Product Manager IV
About the role
The IT Product Manager provides strategic leadership, planning, and lifecycle management for enterprise software applications that support university departments and campus-wide business operations. This position serves as the primary liaison between Enterprise IT and diverse institutional stakeholders, spanning campus auxiliary services as well as campus and healthcare HR departments — ensuring technology solutions align with institutional goals and deliver value to students, faculty, and staff.
Responsibilities
Manage a portfolio of enterprise software applications supporting university business operations.
Develop and maintain product vision, strategy, roadmaps, and lifecycle plans aligned with institutional priorities.
Evaluate existing applications and identify opportunities for modernization, continuous improvement, and increased operational efficiency.
Prioritize product enhancements and initiatives based on business value, technical feasibility, risk, and available resources.
Oversee application implementation, upgrades, maintenance, and retirement activities.
Build collaborative relationships with campus departments, stakeholders, executive leadership, and third-party vendors.
Serve as the primary point of contact for enterprise application strategy, functionality, and support.
Facilitate stakeholder meetings and portfolio governance committees to gather business requirements, communicate priorities, and align distinct campus auxiliary, campus HR, and healthcare HR business needs.
Translate business needs into functional requirements and technology solutions that improve business processes and user experience.
Present project status, recommendations, and product strategies to technical and non-technical audiences, including executive sponsors.
Represent business priorities within Agile development teams by managing product backlogs, prioritizing user stories, and defining acceptance criteria.
Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, reviews, and retrospectives to ensure successful product delivery.
Collaborate with Product Management, Engineering, and technical teams to develop and execute strategic product roadmaps.
Balance competing priorities across the auxiliary and HR application portfolios while ensuring the delivery of high-value solutions.
Lead multiple concurrent enterprise software initiatives from planning through implementation.
Coordinate cross-functional activities involving development, infrastructure, security, business units, and third-party vendors.
Collaborate with campus departments and software vendors to support enterprise application implementations, upgrades, integrations, and ongoing improvements.
Facilitate technical and functional discussions that align business needs with product capabilities and university technology standards.
Oversee enterprise data integrations and data feeds supporting departments across campus, ensuring reliable data flow between core systems of record (e.g., PeopleSoft) and various internal or vendor-hosted applications.
Monitor project scope, schedules, risks, dependencies, and resource needs to ensure successful delivery.
Analyze business processes and recommend technology solutions that improve operational effectiveness and customer satisfaction.
Promote best practices in product management, Agile delivery, governance, and stakeholder engagement.
Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend enhancements that support the University's strategic objectives.
Qualifications
Requires a bachelor's (or equivalency) + 8 years or a master's (or equivalency) + 6 years of directly related work experience.
Experience serving as a Product Manager or Product Owner for enterprise applications in the HR world, as well as auxiliary applications outside the areas of finance, HR, and student.
Experience working within Agile or Scrum development methodologies.
Experience with enterprise platforms such as Jira, Confluence, ServiceNow, PeopleSoft, or similar technologies.
Experience managing enterprise data integrations, system interfaces, and downstream data dependencies between core systems and auxiliary/HR applications.
Familiarity with authentication and identity management technologies, including SAML, CAS, or Shibboleth.
Experience collaborating with software developers, architects, UI/UX teams, infrastructure, and security teams.
Experience managing vendor relationships and partnering with executive leadership, business stakeholders, and data stewards across diverse campus and healthcare portfolios.
Experience in higher education or another large, complex organization.
Experience managing or supporting enterprise software applications or web-based systems.
Experience gathering business requirements and translating them into functional solutions.
Experience working in a collaborative, cross-functional environment.
Strong communication, organizational, and relationship management skills.