Financial Services — Auto Finance · Dealer Portal / Auto Finance Channel Tech · Capital One Auto Finance
Dealer Portal / Auto Finance Channel Tech Project Manager Simulation — Capital One Auto Finance
Lead a $1.5M, 14-week refresh of Capital One Auto Finance's dealer-facing portal, Dealer Navigator — application submission, real-time decisioning, e-signature, funding status, and the dealer-incentive dashboard. The build is the easy part: the people who use this portal are independent dealers who will route their loan volume to a competing lender the moment the new flow feels slower, and every disclosure compliance requires is a click they never asked for. Gain hands-on project management experience over 27 days of real decisions, stakeholders, and PMO deliverables — no prior experience required.
The scenario
Capital One Auto Finance (COAF) lends to car buyers through a network of franchised and independent dealerships — the dealer's finance office submits the loan application, COAF's engine decisions it in seconds, and the car drives off the lot financed. The dealer-facing portal that runs that workflow, Dealer Navigator, is dated. Vince Nam, who runs the dealer auto-finance business, has approved a $1.5M, 14-week refresh covering five capabilities: loan application submission, real-time decisioning, contract e-signature, funding-status tracking, and the Diamond Dealer incentive dashboard. On paper this is a front-end modernization. In practice it is a change-management project wearing a technology project's clothes. The people who use this portal all day are dealers — and dealers are not captive retail customers. A finance manager who finds the new submission flow slower than the old one will route that deal to Ally, Santander, or a credit union instead, and COAF loses the origination. Every disclosure the compliance team adds for federal and state law is a click the dealer did not ask for. Every decisioning timeout under load is a deal that stalls while a buyer waits at the desk. You are the project manager. The build is the easy half. Your real job is to refresh the portal without giving a single high-volume dealer a reason to send their business somewhere else.
What you'll do as the project manager
- →Refresh the Dealer Navigator portal across five capabilities (application submission, real-time decisioning, e-signature, funding status, incentive dashboard) within the $1.5M budget and 14-week timeline.
- →Cut the median dealer loan-application submission time by 30% versus the current portal.
- →Reach 70% active-dealer adoption of the refreshed portal within 30 days of go-live.
- →Ship with zero federal or state auto-finance disclosure findings at the go-live compliance review.
- →Hold the real-time decisioning round-trip under 4 seconds at the 95th percentile during peak dealer hours.
Project management skills you'll build
The challenges you'll navigate
- •Channel-partner leverage: high-volume dealers can route origination volume to competing lenders if the refreshed flow adds friction.
- •Real-time decisioning integration is fragile under dealer load — API latency or timeouts turn into stalled deals at the dealership desk.
- •Federal and state disclosure interpretation can shift mid-build; compliance may require new in-portal disclosure steps late.
- •Dealer adoption is leadership-driven, not dealer-requested — the current portal works 'well enough' for the people who use it.
- •The Diamond Dealer incentive team wants its dashboard featured prominently, competing with the application flow for portal real estate.
Technology & stakeholders
You'll manage 7 stakeholders, including Vince Nam (EVP, Head of Dealer Auto Finance), Camille Boudreaux (Director, Auto Finance Technology PMO (Dealer Channel)), Amanda Dorsey (Sr. Director, Product Management — Auto Finance (Dealer Navigator)), and more.
What you'll walk away with
A verified, shareable record of a completed enterprise project — plus the PMO deliverables you produced along the way (charter, project plan, SteerCo deck, closure document). It's real, demonstrable project management experience you can put on your resume and speak to in interviews.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need project management experience to start?
No. This simulation is built for aspiring and practicing project managers alike — you learn by doing. You make real decisions and get feedback, with no PMP or prior PM job required.
How long does this simulation take?
It runs over 27 days, roughly 24 minutes per day, covering the full project lifecycle from initiation to closure.
What will I learn?
You practice the core of project management — stakeholder management, budget and schedule control, risk, scope, and PMO governance — in the context of dealer portal / auto finance channel tech in financial services — auto finance.
Is this based on the real Capital One Auto Finance?
It's a realistic scenario inspired by Capital One Auto Finance and the Financial Services — Auto Finance sector. Details and names are fictionalized for training — it's a simulation, not a record of any actual project.
What do I get at the end?
A verified project completion plus the PMO deliverables you produced (charter, plan, SteerCo deck, closure) — proof of hands-on experience you can show employers.
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