Product Manager

Who We're Looking For:

Zendesk is seeking a talented IT Product Manager to drive product delivery and strategic outcomes within our IT organization, specifically focusing on the Finance domain. This role will be responsible for defining, rationalizing, and prioritizing the product backlog for business-critical applications and processes within the Record to Report and Source to Pay value streams, ensuring alignment with business objectives and customer needs.

The IT Product Manager will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams including Business Systems Analysts (BSAs), Engineers, Tech Leads leads, Scrum Masters, Solution and Business Architects, and PMO, to deliver high-quality solutions and platform shared services. Acting as the primary liaison between the IT Finance team and business stakeholders, the Product Manager will facilitate effective communication, ensure that product initiatives meet strategic and tactical goals, and help ensure on-target delivery of these initiatives.

This will be an ideal role for a systems-savvy product manager looking to build an IT Product experience portfolio in Finance, or a senior BSA with strong analytical and operational experience looking to expand into the PM domain. The ideal candidate will have experience in ERP replatform initiatives.

Responsibilities:

• Define IT Product vision and strategy aligned with company goals and customer needs for the Record to Report and Source to Pay value streams.
• Stay current on relevant solution and market trends and conduct ongoing discovery to identify ideal solutions for end-user needs within Finance.
• Define the end-to-end user experience across people, processes, and technology to enhance product offerings in the Finance domain.
• Understand and shape in partnership with Finance stakeholders the critical set of control, impact, and outcome metrics, including as part of an OKR framework.
• Serve as the primary contact for executive stakeholders within Finance and help manage relationships, gathering feedback to guide product development.
• Collaborate with the delivery team, including BSAs, Scrum Masters, Engineers, and Tech Leads, to ensure alignment on product priorities and technical feasibility for Finance initiatives.
• Make informed decisions on feature priority and scope, balancing technical constraints with business needs in the Finance area.
• Track product progress and performance, refining the backlog based on feedback and changing priorities within Finance.
• Provide stakeholders with updates through demos and performance reports related to Finance products.
• Own and manage backlogs, ensuring they are kept up to date and prioritized based on company and CIO level OKRs, specifically for Finance initiatives.
• Oversee changes made to production systems impacting Finance.
• Lead and participate in agile ceremonies, including daily scrum, backlog refinement, sprint review, and sprint planning for Finance-related projects.
• Participate in and champion the "One Intake" process for new project and enhancement requests from the business, including triaging requests and completing pre-discovery work for Finance.
• Represent the IT Product team in CIO Quarterly Planning meetings, collaborating with team leads to review project charters and identify responsibilities for Finance initiatives.
• Prepare and own a release plan that maps with the overall product roadmap for Finance, ensuring strategic alignment across teams.
• Review and finalize release notes for Finance products, communicating their availability to business partners.
• Conduct monthly backlog clean-up and review acceptance criteria for all bugs and stories related to Finance.
• Provide input and sign-off on technical solutions for all Finance projects.
• Help remove blockers to ensure continuous project delivery for Finance initiatives.
• Build and maintain relationships with all IT and Finance stakeholders, including regular check-ins.
• Build and maintain cross-functional relationships within IT and with business partners to assess technical debt and Keep-the-Lights-On (KTLO) projects impacting Finance.

Qualifications and Attributes:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, Finance, or a related field; or a Bachelor’s degree in the hard sciences, together with relevant software industry experience.
• 12+ years of product management experience in SaaS or technology environments with a proven track record of successful product delivery, preferably with experience in financial systems.
• Strong understanding of platform engineering, integration technologies, and API management for effective communication with technical teams.
• Proven experience in Agile frameworks, facilitating Scrum practices, and managing cross-functional teams to ensure timely delivery.
• Excellent analytical abilities to leverage data for decision-making and performance monitoring.
• Strong communication skills to engage and influence diverse stakeholders, fostering collaboration and alignment.
• Strong career focus on process improvement and facilitating optimal outcomes with well-designed platform products and systems.
• Prior experience with enterprise SaaS systems and products in Finance domains, including Record to Report and Source to Pay. Examples of key SaaS technology experience desired include: Netsuite, Adaptive, Coupa, Brex, Blackline, Celigo, Cforia

Preferred Skills:

• Familiarity with data integration tools and platforms (e.g., Workato, AWS, Fivetran) to support product development within Finance.
• Facility with designing and deploying practical operational metrics using standard BI tools to assess and maintain platform product health for financial systems.
• Experience in user testing and gathering feedback to drive product enhancements that meet end-user needs in Finance.
• Ability to mentor team members, fostering a collaborative and innovative team culture.
• Knowledge of industry best practices in product management and software development to ensure product success.
• Passion for technology and innovation, with a commitment to staying current with industry trends and advancements.

Deliverables and Outcomes:

• Clear and communicated product group/line vision and roadmap for Finance.
• Regular stakeholder updates via demos and reviews for Finance products.
• Metrics and reports on product line/group performance and user feedback for Finance, including user experience/engagement.
• Product Owners with ownership of their product visions and goals, clearly communicating those upwards as inputs for the PM and downwards to their product team.

Why Join Us?

At our organization, we celebrate diversity and inclusion as essential components of innovation and success. We strive to create an environment where every team member can flourish and contribute their unique perspectives. Step into a role that not only challenges you but also drives meaningful impact within our finance operations.

If you’re ready to elevate your career, contribute to transformative finance solutions, and embody our core values, we invite you to apply today! We are an equal opportunity employer, committed to cultivating an inclusive environment where all employees can thrive.

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