Product Manager

The Product Manager owns and manages products throughout their lifecycle to ensure they support MSUFCU's strategic objectives, member experience, employee effectiveness, compliance expectations, and operational needs. This role researches, evaluates, develops, prioritizes, and continuously improves products and services by connecting organizational goals with practical solutions that deliver measurable value.

The Product Manager serves as a primary liaison between business stakeholders, technical teams, vendors, and other partners involved in product strategy, discovery, design, implementation, adoption, and ongoing support. They partner with leaders and cross-functional teams to understand needs, define product vision, establish priorities, maintain roadmaps, clarify tradeoffs, and guide decisions that keep work aligned to portfolio and organizational outcomes.

In addition to core product responsibilities, the role is expected to demonstrate behaviors that strengthen collaboration, trust, execution discipline, and continuous improvement. The Product Manager uses data, stakeholder feedback, member insight, and business context to solve problems, navigate change, promote shared accountability, and help partners make informed decisions that improve product outcomes.

Work Arrangement: This position is able to work onsite, hybrid, or remote (must reside within the State of Michigan).

To be considered for this role, candidate must currently reside, or have plans to reside upon hire, within the state of Michigan as described above. Occasional travel on a quarterly basis to MSUFCU Headquarters (East Lansing, MI) may be needed.

Schedule - Monday - Friday 8:30am - 5:00pm ET.

An offer of employment with MSU Federal Credit Union and affiliates is contingent upon the agreed work arrangement (onsite/hybrid/remote) and work location. MSU Federal Credit Union may or may not be able to accommodate temporary or permanent changes to work arrangements or allow employment outside the city and/or state of residency in which the new hire resides at the time of offered employment.

Compensation & Benefits:

• Salary Range: $95,000 - $130,000+ annually, dependent on experience
• 100% Company-Paid Health, Dental, Vision, Life, and Long-Term Disability Premiums
• Up to 26 days of PTO within your first year, as well as Volunteer Time Off & 11 Paid Holidays
• 401(k) with a company match
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Up to 12 Weeks of Paid Parental Leave
• Learn more about our benefits here

Main Responsibilities:

Core Responsibilities

• Portfolio Strategy, Roadmap & Lifecycle Management

• Define and maintain product vision, goals, roadmaps, and priorities aligned to MSUFCU's strategic objectives, member needs, employee experience, compliance expectations, and operational goals.

• Manage products throughout the lifecycle from discovery and planning through delivery, adoption, measurement, improvement, and retirement.

• Evaluate opportunities using research, data, stakeholder feedback, business value, risk, dependencies, capacity, and organizational priorities.

• Develop and/or support business case creation, cost-benefit analysis, priority recommendations and ROI/Value realization to help inform and guide roadmap decisions and prioritization.

• Monitor product performance, outcomes, and operational impacts to recommend enhancements, roadmap adjustments, or investment changes.

• Stakeholder Partnership & Cross-Functional Alignment

• Serve as a primary liaison between business stakeholders, technical teams, vendors, and delivery partners.

• Partner with key vendors to align product roadmaps, manage delivery dependencies, implementation planning, performance monitoring and issue resolution so that solutions continue to meet business and member needs.

• Build trusted relationships by understanding needs, clarifying objectives, and communicating product direction, priorities, risks, dependencies, and progress.

• Facilitate discovery, planning, prioritization, and alignment discussions that help teams make informed decisions and stay focused on shared outcomes.

• Partner with Engineering, Architecture, Security, Operations, Compliance, Risk, Project Management, and other teams to ensure solutions are understood, feasible, compliant, and aligned to organizational priorities.

• Prioritization, Requirements & Delivery Readiness

• Drive product backlog prioritization and readiness activities, ensuring work is refined, sequenced, and aligned to business value, strategic priorities, operational needs, regulatory requirements, and delivery capacity.

• Lead or support discovery and requirements activities, including problem statements, business processes, requirements, epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, workflows, and related documentation.

