Product Lead, Business Systems

Center For Employment Opportunities, Inc.; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 118,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical and dental coverage

Retirement plan

Paid parental leave

Professional development opportunities

Paid holidays

Job summary

Center for Employment Opportunities seeks a Product Lead, Business Systems to own the Finance and Operations platforms strategy and guide modernization efforts across ERP, payroll, procurement, and related systems. You will bridge strategy, operations, and technical implementation with finance leadership and external partners.

The role emphasizes governance, data integrity, and cross-functional collaboration, with a focus on compliant, efficient, and integrated systems.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of progressive experience in enterprise business systems or IT product ownership.
• Proven multi-year enterprise platform transformation experience (ERP/Financials/HRIS).
• Track record of managing roadmaps, specifications, backlogs, and deployments.
• Experience with external implementation providers or consultants.
• Strong stakeholder management across Finance and Product teams.
• Ability to influence Senior Leadership on technology investments and risk.
• Experience directing external vendors and partners on large-scale overhauls.

Responsibilities

• Define and own roadmap for financial and operations systems aligning with priorities.
• Lead modernization and convergence of adjacent systems (Payroll, Procurement, Contracts).
• Oversee implementation of finance and operations platforms with partners.
• Co-design, blueprint, configure and implement new Finance systems.
• Lead vendor selection, architectural design, and technical specs.
• Develop onboarding materials and drive change management for staff adoption.
• Coordinate governance, security, and data integrity with IT/security teams.
• Manage external vendors and ensure on-time, quality delivery.

Skills

ERP leadership

Finance systems ownership

Stakeholder management

Vendor management

Cross-functional leadership

Roadmap planning

ERP/HRIS experience

Strategic collaboration

Education

CSPO certification

PMP certification

Accounting software credentials

Tools

ERP platforms

HRIS

Financial planning software

Grants management software

Job description

Product Lead, Business Systems

NYC CEO Office Location

Hybrid

The Opportunity

At CEO, Product Managers and Product Leads own a portion of the organization’s technology ecosystem and staff user experience with a focus on ensuring efficient, compliant, and integrated systems that minimize user friction.

Product Lead - Business Systems

The Product Lead - Business Systems serves as a strategic, technical leader for CEO’s financial and operations systems. This role owns the Finance and Operations platforms strategy. An immediate priority will be supporting the end-to-end execution of our Finance technological transformation with implementation partners—including the modernization of accounting, financial planning, and grants management systems. Over time, this role will oversee adjacent enterprise platforms, including Payroll, Procurement, and potentially Contracts and People Systems.

This individual serves as a crucial organizational leader, bridging strategy, operations, and technical implementation. They will work closely with business leadership, key stakeholders, IT operations and implementation partners and to co-design, configure, deploy, maintain and support these platforms. They are responsible for driving continuous improvement, navigating complex trade-offs, and managing external vendor partners to support high-quality delivery.

As part of our mission, we strongly encourage individuals who have lived experience of incarceration or involvement in the justice system to apply for this role.

Who We Are

The Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) provides employment services to people recently released from incarceration. Across the United States, 8,000-9,000 people participate in CEO each year, transitioning to employment that supports themselves, their families, and their communities.

What began as a demonstration project of the Vera Institute of Justice in the 1970s to address employment barriers facing the formerly incarcerated following release in New York City has grown into the leading reentry employment organization in the country, where over 30,000 formerly incarcerated individuals have secured full-time employment since 1996.

Who You Are

• You have at least 7+ years of progressive experience in enterprise business systems, internal product management, or IT product ownership within complex organizations.
• You have demonstrated experience in leading multi-year enterprise platform transformations (e.g., ERP, Financial Systems, HRIS) from vendor selection through post-implementation governance.
• You have a proven track record managing technology roadmaps, writing specifications, prioritizing backlogs, and leading cross-functional deployments.
• You have experience in collaborating closely with external implementation providers or technology consultants on large-scale system overhauls.
• you have strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to navigate reporting lines across Finance leadership and product departments.
• You have proven experience in influencing and advising Senior Leadership on technology investments, trade-offs, and risk management.
• You have deep expertise in managing and directing external implementation partners, systems integrators, and software vendors on large-scale overhauls.

