Senior Product Manager Digital Product

Ford - Lincoln Veteran Careers Program; Köln; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Ford Bank Germany seeks a Senior Product Manager to own the roadmap, discovery, and delivery for modernization of core German products like leasing, fleet management, and dealer insurance. You will lead cross-functional teams across Germany, the UK, India and Spain to move legacy platforms to cloud-first architectures.

You will ensure compliance with European and German regulations, manage data pipelines and risk, and drive AI-enabled improvements while maintaining business continuity for fleet

Qualifications

• 5+ years in product management or a comparable role in a software environment serving internal users and partners
• Experience with legacy modernization projects that reached production
• Ability to own a product roadmap and set priorities independently
• Ability to translate strategy into an executable plan
• Strong understanding of business requirements and product logic
• Experience with financial products involving invoicing, settlements or asset depreciation
• Regular, direct contact with users and stakeholders as part of your workflow
• Practical experience using generative AI tools in your work
• Structured, independent and solution-oriented working style
• Fluent German and good English skills (B2 or above)

Responsibilities

• Turn strategy into execution by translating dependencies and stakeholder needs into a high-level roadmap
• Own the roadmap across legacy dependencies, leasing financial pipelines and dealer insurance needs
• Research the business by observing users and stakeholders to uncover real pain points
• Structure requirements from fleet operations, insurance, accounting and dealer network
• Deliver incrementally by breaking legacy capabilities into value-driven steps
• Lead and collaborate with engineering, design and architecture throughout discovery and delivery
• Coordinate internal and external stakeholders including compliance and external partners
• Build in compliance with European and German financial and insurance regulations
• Communicate priorities and progress transparently to the business
• Drive agile execution by writing user stories in Jira and using Confluence, Airtable, Miro
• Apply AI pragmatically with engineering for legacy code analysis and documentation

Skills

Product management

Roadmap ownership

Stakeholder management

Cross-functional collaboration

AI in daily work

German language

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Airtable

Miro

Job description

As a Senior Product Manager for Germany Modernizations, you will lead the move of the products Ford Bank Germany runs on from legacy platforms onto modern, cloud native foundations, as an empowered product manager accountable for outcomes.

The Opportunity

We are looking for a Senior Product Manager to own the roadmap, discovery and delivery for Ford Bank Germany's modernisation portfolio, and to keep the organisation aligned behind it.

You will own core German products across leasing, vehicle asset management and insurance. Your starting point is our operating lease and asset management products. These are systems the business runs on every day, so the work involves understanding how the business operates as much as it involves technology.

Within our strategy, the decisions are yours: sequencing, scope, what we rebuild, what we retire and what we stop doing. Where reality contradicts the strategy, we expect you to say so and bring the evidence. You will work in cross functional teams located in Germany, UK, India and Spain.

Modernisation at Ford Credit

You will modernise the platforms behind our regional operations, commercial financing and partner integrations. Part of your role will be to take two business-critical systems from legacy environments to secure, cloud-first architectures.

The first is our fleet leasing and vehicle asset management platform, which supports a highly profitable part of our business. You will move its data pipelines, financial subledger accounting and key integrations to the cloud. The second is the core application behind our dealer insurance product, which we run with an external insurance provider for the Ford Bank Germany Insurance Department.

Throughout, you will make sure fleet partners and dealers see no disruption to the services they rely on. It is a chance to apply your product and technology skills to work that is central to Ford Bank Germany's future.

• Turn strategy into execution: Translate complex legacy dependencies, business processes and stakeholder requirements into a clear, high level product roadmap

• Own the roadmap: Maintain a high level, outcome-based product roadmap across legacy dependencies, leasing financial pipelines and dealer insurance requirements

• Research the Business First Hand: Observe and interview users and business stakeholders to understand how current processes, workarounds and pain points really work

• Structure the requirements: Gather, prioritise and elaborate requirements from fleet operations, the insurance department, accounting and the dealer network

• Deliver incrementally: Break complex legacy capabilities into value driven increments, without disruption to daily fleet operations or dealer insurance services

• Work with engineering and design: Lead and collaborate closely with software engineering, design and architecture throughout discovery and delivery

• Align the stakeholders: Coordinate internal and external stakeholders, including compliance, legal and our external insurance partner

• Build in compliance: Ensure European and German financial and insurance regulatory requirements are designed into the new platforms

• Communicate transparently: Keep the business informed on priorities, progress and decisions required

• Drive Agile Execution: Write and prioritise user stories in Jira, and use Confluence, Airtable and Miro to keep the roadmap fully transparent

• Apply AI pragmatically: Use AI tooling together with engineering for legacy code analysis and documentation, verified against the business.

Essential criteria

• Product management experience: 5+ years in product management or a comparable role in a software environment, with products serving internal business users and partners

• Legacy modernisation: Experience of at least one legacy replacement or platform modernisation that reached production

• Roadmap ownership: Experience owning a product roadmap and setting priorities independently

• Strategic translation: Ability to work to a product strategy set at leadership level and turn it into an executable plan

• Business requirements: Strong understanding of business requirements and the ability to structure them into product logic

• Financial product literacy: Experience with products involving financial mechanics such as invoicing, settlement, accounting postings or asset depreciation

• Cross functional collaboration: Experience working with development teams and interdisciplinary stakeholders

• User contact: Regular, direct contact with users and business stakeholders as an established part of your way of working

• AI in daily work: Practical experience using generative AI tools in your own work

• Way of working: Structured, independent and solution oriented

• Language: Fluent German and good English skills (B2 or above). The business, regulatory and partner context is largely German.

Desirable criteria - You are:

• Domain expertise: Automotive finance, vehicle leasing, fleet management or insurance operations, ideally alongside a third-party insurance provider

• Regulatory knowledge: European and German financial or insurance regulation, IFRS 16, GDPR

• Methods and certifications: Agile methods such as Scrum or Kanban, or PSPO / CSPO certification.

Additional Information:

This position is based in Cologne and it is expected the successful candidate will be able to attend the Cologne office for typically 4 days a week and remain flexible on the days they are required to attend the office according to business requirements.

The Company is committed to diversity and equality of opportunity for all and is opposed to any form of less favourable treatment or harassment on the grounds of race, religion or belief, sex, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or disability

#LI-Hybrid

#LI-MT3

#FordCredit

#FordBankGmbH