• Maintain traceability from business objectives through delivered solutions to ensure requirements, decisions, and outcomes are clearly understood.

• Partner with delivery teams to support implementation readiness, stakeholder reviews, demonstrations, feedback collection, adoption planning, and User Acceptance Testing coordination and validation.

• Partner with applicable operational teams to ensure adequate product support, procedures, training, communication and post-launch monitoring is in place.

• Product Performance, Risk & Continuous Improvement

• Identify and communicate risks, dependencies, tradeoffs, and implementation considerations that may impact delivery, adoption, compliance, or business outcomes.

• Ensure Risk Management, Compliance, Fraud and (where applicable) Audit/Quality Control are incorporated and consulted throughout discovery, prioritization, implementation and ongoing support responsibilities.

• Use data, performance measures, stakeholder feedback, and lessons learned to continuously improve products, processes, and product management practices.

• Support portfolio, planning, prioritization, governance, and operating model improvements that strengthen delivery predictability and product outcomes.

Extended Responsibilities

• Portfolio Leadership & Strategic Influence

• Translate complex business problems into clear direction, decision points, roadmaps, and measurable outcomes that guide stakeholders and delivery partners.

• Anticipate impacts, dependencies, and tradeoffs before issues occur and recommend practical paths forward with appropriate urgency.

• Support portfolio-level capacity planning with the portfolio team to help identify work sequence, bottlenecks, capacity and tradeoffs to help improve delivery and predictability

• Use data, stakeholder input, member feedback, and business context to challenge assumptions and encourage innovative approaches that improve outcomes.

• Cross-Functional Leadership & Trust Building

• Lead discussions with care, clarity, and professionalism while addressing behaviors, decision delays, or communication gaps that may undermine trust or progress.

• Promote collaboration across teams by clarifying ownership, coordinating dependencies, and reinforcing shared accountability for product outcomes.

• Coaching, Execution & Continuous Improvement

• Share knowledge, provide constructive feedback, and help peers or partners strengthen product thinking, requirements quality, stakeholder engagement, and delivery readiness.

• Model accountability by maintaining focus on critical priorities, measuring progress, and following through on commitments and decisions.

• Identify barriers to delivery, adoption, or team effectiveness and partner with others to remove obstacles, improve processes, and increase predictability.

• Demonstrate self-awareness, resilience, curiosity, and a willingness to learn by seeking feedback, adapting to change, and applying lessons learned to future work.

• Compliance, Operational Accountability & Other Duties

• Understand and follow Credit Union policies, procedures, internal controls, and operational risk expectations to safeguard assets, prevent fraud, and maintain integrity of Credit Union operations.

• Perform other duties as assigned.

Job Requirements:

All Levels:

• High School Diploma or equivalent required.
• Bachelors degree in Business, Information Technology, Engineering, Product Management, or a related field; equivalent experience may be considered.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams to deliver business and technology solutions.
• Experience facilitating discussions, gathering requirements, managing priorities, and driving outcomes.
• Product lifecycle management
• Roadmap development and prioritization
• Business analysis and requirements management
• Stakeholder management and influencing
• Strategic planning and problem solving
• Process analysis and improvement
• Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and iterative delivery methodologies
• User Acceptance Testing coordination and execution
• Data analysis and performance measurement
• Written and verbal communication
• Facilitation and presentation skills
• Change management and organizational influence

Product Manager I:

• 0-2 years of relevant experience in product management, business analysis, project delivery, business operations, technology, or a related discipline.
• At this level, the role is expected to develop product management capabilities while supporting defined product areas, discovery activities, requirements, prioritization, stakeholder communication, and delivery readiness with guidance.

Product Manager II:

• 2-5 years of relevant experience in product management or a closely related discipline.
• At this level, the role is expected to independently manage product work within an assigned product area, own roadmap and backlog priorities, facilitate stakeholder alignment, make informed tradeoff recommendations, and guide cross-functional partners through execution.

