Dark Matter Technologies, formerly Black Knight Origination Technologies, named Vikas Rao as its deputy chief product officer, the company announced on Tuesday.

In his new capacity, Rao will directly report to chief product officer Stephanie Durflinger. His responsibilities will include overseeing enhancements to the Empower loan origination system (LOS) and establishing Dark Matter’s developer community. This initiative aims to assist mortgage lenders in embedding automation more deeply into their origination workflows while  achieving tighter integration of their systems through open application programming interfaces (APIs) and widgets.

Before joining Dark Matter Technologies, Rao served as the vice president of product management for Ellie Mae, a mortgage origination technology provider that was bought by Intercontinental Exchange in 2020 for $11 billion. 

During his tenure at Ellie Mae, Rao led product strategy for the Encompass loan origination platform and Developer Connect solution, a suite of APIs that enables lenders and partners to securely share information.

“Vikas has an impressive track record of success in driving digital innovation and API utilization in mortgage origination,” Dark Matter CEO Rich Gagliano said in a statement. “With his technical expertise and effective leadership style, Vikas will play a pivotal role in our mission to empower lenders through AI, automation, and innovation.”

Rao brings more than  15 years of experience in software engineering, product management and technology leadership gained from both public and private companies within the mortgage industry and Silicon Valley’s startup ecosystem.