Product Manager - Directed Spend Offers - Optum Financial - Remote

UnitedHealth Group; Eden Prairie (MN); Hybrid; USD 92,000 - 164,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits package

Equity stock purchase

401k contribution

Job summary

UnitedHealth Group is seeking an experienced Directed Spend Offers Product Manager to translate strategy into executable priorities within a dedicated Scrum Team. You will own and refine the backlog, define clear requirements, and partner with cross-functional stakeholders to deliver high-value offer capabilities and member experiences.

You’ll work with Product leadership to ensure alignment on roadmap, acceptance criteria, and success metrics, while maintaining a strong product voice and

Qualifications

• 5+ years leading product teams in Agile environments.
• Experience translating strategy into executable backlog items.
• Strong collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders.
• Ability to write clear user stories and acceptance criteria.
• Experience with payments, healthcare, or enterprise software preferred.

Responsibilities

• Own and refine the team backlog aligned with product strategy.
• Translate strategy into features, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
• Prioritize sprint planning and backlog refinement.
• Serve as the primary product voice for the Scrum Team.
• Coordinate with leaders and cross-functional teams to resolve dependencies.
• Validate functionality against acceptance criteria and release readiness.
• Support end-to-end testing, release planning, and post-release monitoring.
• Maintain understanding of offer design, eligibility, and funding flows.
• Communicate progress, risks, and trade-offs to stakeholders.
• Identify opportunities to improve backlog quality and delivery predictability.

Skills

Product Owner

Product Manager

Agile

Scrum

Backlog management

Story writing

Stakeholder communication

Education

SAFe / Product Owner / Scrum certification

Tools

Azure DevOps

Jira

Confluence

Miro

Product analytics platforms

Job description

Optum is a global organization that delivers care, aided by technology to help millions of people live healthier lives. The work you do with our team will directly improve health outcomes by connecting people with the care, pharmacy benefits, data and resources they need to feel their best. Here, you will find a culture guided by inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health optimization on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

The Directed Spend Offers team delivers targeted, merchant-funded and manufacturer-funded offers that help members stretch their benefit dollars while enabling clients and partners to drive engagement toward specific products, services, and health-focused behaviors. We partner across Product, Engineering, Experience, Operations, Compliance, Analytics, Payments, and client teams to build scalable offer configuration, targeting, activation, redemption, settlement, and reporting capabilities.

As the Directed Spend Offers Product Manager, you will be deeply embedded with a dedicated Scrum Team and accountable for translating the product strategy into executable priorities. You will own and refine the team backlog, define clear requirements and acceptance criteria, guide day-to-day delivery decisions, and partner with Product leadership and cross-functional stakeholders to deliver high-value, high-quality offer capabilities and member experiences.

You’ll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely * from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges. For all hires in the Minneapolis or Washington, D.C. area, you will be required to work in the office a minimum of four days per week.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Own, manage, and continuously refine the Scrum Team backlog in alignment with the Directed Spend Offers product strategy, roadmap priorities, member and client needs, business objectives, and technical dependencies
• Translate product strategy and business needs into clear features, user stories, acceptance criteria, business rules, workflow requirements, and measurable outcomes for offer configuration, eligibility, targeting, activation, redemption, settlement, and reporting
• Set priorities for sprint planning, backlog refinement, sprint reviews, and day-to-day execution, balancing member value, client and partner impact, compliance, technical feasibility, dependencies, risk, and team capacity
• Serve as the primary product voice for the Scrum Team, ensuring shared understanding of the member experience, business problem, product goals, offer rules, funding models, and expected outcomes
• Partner closely with the Product Director, Engineering, Scrum Master, UX, QA, Architecture, Operations, Analytics, Compliance, Payments, and other stakeholders to resolve ambiguity, manage dependencies, and support effective delivery
• Provide timely clarification throughout each sprint, remove product-related blockers, and make day-to-day scope and prioritization decisions that keep delivery focused on the highest-value work
• Accept completed work on behalf of Product by validating that functionality meets acceptance criteria, business intent, member experience, offer and payment rules, quality expectations, and release-readiness standards
• Support end-to-end testing, release planning, production readiness, implementation preparation, and post-release monitoring for new and enhanced Directed Spend Offers capabilities
• Maintain a solid understanding of offer design, eligibility and targeting rules, merchant and product restrictions, member and card data, transaction authorization, funding and settlement flows, integrations, reporting, operational processes, and customer-facing impacts
• Coordinate with the Product Director to communicate delivery progress, risks, trade-offs, scope decisions, dependencies, and release impacts to stakeholders and leadership
• Identify opportunities to improve backlog quality, Agile team effectiveness, delivery predictability, stakeholder alignment, offer performance, member engagement, and product execution discipline

You’ll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• 5+ years of experience as a Product Owner, Product Manager, Business Analyst, Agile delivery lead, or related product execution role supporting software, platform, payments, benefits, healthcare, financial technology, or enterprise product teams
• 5+ years of experience operating in Agile methodology, Scrum practices, backlog management, sprint planning, story writing, acceptance criteria, and iterative product delivery
• 3+ years of experience in translating product strategy, business requirements, customer needs, and technology constraints into clear, prioritized, executable work for a Scrum Team
• Proven solid product, technical, and analytical aptitude, with the ability to understand system behavior, data flows, integrations, dependencies, business rules, and delivery trade-offs
• Experience partnering with Product Management, Engineering, QA, UX, Architecture, Scrum Masters, Operations, Analytics, Compliance, and business stakeholders to deliver product capabilities

Preferred Qualifications:

• Product Owner, Scrum, Agile, SAFe, or related certification
• Experience supporting directed spend, card-linked offers, merchant-funded offers, incentives, loyalty, consumer payments, member engagement, healthcare benefits, or financial technology products
• Experience working with payment networks, processors, merchants, vendors, or other external partners to deliver integrated consumer experiences
• Ability to make timely prioritization decisions, manage competing demands, and clearly communicate rationale, risks, trade-offs, and expected outcomes
• Solid written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to document user stories, requirements, acceptance criteria, release impacts, and stakeholder updates
• Solid problem-solving skills with the ability to clarify ambiguity, break complex work into manageable increments, and guide teams toward practical solutions
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, highly matrixed environment with shifting priorities, complex dependencies, and high expectations for execution quality
• Familiarity with Azure DevOps, Jira, Confluence, Miro, product analytics platforms, or similar Agile planning and collaboration tools
• Experience partnering with Product leaders on roadmap execution, release planning, product discovery, client and partner feedback, feature prioritization, and outcome measurement

*All employees working remotely will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group's Telecommuter Policy.

Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to local labor markets, education, work experience, certifications, etc. In addition to your salary, we offer benefits such as, a comprehensive benefits package, incentive and recognition programs, equity stock purchase and 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). No matter where or when you begin a career with us, you'll find a far-reaching choice of benefits and incentives. The salary for this role will range from $91,700 - $163,700 annually based on full-time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.

Application Deadline: This will be posted for a minimum of 2 business days or until a sufficient candidate pool has been collected. Job posting may come down early due to volume of applicants.

At UnitedHealth Group, our mission is to help people live healthier lives and help make the health system work better for everyone. Together, we are shaping the future of healthcare by harnessing technology and innovation to make care simpler to navigate, more affordable and more connected for the people we serve. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone feels welcomed, valued, heard and respected, empowering people to bring their authentic selves to work and strengthening our collective impact through diverse talents, backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.

UnitedHealth Group and its affiliated brands are an Equal Employment Opportunity employer under applicable law and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state, or federal laws, rules, or regulations.

UnitedHealth Group and its affiliated brands are a drug-free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.