Sr. Product Manager

Full-Time: 40HR

The Product Management Manager is an accomplished achiever in designing and building products and services. The focus is on the development and accomplishment of goals and strategic plans to relentlessly advance credit union through products and pricing. Obsessed with product and price optimization in order to better serve members, increase revenue, manage risk, and grow the credit union. Charts and enforces adherence to strategic product roadmaps to further the credit union’s mission and strategies. Acts as the voice of product user inside the credit union and is consumed with the member experience and competitive positioning. Leads ALM committee discussions on lending performance and the competitive landscape to help determine strategic direction and risk tolerances of the credit union.

Must possess excellent public relation skills and a full and thorough understanding of AFCU lending operations, policies, and procedures, products and services, granting credit, as well as legal and regulatory requirements related to consumer lending.

Directs and mentors a dynamic team of professionals on a wide spectrum of products in order to better navigate the multi-faceted product development process and product management lifecycle while optimizing Product Management resources. Leads cross-functional teams in product innovation, pricing, and process improvement.

1. Product Management and Development

• Establishes product goals for utilization, penetration, profitability, market share, etc.
• Creates and drives competitive product strategies
• Manages the product lifecycle from strategic planning to tactical activities
• Evaluates product performance against strategic objectives and makes adjustments as needed
• Increases profitability, penetration and utilization of existing products
• Investigate opportunities and evaluate proposals
• Infuses original and differentiating insights resulting in products that lead the market
• Takes strong and immediate data-backed action on underperforming areas within the product offerings
• Identifies, analyzes, and evaluates loan risks and compensating factors to establish lending criteria and limits.
• Aides in the creation of company policy relative to product usage/experience
• Owns and controls the overall product experience
• Develops, evaluates and implements strategic product plans, based on member needs, organizational objectives and market characteristics

2. Product Research and Analysis

• Employs product research and analysis for the creation and implementation of strategic plans
• Sets, tracks, and adjust product goals based on performance and economic conditions
• Leverages performance metrics in setting policy
• Creates, tests and validates predictive models
• Discovers, acts upon and notifies Senior Management of “stories” told by the data
• Maintains a keen understanding of competitive products and offerings
• Performs ongoing, in-depth analyses of products reporting to evaluate performance against corporate strategy
• Initiates primary and secondary research studies to determine market needs, competitor strength and positioning, member satisfaction and product requirements
• Uncovers key insights to develop product strategies to enhance the value of the member relationship, while maximizing the value that the member receives
• Identifies issues and recommend changes in strategies and tactics

3. Employee Development

• Develops, coaches, supports and manages an effective product management and development team
• Holds direct reports accountable for individual and team performance
• Provides leadership to personnel through effective objective setting, delegation, and communication
• Ensures that personnel are well-trained, effective, and optimally used.
• Ensures that staffing levels are appropriate. Interviews, hires, and assigns personnel
• Directs, schedules, and coordinates department functions
• Conducts performance appraisals. Formulates and implements corrective actions as needed.

4. Interaction with Others

• Communicates with and makes recommendations to top-level management on a daily basis.
• Consistently advises senior management on product and service strategies.
• Functions as a member of the Asset Liability Management, Enterprise Risk Management, Capital Planning, and Product Excellence committees attending, contributing and carrying out decisions made within those committees
• Leads ALM Committee discussions on lending performance and competitive environment.
• Creates and leads cross-functional teams to accomplish objectives and resolve problems.
• Works closely with the marketing and operational teams to deliver on product goals.
• Maintains a broad knowledge of virtually all aspects of the company along with a very
focused knowledge of all products and services and members.

5. Responsible for related duties as required or assigned

• Stays abreast of computer applications, models, and research in the Product and Service field.
• Works to develop more efficient methods for tracking key indicators.
• Conducts regular product assessments.
• Completes special projects as assigned.

Training/Education/Certification:

• Four-year Business, Economics, Finance, or related college degree.
• MBA degree desirable.

Required Knowledge:

• Complete knowledge of all Credit Union products, services, policies, and procedures.
• Expert in complex pricing models.
• Understands interest rate risk and credit risk.
• Business, financial and management knowledge.
• Proficient in product innovation and development.
• Understanding of market pressures that drive product performance.
• Product and industry knowledge.
• Understanding of market research techniques and models.
• Extensive knowledge of statistics and related computer applications and financial and market indicators.
• Competent in database theory database utilization.
• Proficient in Structured Query Language (SQL) and Oracle RDBMS.

Experience Required:

• Ten plus years in product management or related field, preferably at a financial institution.
• Five plus years supervisory responsibility.

Skills/Abilities:

• Outstanding abstract, analytical, and creative thinking abilities.
• Ability to discuss and debate strategic issues with top management.
• Entrepreneurial attitude.
• Strategic Planning.
• Proven ability to lead and influence cross-functional teams.
• Negotiation expertise.
• Keen decision-making skills.
• Excellent reasoning, interpersonal and organizational skills.
• Strong project management skills.
• Outstanding leadership abilities.
• Excellent verbal and written communication and presentation skills.
• Able to meet deadlines.
• Strong problem solving abilities.
• Ability to apply logical or scientific thinking to define problems.
• Skilled in the collection of data and using that data to establish facts.
• Gifted in interpreting information to draw relevant, actionable conclusions.
• Able to interpret a variety of technical instructions and can deal with multiple variables.
• Expert in taking quantitate data and turning that into creative solutions to capture opportunity.
• Ability to use advanced mathematical and statistical calculations.