Preferred

• You have expertise in core financial workflows, accounting principles, grants management structures, and fund accounting in complex, multi-entity, or non-profit context.
• You have professional certifications such as Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), PMP, or administrator-level credentials in major financial planning or accounting software suites.

What You’ll Be Responsible For

Key responsibilities of the Product Lead, Business Systems include but are not limited to:

Business Systems Strategy & Roadmap Execution

• Define, own, and execute the roadmap for CEO’s financial and operations systems in alignment with organization priorities.
• Drive the convergence and modernization strategy for adjacent systems and processes (e.g., Payroll, Procurement, Contracts) to eliminate data silos and manual handoffs.
• Lead and/or co-lead (with the implementation partner/lead and business owner) the implementation of finance and operations platforms and related processes .

Solutions Identification and Development

• Team with stakeholders and the implementation provider to co-design, blueprint, configure and implement new Finance systems.
• Lead the strategic selection, blueprinting, and architectural design of future business systems in collaboration with executive stakeholders and vendors.
• Lead internal product discovery deep dives as needed, mapping workflows across teams and translating distinct stakeholder needs into technical specs.
• Lead rigorous, cross-functional processes to identify, evaluate and select relevant vendors, implementation partners, and third-party tools.

Implementation and Change Management

• Develop role-specific onboarding materials and documentation to upskill staff on new systems and workflows.
• Lead change management, communication plans, and training rollouts for the updated platforms to ensure high staff adoption in partnership with business owner.
• Serve as the chief strategic translator between non-technical executive stakeholders, finance teams, and external technical development teams/implementation partners.
• Establish continuous feedback loops to identify and remove operational friction, ensuring compliance and internal controls do not impede staff productivity.

Ongoing Governance and Operations Support

• Balance the reactive requests by teams with building resilient future systems aligned to organization priorities.
• Establish clear data governance structures, security access levels, and change control protocols in tight alignment with IT security standards and external audit compliance.
• Manage the configuration, user permissions, control frameworks, and day-to-day functional administration of the systems in partnership with IT Operations.
• Create and maintain comprehensive documentation, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to support sustainable growth and maintenance.
• Manage external technology vendors, configuration partners, and implementation consultants as needed, holding them accountable to delivery timelines, specifications, and technical standards.
• Troubleshoot complex, tier-2 and tier-3 functional issues, managing escalation paths to software vendors or support partners when required.
• Define, track, and optimize system KPIs related to operational effectiveness (e.g., speed to close, grant tracking compliance, reporting accuracy) and general platform satisfaction.
• Audit and optimize data flows, API connections, and cross-platform integrations between financial tools and secondary organizational systems to prevent data fragmentation.
• Monitor industry trends and upcoming software releases to proactively suggest features, automation improvements, and optimizations.
• Monitor tools performance using data and qualitative employee feedback to identify, isolate, and eliminate friction points and drive continuous improvement.
• Other duties as assigned

Compensation And Benefits

The salary range for this position is $118,000 to $140,000. Consistent with CEO's compensation philosophy, we place candidates within a given salary range based on comparable tenure in title, relevant knowledge, skills, and experience. The midpoint of the range generally reflects the market rate for a fully proficient employee in this role, with placement toward the top of CEO's posted range reserved for candidates with more extensive and comparable experience. In keeping with CEO's compensation philosophy, final offers also account for internal parity and geographic location.

We recognize that salary is a part of the overall compensation package and also provide a comprehensive benefits package, including medical and dental coverage, as well as professional development opportunities to our staff.

We also offer paid parental leave, participation in a retirement plan, sick and vacation leave, paid holidays and more. We are a workplace that promotes continual learning and teamwork, offering lunch and learns, team outings, holiday gatherings and more for our staff.

More About Us

Center for Employment Opportunities believes that everyone deserves the chance to shape a stronger future for themselves, their families, and their communities. People who are justice involved are highly encouraged to apply for vacant positions at all levels. CEO is committed to the CROWN Act, and creating an open space where our employees can present as their true authentic selves.

All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without unlawful discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, gender, gender identity, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, military status, prior record of arrest or conviction, citizenship status, current employment status, caregiver status, or any other category protected by federal, state, or local law. We value diverse experiences, including with regard to educational background and justice system contact.

Please note that due to the volume of resumes received, we are unable to contact each applicant regarding the status of each position or reply to candidates' inquiries via phone or email.