Product Owner - Commercial Lending

CRE Finance Council; Charlotte (NC); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

CRE Finance Council in Charlotte, NC is seeking a Product Owner for a 12+ month hybrid contract opportunity. You will collaborate with bankers, portfolio managers, credit, operations and risk to translate requirements into features, user stories and acceptance criteria.

You will maintain the product backlog in Jira and guide governance, training materials and adoption efforts across lending workflows, Deal Hub onboarding, and automation initiatives to enhance business value.

Qualifications

• Experience in business analysis, execution, product support or project/program management in financial services.
• Proven experience writing user stories, acceptance criteria and process documentation in an Agile environment.
• Hands-on experience with Jira and Confluence, or similar tools.
• Strong stakeholder management with senior business leaders and technical teams.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; ability to simplify complex topics for executives.

Responsibilities

• Gather requirements and write features, user stories and acceptance criteria.
• Maintain the product backlog in Jira, with clear scope, dependencies, risks and open questions for each item.
• Write process maps for current and future state, and lead gap analyses across lending workflows.
• Support onboarding new lines of business to Deal Hub, including discovery sessions, workflow configuration, and readiness activities.
• Coordinate UAT, training materials, user guides and adoption efforts.
• Collect user feedback and turn it into recommended improvements.
• Track release scope, timing and dependencies with technology delivery teams.
• Prepare release summaries, status updates and executive-ready materials for senior leadership.
• Lead working sessions and follow up on action items, decisions and risks.
• Help identify tasks that could be automated or addressed by AI, considering business value and data needs.
• Support workshops aligning business and technology on the automation roadmap.
• Ensure changes meet governance, compliance, access, records management and audit requirements.
• Support data quality checks and issue triage across connected systems.

Skills

Stakeholder management

Communication

Requirements gathering

Agile / Scrum

Multi-workstream management

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Job description

Outstanding long-term contract opportunity! A well-known Financial Services Company is looking for a Product Owner in Uptown Charlotte, NC (Hybrid).

Work with the brightest minds at one of the largest financial institutions in the world. This is long-term contract opportunity that includes a competitive benefit package! Our client has been around for over 150 years and is continuously innovating in today's digital age. If you want to work for a company that is not only a household name, but also truly cares about satisfying customers' financial needs and helping people succeed financially.

Contract Duration: 12+ Months with extensions and possible full-time conversion

• Work with business partners (bankers, portfolio managers, credit, operations and risk) to gather requirements and write them up as features, user stories and acceptance criteria
• Maintain and refine the product backlog in Jira, with clear scope, dependencies, risks and open questions for each item
• Write process maps for current and future state, and lead gap analyses across lending workflows
• Support onboarding new lines of business and business groups to Deal Hub, including discovery sessions, workflow and task configuration, and readiness activities
• Coordinate user acceptance testing (UAT), training materials, user guides and adoption efforts
• Collect user feedback and turn it into recommended improvements
• Track release scope, timing and dependencies with technology delivery teams
• Prepare release summaries, status updates and executive-ready materials for senior leadership
• Lead working sessions and follow up on action items, decisions and risks
• Help find and assess tasks that could be automated or completed by AI, looking at business value, feasibility, data needs and controls
• Support workshops and working sessions that align business and technology on the automation roadmap
• Help ensure product changes meet governance, compliance, access, records management and audit requirements
• Support data quality checks and issue triage across connected systems (for example nCino, Loan IQ, Dynamics 365, SharePoint and Teams)
• Help with production support triage and elevate issues to the right teams

Required Skills & Experience

• Experience in business analysis, business execution, product support or project/program management, preferably in financial services
• Proven experience writing user stories, acceptance criteria and process documentation in an Agile environment
• Hands‑on experience with Jira and Confluence, or similar tools
• Strong stakeholder management skills, including working with senior business leaders and technical teams
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to make complex topics simple and clear for executives
• Strong organization skills and the ability to manage several workstreams at once

Nice-to-Have:

• Experience with commercial lending, commercial real estate (CRE) or loan origination processes
• Familiarity with nCino, Loan IQ, Microsoft Dynamics 365 or the Microsoft 365 collaboration tools (Teams, SharePoint, Planner)
• Exposure to workflow automation, the Power Platform or AI/agentic solutions
• Experience in a regulated environment with strong control, audit and data governance expectations
• Experience with change management and user adoption