Rocket Companies today named Papanii Okai as its Executive Vice President (EVP) of Product Engineering – effective immediately. In this newly created role, Okai will work with the company's senior technology leaders to develop AI-fueled products at an even greater velocity.
Previously, Okai spent nearly 11 years in technology leadership roles at Venmo, most recently as Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering. He led the technology and engineering teams that built and scaled products used by Venmo's 90 million users while driving strategic initiatives that solidified Venmo as a leader in peer-to-peer payments.
"We've all experienced technology that drives real impact in the world through Papanii's work with Paypal and Venmo. Now, he will be using that skill to help revolutionize the homeownership journey," said Chief Technology Officer of Rocket Companies, Shawn Malhotra. "After serving in roles from a hands-on-keyboard engineer all the way to a CTO at both startups and large international tech companies, Papanii's technical depth and track record for building high-performing and highly engaged teams makes him a valuable asset for us at Rocket. I'm looking forward to working closely with him as he helps us continue to evolve and elevate our technology teams."
Okai joins Rocket at a time when the company is modernizing the homeownership experience. The company recently created its own loan origination system, Rocket Logic, which uses AI to identify and automatically extract data from the documents Rocket clients submit. A related tool, Rocket Logic – Synopsis, presents team members with searchable transcripts from calls, chats, relevant documents, and data from Rocket Logic. With the company's AI-powered tools, Rocket is projected to save more than 700,000 hours of time this year, per the company.
"Homeownership is one of the most impactful things that can happen in someone's life. It brings security, stability and can build generational wealth – which is exactly why I jumped on this opportunity," said Okai. "The best way we can use technology is to make the path to homeownership easier, faster and more accessible. I'm looking forward to bridging the gap between technology and human experience, so people across the country, no matter where they are from, feel confident taking this life-changing step."
Okai also led the engineering teams at PayPal, the global payments company serving more than 400 million accounts, holding many roles ranging from platform engineer to Chief Technology Officer for Branded Checkout and Vice President of Engineering for PayPal Giving. He oversaw engineers, developers, and product managers across the globe in this capacity.
