Product Manager III

CDK’s Cloud Technology platform team is building and delivering a collection of public cloud infrastructure capabilities that are standards-based, scalable, secure, resilient, highly available and integrated with well-defined and automated CI/CD pipeline services.  These cloud capabilities form the foundation on which CDK delivers leading edge software solutions that the drive the automotive retail industry. 

Product managers are responsible for guiding the success of a product and leading the cross-functional team that is responsible for improving it. It is an important organizational role that sets the strategy, road map, and feature definition for a product or product line. Building the pipeline and prioritizing backlog.   In common with all product managers, they are responsible for deciding what is delivered, not how to do it (how is the platform engineer’s job).  The platform product manager sits at the center of design, delivery and support.

The Product Manager III is responsible for managing the entire life cycle of existing products from product design, to solution design, to build, and implementation, working closely with the Product Owner and the Platform Engineering teams.  Additionally, this position is responsible for collecting and defining basic product requirements, writing user stories, and managing typical scrum team processes.

Position Responsibilities & Essential functions

• Manage the entire product lifecycle, from planning & definition through development, launch, and retirement phases.

• Gather functional requirements from business stakeholders, collaborate with project team members to identify feature details and document specifications.

• Create, maintain and communicate the product roadmap for your product offerings.

• Author epics (big ideas), creating user stories and leading the sprint team ceremonies, which include daily stand-ups, planning sessions and working with your sprint teams to decompose user stories into development tasks.

• Define solutions to meet the market need and create the business case justification for pursuing such initiatives. Create a compelling value proposition for your products and initiatives.

• Manage the development backlog for your sprint teams including authoring stories, managing grooming sessions, helping lead sprint team planning sessions, and running stand-up meetings, showcases and retrospective ceremonies enabling efficient and productive development efforts.

• Collaborate with Product & Technology leadership to understand and plan the operational requirements associated with launching and supporting your product including all activities required for service and IT/IS readiness.

Qualifications & Job Requirements

• Strong track record of client collaboration and market assessment.

• Demonstrated record of turning ideas into realities.

• Exceptionally strong written and verbal communications with a strong aptitude for succinctly presenting thoughts and ideas to senior internal and external stakeholders.

• Ability to listen and consider the points of view of others, collaborate and build consensus within cross-functional areas.

• Ability to effectively multi-task in a deadline driven atmosphere.

• Highly motivated ‘go-getter' who is driven to achieve business results with the ability to remain positive and focused on moving forward, regardless of obstacles.

• Travel 25% of time to meet with customers and business partners.

PREFERRED ATTRIBUTES & Qualifications

• Knowledge of cloud technology concepts
• Experience working in an Agile software development environment, and with Agile tools such as Jira and TFS a plus.
• Knowledge of the automotive industry, dealership environment or product marketing area.
• Solid project management experience/skills.
• Experience in collaborating with off shore agile teams.