Associate Product Manager

Neighborly Software; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Neighborly Software is hiring an Associate Product Manager to join a growing product team. This junior, generalist role supports planning, execution, and portfolio optimization while working with other PMs to translate requirements into clear, scoped work for engineering.

You'll write detailed tickets, clarify edge cases, and keep delivery moving in a fast-paced SaaS environment, leveraging customer and market insights to support product strategy and lifecycle management.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience with 1–2+ years in related roles.
• Strong written communication to turn vague asks into clear tickets.
• Familiarity with JIRA/Confluence and a quick learner mindset.
• Experience using AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT for research and drafting.

Responsibilities

• Break down features into actionable requirements with clear acceptance criteria.
• Write engineering-ready tickets and user stories for delivery.
• Collaborate with design, engineering, QA, and customer-facing teams.
• Support sprint planning, backlog grooming, and issue triage.
• Analyze market, customer feedback, and competitive data to inform decisions.

Skills

Written communication

Ticket writing

Backlog grooming

Cross-functional collaboration

Detail‑oriented

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

JIRA

Confluence

Claude/ChatGPT

Job description

Who We Are

Neighborly Software was built to help communities make a difference in the lives of low-income families and vulnerable populations. Our mission is simple, “Helping Communities, Help People.”

Headquartered in Atlanta, GA we offer a cloud-based technology platform for the administration and disbursement of governments funds for programs such as Housing, Economic, Community Development, Disaster Recovery/MIT, Home Energy Rebate Programs, and Housing Choice Voucher programs.

Role Overview:

We're looking for an Associate Product Manager (APM) to join our product team as we scale. This is a junior, generalist role suited to someone early in their PM career who is eager to join a growing product team. This role contributes to the planning, execution, and optimization of products and product portfolios supporting Neighborly Software. You'll work closely with other Product Managers to turn requirements and approved designs into clear, well-scoped work for engineering by writing detailed tickets, clarifying edge cases, and keeping delivery moving in a fast-paced SaaS development environment. The APM analyzes customer, market, competitive, operational, and business information to support product strategy, commercialization activities, portfolio decisions, and lifecycle management. You’ll have a front seat to new product development, innovation and expectations to meet delivery timelines while joining customer calls (our neighbors) to learn pain points and help promote improved benefit and value.

This is a hands-on, execution-focused role rather than a strategy-and-roadmap role: think requirements scoping, ticket writing, and cross-functional coordination. It's a great fit for someone who wants to build real PM chops – how to write a ticket engineering can act on immediately, how to spot gaps in a design before they become blockers, and how to keep a fast-moving delivery team aligned.

Key Responsibilities:

• Partner with other Product Managers to break down features and initiatives into clear, actionable requirements
• Coordinate cross-functional product initiatives and New Product Development activities by evaluating project status, identifying risks, and recommending solutions
• Ability to assess customer insights, customer feedback, market intelligence, and product-related issues to recommend corrective or improvement actions
• Write detailed, engineering-ready tickets and user stories in JIRA – including acceptance criteria, edge cases, and supporting context
• Translate approved designs into implementation-ready specs, flagging gaps or open questions before handoff to engineering
• Maintain and groom the backlog alongside the Senior PM: prioritize, tag, and keep tickets current as scope evolves
• Participate in sprint planning, backlog grooming, and stand‑ups; help unblock engineering by answering clarifying questions quickly
• Collaborate with design, engineering, QA, and customer‑facing teams to keep requirements aligned and delivery on track
• Support triage of customer‑reported issues and feature requests, helping route and document them for the product team
• Market, customer, and competitive analysis: Analyze market trends, customer feedback, competitive activity, customer adoption, and sales performance to identify opportunities, risks, and recommendations that inform product and portfolio decisions
• Use AI tools (e.g., Claude) to speed up documentation, ticket drafting, and research – and help find opportunities to bring AI into the team's workflow
• Track progress against sprint and release goals, flagging risks or blockers early
• Document decisions, workflows, and product changes so the team has a clear, up-to-date record
• Ability to support departmental or organizational objectives by applying specialized skills and knowledge to specific tasks or projects with sound judgment, prioritization, and autonomy

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree and 2 years of experience, or equivalent experience
• 1–2+ years of experience in product management, business analysis, or a related role; SaaS environment strongly preferred
• Strong, clear written communication – able to turn a vague ask into a well‑structured ticket
• Comfort working in JIRA (or a similar tool) and Confluence, or a fast willingness to learn
• Familiarity with AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT for research, drafting, and day‑to‑day productivity
• Detail‑oriented, with a bias toward digging into the specifics of how something should actually work