Manager, Product Management

📋 Description

• • MeridianLink is seeking a dynamic and strategic Manager, Product Management to join our growing team, driving innovation and success for our MeridianLink Mortgage (LOS) and MeridianLink Mortgage Access (POS) products. This pivotal role is instrumental in shaping corporate strategy, managing product-level Profit & Loss (P&L) statements, and establishing robust operating rhythms. You will be the visionary behind our product strategy and roadmaps, acting as the dedicated Product Owner for one or more agile squads. Your expertise will guide these cross-functional teams through the entire agile Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), ensuring the delivery of exceptional products and features that meet both business objectives and evolving customer needs.
• • As the Product Owner, you will meticulously manage the product backlog, defining clear user value propositions, crafting precise user stories, and establishing acceptance criteria. Your focus will be on ensuring that every delivered outcome aligns seamlessly with strategic business goals and directly addresses customer requirements. You will serve as the central point of accountability, fostering seamless collaboration across design, engineering, Quality Assurance (QA), and Go-to-Market (GTM) teams as features progress from conception through development, testing, and into production and distribution.
• • **Strategic Product Management:** You will be responsible for defining and continuously evolving the product strategy and roadmaps for your assigned product lines. This includes making critical decisions regarding capital allocation to ensure optimal portfolio outcomes and drive strong product-line P&L performance. Your strategic vision will be informed by a deep understanding of market trends, competitive dynamics, pricing strategies, and channel performance. You will translate these insights into actionable, prioritized initiatives and compelling investment cases that secure necessary resources and support.
• • **Customer Engagement and Market Insight:** A key aspect of this role involves proactive engagement with customers and partners. Through these interactions, you will develop and refine portfolio strategies, influence the broader industry direction, and validate critical product decisions. This customer-centric approach ensures that our product development remains aligned with market demands and future opportunities.
• • **Product Owner Responsibilities within the Agile SDLC:** You will take full ownership of the product backlog for your agile squads, ensuring it is transparent, well-maintained, and meticulously prioritized. This backlog will serve as the direct link from high-level strategy down to detailed epics and user stories. You will author clear, concise, and testable user stories, acceptance criteria, and non-functional requirements, rigorously ensuring that the 'Definition of Ready' and 'Definition of Done' are consistently met for all work items.
• • **Sprint Delivery and Prioritization:** You will collaborate closely with the Scrum Master and Engineering teams to effectively plan sprints, refine user stories, and manage the delicate balance between scope and team capacity. Your role includes accepting completed work, ensuring it meets the defined standards. Prioritization will be a critical skill, leveraging data, stakeholder input, and a keen understanding of customer value, compliance mandates, risk mitigation, and Return on Investment (ROI) to make informed decisions and manage complex tradeoffs and dependencies across multiple teams.
• • **Release Readiness and Product Health:** You will orchestrate release planning, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), documentation creation, and enablement activities in close partnership with QA, Compliance, Support, and GTM teams. Furthermore, you will diligently track and analyze key delivery and product health metrics, such as adoption rates, Net Promoter Score (NPS)/Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), cycle time, predictability, defect escape rates, and overall business impact, using these insights to drive continuous improvement.
• • **Cross-Functional Leadership and Communication:** You will act as the central nexus for all product-related activities, serving as the primary liaison across design, engineering, QA, security, compliance, and marketing as features transition into production and distribution. You will provide clear direction and guidance to teams and/or individuals, ensuring a shared understanding of goals, desired outcomes, and success metrics. Effective and frequent communication of decisions, tradeoffs, and outcomes to executives, peers, and development squads is paramount to the success of this role.