NCDOT - Product Manager- Junior

Successful candidates have experience launching, improving, or modernizing digital products and understand how to balance customer needs, operational realities, technical constraints, and business goals. They are comfortable making decisions, driving delivery, and using evidence rather than assumptions to guide product direction.

Key Responsibilities

• Executes the direction of the Product Owner by leading complex digital products and service initiatives from discovery through delivery, including customer-facing and operational products such as online services, appointment scheduling, queue management, customer portals, websites, mobile driver licenses (mDL), and internal operational tools
• Works with stakeholders, frontline staff, vendors, and technical teams to translate business needs, operational requirements, and customer feedback into actionable product requirements, workflows, user stories, and prioritized backlogs
• Develops a strong understanding of DMV operations, policies, and customer pain points to identify opportunities to improve customer experience, operational efficiency, and service delivery
• Conducts and supports user research and usability testing activities including customer interviews, prototype testing, operational observations, and feedback analysis to inform product decisions and validate solutions
• Serves as a day-to-day lead for assigned initiatives by coordinating across vendors, agency stakeholders, and internal teams to ensure work progresses toward defined goals, timelines, and outcomes
• Partners closely with vendor teams to drive iterative delivery of working software and services.
• Help hold vendors accountable for timelines, product quality, usability, testing readiness, issue resolution, and delivery expectations
• Exercises sound judgment in making day-to-day product and operational decisions while understanding when risks, policy concerns, stakeholder conflicts, or delivery challenges should be escalated to the Product Owner
• Leads backlog refinement, sprint planning, release coordination, and product prioritization activities while supporting roadmap development and milestone planning.
• Monitors product performance and operational outcomes through analytics, customer feedback, operational metrics, and frontline observations to identify trends, risks, and opportunities for continuous improvement
• Champions user-centered, iterative, and outcome-driven delivery practices that focus on delivering measurable value to customers, staff, and the agency through incremental improvements and continuous learning

Required Skills & Experience

• Experience leading the development, launch, modernization, or continuous improvement of digital products, software platforms, or customer-facing technology services.
• Demonstrated experience working across the full product lifecycle, including discovery, prioritization, delivery, launch, measurement, and continuous improvement.
• Experience working closely with software development teams, designers, vendors, and engineers in Agile or iterative delivery environments.
• Strong ability to balance user needs, operational constraints, business objectives, policy requirements, and technical considerations when making product decisions.
• Experience conducting user research, usability testing, customer interviews, service design activities, or other customer-centered product discovery practices.
• Familiarity with accessibility, customer experience, service design, or digital transformation initiatives.

Preferred experience working in government, transportation, financial services, healthcare, or other policy- or regulation-constrained environments.

Desired Attributes

• Demonstrated curiosity about customer behavior, operational challenges, and opportunities to improve public services.
• Comfortable working in ambiguity and using research, data, and experimentation to inform decisions.
• Ability to balance customer needs, operational realities, technical constraints, and business priorities when making recommendations.
• Strong ownership mindset with a bias toward action, continuous improvement, and delivering measurable outcomes.
• Experience working in highly regulated environments where policy, compliance, and technology considerations must be balanced.
• Passion for improving government services through modern digital products and user-centered design.

Soft Skills

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences.
• Ability to influence decisions and build alignment across stakeholders without direct authority.
• Strong facilitation and active listening skills, particularly when working with customers, frontline staff, and leadership.
• Comfortable navigating competing priorities, making tradeoffs, and driving decisions forward.
• Collaborative, adaptable, and resilient in fast-paced environments with evolving priorities.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent professional experience.
• Relevant fields may include business, public administration, information systems, computer science, engineering, design, human-computer interaction, communications, or related disciplines.
• Product management, Agile, Scrum, service design, UX research, or customer experience certifications are a plus but not required.