Senior Product Manager, Horizon

About the role

Nelnet Business Services (NBS) is a division of Nelnet, Inc., offering payment technology, education services, and learning management solutions to over 1,300 higher education institutions, 11,500 K-12 schools, 3,500 churches, and millions of individual students, families, and supporters globally. The Senior Product Manager for Horizon will lead the development of a new, category-defining payment and financial wellness platform for NCC, serving 1,000+ colleges and 8+ million students.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end product strategy and roadmap for a core workstream within Horizon, aligning stakeholders across engineering, design, operations, and executive leadership.
• Translate insights from colleges, universities, students, and payers into prioritized product requirements that balance institutional needs with scalable platform architecture.
• Lead discovery efforts including client interviews, advisory councils, and student feedback loops to validate problems and pressure-test proposed solutions before build.
• Lead the charge to define strategic and novel applications of AI in our product.
• Define and track success metrics (adoption, retention, payment completion rates, NPS) and use data to inform trade-offs and continuously improve outcomes post-launch.
• Partner with engineering leadership to break down complex modernization initiatives into incremental, shippable releases that minimize disruption to existing clients.
• Collaborate with compliance, security, and risk teams to ensure all releases meet PCI Level 1 standards and applicable higher education regulatory requirements.
• Drive go-to-market readiness in partnership with marketing, sales, implementation, and support teams, ensuring smooth client adoption and clear value communication.
• Influence cross-functional roadmap decisions across integrated products (payment plans, cashiering, refunds, storefronts) to ensure a cohesive client and student experience.
• Represent the voice of the client in executive forums, providing clear recommendations supported by qualitative research and quantitative analysis.

Requirements

• Required: Bachelor's degree in Business, Computer Science, Finance, or a related field. Preferred: Advanced degree in a related discipline.
• Product management certifications.
• Experience Required: 3+ years of product management experience, including experience managing complex platform or SaaS products. Experience delivering AI-enabled software to market. Proven track record of shipping products in agile environments while partnering directly with engineering teams. Experience defining and using product metrics to drive prioritization and measure success.
• Preferred: Experience in higher education technology, payments, fintech, or B2B2C platforms. Familiarity with compliance, payment processing workflows, or ERP integrations (Workday, Banner, PeopleSoft, Colleague). Demonstrated experience leading substantial modernization, replatforming, or migration initiatives with measurable business outcomes.

Qualifications

• High agency: Taking ownership of outcomes beyond the formal scope of the role, removing blockers proactively, and driving decisions forward rather than waiting for direction.
• Design taste: Bringing a discerning eye for product quality, user experience, and craft. Pushing for elegant, intuitive solutions over feature accumulation and partnering effectively with design to elevate the standard of every release.
• Strong strategic thinking: Connecting product decisions to long-term business outcomes and anticipating market shifts in higher education and payments.
• Influence without authority: Building alignment across engineering, design, executive, and client-facing teams to move complex initiatives forward.
• Customer obsession: Demonstrating rigorous discovery practices and translating client feedback into clearly framed problems and solutions.
• Data fluency: Using quantitative analysis and qualitative research with equal confidence to make prioritization decisions and defend trade-offs.
• Agility in ambiguity: Operating effectively in evolving conditions, making clear decisions with incomplete information while managing risk.

Skills

• Experience in higher education technology, payments, fintech, or B2B2C platforms.
• Familiarity with compliance, payment processing workflows, or ERP integrations (Workday, Banner, PeopleSoft, Colleague).
• Demonstrated experience leading substantial modernization, replatforming, or migration initiatives with measurable business outcomes.

Benefits

• Annual compensation range: $100,000 - $150,000 depending on experience.
• Hybrid work option.
• Comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, HSA and FSA, earned time off, 401K/student loan repayment, life insurance & AD&D insurance, employee assistance program, employee stock purchase program, tuition reimbursement, performance-based incentive pay, short- and long-term disability, and a robust wellness program.

Pay

Annual compensation range: $100,000 - $150,000 depending on experience.

Schedule

Hybrid work option.

Payroll Information

Click here to learn more about our benefits: LINK.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Nelnet is committed to providing a welcoming and respectful workplace where all associates have the opportunity to succeed. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we ensure that all qualified applicants are considered for employment without discrimination based on race, color, religion/creed, national origin, gender, sex, marital status, age, disability, use of a guide dog or service animal, sexual orientation, military/veteran status, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local law.

Use of Artificial Intelligence in Hiring

We may use automated or artificial intelligence enabled tools to assist with the initial review of applications, such as identifying relevant skills or experience. These tools are used to support human review and do not make hiring decisions. A recruiter reviews applications and determines which candidates move forward in the hiring process.