Manager, IT Product

Af - Group - Kalamazoo, MI

Full-time - Mid Level

Kalamazoo, MI

Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations

About the position

The Product Manager will play a crucial role in defining and prioritizing the Product Vision and Roadmap by collaborating with both internal stakeholders and external clients. This position involves managing the design and development of technology solutions, ensuring that they align with business needs while applying agile principles to deliver innovative product solutions.

Responsibilities

• Lead and drive product planning; oversee development and implementation.
• Maintain the overall product backlog.
• Monitor resource burn rate for projects and adjust resources as required for successful delivery.
• Motivate, lead, and manage team members effectively.
• Implement and maintain a rapid application development methodology optimizing an Agile approach.
• Collaborate with Product Owners on product direction, deliverables, and release planning.
• Engage with Underwriting, Claims, and Finance Business Units to define product needs and innovation opportunities.
• Identify and solution cross-functional requirements with internal peers.
• Aid in the development of clear documentation, user manuals, training materials, and business process flows.
• Escalate high-level risks and issues to Program leadership.
• Coordinate responses on project issues for presentation to Program leadership and oversight committees.
• Collaborate with Change Management for clear project communication.
• Work with business process analysts on process alignment and optimization.
• Address identified blockers with Scrum Masters and share responsibility for overall delivery.
• Collaborate with architecture on the technical direction of the product.
• Lead analysis and estimation efforts for project and team resource needs.
• Collaborate on major design decisions with other Leads and Architects.
• Provide technical leadership to the team in meeting milestones and deliverables.
• Serve as a point of escalation for requirements, design, development, and testing activities.
• Provide leadership jointly with the Scrum Master to meet expectations for scope and schedule.
• Ensure adoption and application of technical best practices.
• Provide subject matter expertise on legacy systems and business rules.
• Participate in sponsor and executive update meetings as needed.
• Participate in architecture meetings to understand the linkage between architecture and other designs.

Requirements

• Prior experience with major information technology processes, particularly application development, database administration, and data warehousing.
• Experience in product management and agile methodologies.
• Strong leadership and team management skills.
• Excellent communication and collaboration abilities.
• Ability to analyze and estimate project resource needs.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with Change Management processes.
• Familiarity with Scrum and Agile frameworks.
• Knowledge of business process analysis and optimization.

Benefits

• Health insurance coverage.
• 401k retirement savings plan.
• Paid holidays and vacation time.
• Professional development opportunities.