Product Manager

CU Direct; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 99,400 - 124,300; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401k match

Paid time off

Tuition reimbursement

Flexible work environment

Job summary

Origence in Irvine, CA, a fintech SaaS lender platform, seeks a Product Manager to own end-to-end delivery within defined product areas and drive strategy with growing independence. You will lead SAFe ceremonies, manage the team backlog, collaborate with engineering, design, Partnerships, Sales, Marketing, Finance and Legal, and define measurement criteria to guide roadmaps and releases.

Starting salary range is $99,400 – $124,300 per year.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Computer Science, Finance, Engineering, or related field.
• Strong analytical and communication skills.
• Experience writing detailed requirements documentation and user stories.
• Experience with agile development methodologies (SAFe, Scrum).

Responsibilities

• Define product solutions through collaboration with engineering, design, and stakeholders; write features and acceptance criteria; establish measurable success metrics.
• Own the team backlog for assigned area; evaluate value, constraints, and impact; make trade-offs.
• Lead as primary content authority during SAFe ceremonies; communicate feature intent and align priorities.
• Monitor competitive releases and analyze data to inform product strategy.

Skills

Product management

SAFe

Requirements writing

Cross-functional leadership

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Computer Science, Finance, Engineering, or related field

Tools

Jira

Azure DevOps

Aha!

Job description

About Origence

With 30 years at the forefront of fintech innovation, we specialize in SaaS lending solutions that lead the industry. Our core mission is customer‑centric, focusing on empowering Credit Unions across the United States with the tools to offer accessible, competitive lending services. We’re deeply committed to enhancing the financial ecosystem for a broad network of credit unions, members and auto dealers. We invest in our greatest assets, our employees, and foster a culture of innovation and ownership through freedom and responsibility. We celebrate fiscal accountability, operational rigor and efficiency to create a sustainably healthy and robust business for the long term.

The Product Manager leads core product management responsibilities for a defined product area(s) with growing strategic input and autonomy. The Product Manager owns end‑to‑end delivery of features within assigned product areas, leads feature area strategy with growing independence, and may require execution of more than one initiative in parallel.

What You Will Do

Core Product Management

• Develop business cases by analyzing customer impact, summarizing qualitative and quantitative insights, and documenting assumptions; prepare benefit assessments by analyzing ROI, including build vs buy analysis, customer value, regulatory or operational impact, and competitive positioning; recommend strategic prioritization across teams
• Own the team backlog for assigned area(s) by evaluating customer value, regulatory requirements, technical constraints, competitive considerations, and business impact; make trade‑off decisions
• Make trade‑off decisions between feature requests, technical debt, and compliance needs for a defined product area by balancing customer value, technical feasibility, and regulatory impact
• Lead as primary content authority for product features during SAFe ceremonies including PI Planning, solution demos, and inspect & adapt workshops; communicate feature intent, clarify requirements, and align stakeholders on priorities

Competitive Insights

• Monitor competitive releases and emerging solutions to assess threats and opportunities; recommend strategic responses for product area
• Analyze usage data, win/loss data, and competitive intelligence to identify differentiation opportunities and inform product area strategy

Integrations & Partnerships

• Manage integrations and own integration strategy for a defined product area, ensuring functional, compliance, and performance requirements are met
• Inform and support the definition for integration standards, API patterns, and partnership models that support cross‑product capabilities
• Evaluate and recommend third‑party solutions that strengthen product strategy for a product or major initiative; understand and manage strategic partner relationships with the support of the Partnerships Team to influence roadmaps

Team Leadership & Development

• Share knowledge and experience; provide guidance on PM practices and career development
• Contribute to hiring and building high‑performing teams; participate in candidate assessment and onboarding

Universal Product Management Responsibilities

Solution Definition & Requirements

• Define product solutions through collaboration with engineering, design, and stakeholders; document solution estimates and acceptance criteria; write features and user stories; establish measurable success metrics
• Define non‑functional requirements for performance, scalability, reliability, monitoring, and security; balance technical debt with business needs

Customer Research & Analytics

• Lead customer interviews and gather feedback to understand pain points, workflows, and competitive gaps; translate research into prioritized requirements
• Design and analyze A/B tests and experiments to validate product decisions; apply data‑driven learning to reduce risk
• Build analytical frameworks to measure feature adoption; track usage metrics and customer satisfaction; create reporting to communicate results
• Set success metrics and KPIs for owned product areas; use insights to recommend improvements and support roadmap decisions

Regulatory Compliance & Security

• Ensure solutions comply with applicable regulations (TILA, RESPA, ECOA, FCRA, Fair Lending, UDAAP) and incorporate guidance from regulatory agencies (NCUA, FDIC, CFPB)
• Ensure security and privacy requirements are addressed including PII protection, data encryption, SOC 2 compliance, and cybersecurity standards

Go‑to‑Market & Customer Success

• Support Sales & Marketing with competitive positioning, demos, enablement materials, and customer‑facing presentations
• Support customer onboarding by documenting workflows and developing adoption strategies; drive feature adoption through training and guidance
• Manage release planning and execution; coordinate feature flag activation; ensure operational readiness for product launches

Documentation

• Develop and maintain product documentation including release notes, user guides, functional specs, training materials, and implementation guides

Cross‑Functional Collaboration

Partner with Product Design, Product Operations, Partnerships, Software Engineering, QA, IT, Client Support, Implementations, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal, and Compliance to execute product plans and achieve business objectives.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Computer Science, Finance, Accounting, Engineering, or related field required.

The ideal candidate

• Strong analytical skills with ability to interpret data and make evidence‑based decisions
• Excellent communication skills with ability to explain technical concepts to non‑technical audiences
• Experience writing detailed requirements documentation and user stories
• Customer‑focused approach with ability to balance competing priorities
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with cross‑functional teams
• Experience with agile development methodologies (SAFe, Scrum)

Tools & Technology

• Familiar with AI tools such as CoPilot, Claude, or ChatGPT and AI prompting
• Experience with product management tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, Aha!, Productboard, Confluence, Lucid, Figma, MixPanel and similar software tools

Preferred Qualifications

Industry Experience

Experience in financial services, automotive finance, fintech, financial technology, or enterprise B2B software.

Technical Knowledge & Skills

• Technical background with ability to discuss architecture, APIs, and system design
• Understanding of system architecture, integrations, and risk management
• SQL proficiency and comfort with analytics tools
• Knowledge of industry, regulations, and compliance requirements

Certifications

• SAFe certifications (POPM, Agilist)
• Industry certifications relevant to product domain

Why You Should Apply

• Flexible Working Environment
• Paid Time Off
• 401k (8% match)
• College Tuition Benefits/ Tuition Reimbursement
• Good Benefits options
• Company Culture! Cultural and Holiday celebrations, Theme days like Star Wars Day & Bring your Kids to Work Day, Monthly Townhalls and Quarterly Company Meetings that ensure awareness, inclusion, and transparency.

The starting salary range for this full‑time position is $99,400 - $124,300 per year. This base pay will take into consideration internal equity, candidate’s geographic region, job‑related knowledge and experience among other factors. Origence maintains a highly competitive compensation program. Under company guidelines, this position is eligible for an annual bonus to provide an incentive to achieve targeted goals. Bonuses are awarded at company’s discretion on an individual basis.

Origence is an equal opportunity employer. All recruitment, hiring, training, compensation, benefits, discipline, and other terms and conditions of employment will be based upon an individuals’ qualifications regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, military service, marital status, pregnancy, age, protected medical condition, genetic information, disability or any other category protected by federal, state or local law.