Senior Product Manager:

• 5-8+ years of relevant experience in product management or a closely related discipline.
• At this level, the role is expected to manage more complex or strategic product areas, influence outcomes across teams, guide portfolio-level planning and prioritization, anticipate risks and dependencies, mentor peers or partners, and model behaviors reflected in the Expanded Responsibilities section.
• Candidates should demonstrate the ability to operate with greater independence, manage more complex or strategic product areas, influence cross-functional decisions, anticipate risks and dependencies, and connect product work to measurable business, member, operational, or regulatory outcomes.
• Lead complex or strategic product work with limited guidance while navigating ambiguity, competing priorities, and cross-functional dependencies.
• Proficient in developing roadmap and prioritization recommendations that balance business value, risk, regulatory needs, operational readiness, and delivery capacity.
• Expert ability to influence stakeholders, leaders, vendors, and delivery partners to align on priorities, clarify tradeoffs, and drive timely decisions.
• Advanced ability to translate strategy, data, stakeholder needs, and performance insights into actionable product direction and measurable outcomes.

Competencies:

• Core Competencies that must be demonstrated by all Credit Union employees include Communicate, Navigate Change & Evolve, Solve Problems & Make Decisions, Plan, Prioritize, and Achieve, and Collaborate.
• Functional Competencies:
• Conflict Resolution - Works effectively through an antagonistic situation to minimize relationship damage and promote shared goals. Uses appropriate interpersonal methods to reduce tension or conflict and facilitate agreement.
• Creativity & Innovation - Thinks beyond the confines of traditional models to recognize opportunities and identify new and better processes. Encourages experimentation and accepts failure as a driver of innovation.
• Digital Literacy - Adopts, effectively uses, and champions new technology. Understands and shares technological information used within the position.
• Documentation - Demonstrates knowledge of documentation procedures. Tracks changes, makes updates, and relays important information.
• Financial Literacy - Understands Credit Union fundamentals and financial institution terminology, and how we serve members with this knowledge. Appropriately shares knowledge or information with others.
• Initiative - Takes proactive and prompt action to accomplish work goals. Takes action to achieve results beyond requirements.
• Meeting Facilitation - Objectively guides a group to achieve defined goals, enable collaborative knowledge transfer, and encourage participation.
• Organizational Awareness - Understands and aligns actions with the organization's goals, core functions, needs, and values.
• Process Knowledge - Demonstrates knowledge of procedures and department or Credit Union processes, and utilizes this knowledge to inform decisions.
• Product Knowledge - Demonstrates knowledge of products, services, and relevant details offered or supported within the position.
• Research - Investigates and studies sources to understand situations before reaching conclusions or acting.
• Superior Service - Proactively anticipate needs and support both members and colleagues with care and urgency. Build trust through clear, empathetic communication and consistent follow-through, elevating experiences across every interaction.
• Systems Knowledge - Demonstrates knowledge of specific Credit Union programs and applications, and successfully navigates these systems.
• Teamwork - Works well with internal and cross-functional teams to achieve individual, team, department, and/or organizational goals. Values diverse perspectives and working with others to achieve the best outcome possible.

Physical Demands and Work Environment

• May be required to remain in a stationary position for an extended period.
• Ability to operate standard office technology, equipment, and tools, which may include many hours of computer and phone usage.
• Occasionally needs to move about inside of an office area.
• This position can work in remote, hybrid, or onsite working arrangements.

Disclaimer:

• Note this job description is not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all functions, responsibilities, skills, and abilities. Additional functions and requirements may be assigned by supervisors as deemed appropriate. This document does not represent a contract of employment, and MSU Federal Credit Union reserves the right to change this position description and/or assign tasks for the employee to perform, as MSUFCU may deem appropriate.
• MSUFCU is an affirmative-action, equal-opportunity employer.
• To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential job duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions.