity, request and onboard team members, set ways of working, and unblock execution. Scope may evolve over time based on business needs.

What Success Looks Like

• Seamless end‑to‑end delivery; discovery to migration to cutover to steady state executed without disruption to business operations.

• Data migration completed with validated reconciliations and zero critical defects at go‑live; clear backfill and rollback plans documented and unused.

• Infrastructure stood up and hardened; environments, access, observability, and runbooks in place prior to UAT; no Sev‑1 incidents during cutover window.

• Training and enablement landed; target user cohorts trained, adoption thresholds met, and support model transitioned to steady state.

• Measurable business outcomes achieved; baseline established pre‑deployment and agreed deltas realized post‑go‑live.

• Scope, timeline, and budget held or change‑controlled with clear decision logs; risks identified early and burned down proactively.

• Executive trust earned: steering forums run to cadence, issues surfaced early with options, and stakeholders rate the program as seamless and well‑managed.

Ideal Background

• 5+ years leading complex enterprise implementations or transformations in regulated or legacy environments such as finance, healthcare, telecom, or government.

• Track record owning end‑to‑end programs with material business impact and executive visibility.

• Cross‑functional influence: trusted by technical and business leaders; can translate ambiguous pain points into precise product and delivery requirements.

• High agency and grit in ambiguity. You unblock, orchestrate, and deliver.

• Executive communication: you can brief CFOs and boards as fluently as you coach analysts and engineers.

• Pattern recognition across multiple areas of a deployment with the ability to crystallize reusable playbooks.

Nice to Have

• Mortgage servicing fluency in areas such as escrow, default, and cash management.

• Forward‑deployed DNA: thrive in customer environments, embed with operators, and convert field insight into scalable solutions.

How We Work

• Small, high‑trust teams tackling some of the hardest implementation problems in modern enterprise software.

• Builders over ticket‑takers: you will own outcomes, not just tasks.

• A culture that values both velocity and sustainability: ambitious goals without burnout.

Why Valon

• Drive flagship deployments that redefine modernization in regulated finance.

• Shape the product and the playbook for how AI is deployed responsibly in complex enterprises.

• Build and scale a high‑performance team of strategists.

• This is a role for builders. If you’re energized by ambiguity, obsessed with details, and motivated by real‑world transformation, we’d love to talk.

Benefits

• Compensation: competitive salary plus a meaningful stake in the company via equity, and 401k plan. NB: The base salary will be based on a combination of past experience and interview performance.

• Health & well-being: we’ll invest in your physical and mental well-being with comprehensive medical, dental, & vision benefits

• Commuter benefits: We offer pre-tax deductions for public transportation, rideshare services, and parking expenses to make your commute more affordable and convenient

• Grow together: Company wide orientation for you to successfully onboard and other learning & development opportunities including regular review cycles that feature 360 degree feedback

• Play together: quarterly budgets for team and company outings. Use it for team swag, cooking classes, or team dinners!

• Generous time off: flexible paid time off, sick days, and 11 company holidays

• Baby bonding time!: 12 weeks off for both birthing and non-birthing parents - fully paid so you can focus your energy on your newest addition

Throughout the interview process, please remember that emails will only be from valon.com email addresses. We will never ask for any personally identifiable information during the interview process itself. Please reach out to [email protected] if you have any requests to verify the authenticity of an outreach.

Valon is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws. Valon makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time.