Principal Product Manager

Self Financial; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 190,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Performance-based bonuses

Health insurance

Vision insurance

Dental insurance

Flexible vacation

Educational assistance

Gym membership

Casual dress code

Team building events

Paid parental leave

Job summary

Self Financial in Austin, TX, is seeking a Principal Product Manager to set the strategy for our flagship Credit Building product. You will partner with executive leadership to shape portfolio direction and collaborate across engineering, risk, compliance, and go-to-market teams.

This role calls for a builder with deep product fundamentals, 10+ years in product management, and a proven ability to influence without formal authority.

Qualifications

• 10+ years as a Product Manager with portfolio-level impact.
• Proven ability to align cross-functional teams and executives without formal authority.
• Experience in regulated industries (fintech, banking, healthcare, payments) preferred.
• Fluency with AI tools as part of PM workflow.

Responsibilities

• Own the Credit Building vertical's product strategy and roadmap.
• Own KPIs and P&L and shape competitive stance.
• Translate strategy into prioritized requirements for engineering.
• Use data (A/B testing, SQL, usability studies) to test hypotheses.
• Lead through influence with Risk, Compliance, Engineering, and Marketing.
• Define how AI-assisted workflows get adopted across the org.

Skills

Product strategy

Cross-functional leadership

AI tooling in PM

SQL

Regulated environment

Executive stakeholder management

Job description

Self Financial is a venture-backed, high-growth FinTech company with a mission to increase economic inclusion and financial resilience by empowering people to build credit and build savings.

We're looking for people who share our passion and are driven to tackle challenges, find solutions and make the financial space better for the communities we serve.

Our team is passionate about challenging the status quo of the credit industry by providing people accessible tools to take control of their credit. Executing on our mission requires deep collaboration across our teams to ensure our products reach the people who can benefit from them the most, particularly the 100 million+ Americans who have no or low credit.

We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. To that end, we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool.

About the role

Self is looking for a Principal Product Manager to set strategy and direction for our flagship credit building product, the core of how we help people build credit and save money. This is a company-level ownership role: you'll partner directly with executive leadership to shape where the Credit Building portfolio goes over the next several years, and your calls will ripple across engineering, risk, compliance, and go-to-market.

This role is for a builder with deep product fundamentals and the judgment to operate with no net. We're looking for someone who independently diagnoses problems, sizes opportunities, and makes high-stakes calls that others build on - without needing guidance and without waiting to be asked. You'll set the bar for product craft and process across the PM organization, not just your own team, and multiply other PMs' effectiveness through the standards and practices you establish. You're fluent operating in a regulated environment, you bring a point of view on how AI reshapes the modern PM's workflow and help the broader team adopt it, and you build cross-functional trust and alignment company-wide even when you don't have formal authority over the people you need to move.

What you'll do

• Own the Credit Building vertical's product strategy, partnering with leadership to shape portfolio-level bets, balancing growth, profitability, customer experience, and regulatory compliance
• Own KPIs and P&L for the Credit Building vertical and shape Self's point of view on the competitive landscape in FinTech and consumer credit
• Translate strategy into a prioritized roadmap and clear requirements for your engineering team, while acting as a mentor and multiplier for PMs across the department
• Use quantitative and qualitative data (A/B testing, SQL, usability studies, survey data) to form and test hypotheses, and build a shared, evidence-backed vision that earns buy-in at the executive level
• Partner deeply with Risk, Compliance, Engineering, Design, Analytics, Marketing, and Operations by leading through influence
• Define how AI-assisted workflows (research synthesis, spec drafting, data exploration, prototyping) get adopted across the product organization, not just your own work

What you'll bring

• 10+ years as a Product Manager, with a track record of owning strategy for a core product with company-level business impact (ideally B2C)
• Demonstrated ability to build cross-functional alignment and drive outcomes at the executive level without formal authority
• Ability to move fluently between strategic questions ("Where is the market moving and how do we meet our customers there?") and detailed product questions ("How can we improve our success within this narrow customer segment?")
• Experience operating inside a regulated or compliance-heavy environment (fintech, banking, healthcare, insurance, payments, or similar); credit/lending experience is a plus, not a requirement
• Fluency using AI tools as part of the modern PM workflow (research, writing, data analysis, prototyping), with experience helping other PMs adopt them
• Strong analytical skills, including SQL competence and hands-on experience with data analysis tools

Base salary range: $190,000 - $230,000 annually. Individual pay is based on factors unique to each candidate, including skill set, experience, and other job-related reasons.

Benefits and Perks:

We have the compensation and benefits you expect. But there's one thing that Self Financial can offer that many companies cannot: we can positively change the world, while making a profit. We are a team of Builders, empowering our customers to build their dreams. We have a Do the Right Thing ethos in all that we do, and we hope you value that approach, too.

• Company equity in the form of Stock Options
• Performance-based bonuses
• Generous employer-paid health, vision and dental insurance coverage
• Flexible vacation policy
• Educational assistance
• Free gym membership
• Casual dress code
• Team building events and activities
• Paid parental leave

Self Financial requires all employees hired to successfully pass a background check.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer.

At this time, we are only able to consider applicants who are U.S. Citizens or Green Card Holders for employment opportunities. We appreciate your understanding.