Sr Digital Product Manager, Automotive

 Senior Digital Product Manager, Automotive

Volkswagen Group of America (VWGoA) is the parent company of Audi, Volkswagen, Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti, Ducati, and VW Credit, Inc. (VCI) in the US. As the financial arm of Audi, Volkswagen and Ducati, VCI focuses on providing financing, insurance and ancillary products for customers who lease or finance cars, and we are working towards creating great experiences throughout their shopping, buying and post-purchase experiences.

As part of the Global Volkswagen Group’s “Route 2025” strategy, large investments are being made globally toward becoming the industry leader across multiple areas including Digital products and experiences. Here in the US, VCI is redefining and building its digital experiences, products, and features as part of this overall growth strategy.

This role will own the conceptualization, delivery and growth of VCI’s digital retail experience and products for Audi, VW and Ducati across both Canada and the US. As part of the Digital Build team, he/she will have the opportunity to discover and create the next generation of online automotive shopping and buying experiences.

This role is focused on digitally building out how customers research their financing options, apply for financing, learn about vehicle protection products and purchase ancillary services such as insurance in the context of their overall car buying experience. This role sits within the Digital Consumer Experience and Digital Build team at VCI and is a new role on a new team. We are looking for an experienced, energetic, and entrepreneurial Product Owner who has successfully built, launched and scaled products in a startup or at a big company. To fit in, you have to go deep on customer and dealer needs and data, and be excited about delivering amazingly simple experiences that will set the foundation for their future relationship with VCI, the Brands we support, and their vehicle. You have to true everything back to the customer, ensuring you’re both solving a need for them and delivering business value through a technically sound product.

This role will have visibility to the senior management teams of VCI, Audi, Volkswagen, and Ducati so it will be critical for this product manager to have exceptional communication and influence skills.

Responsibilities will include:

• Setting a vision for what the digital retailing future looks like for VCI, across brands and dealers
• Developing and managing the product roadmap for the digital car buying experience; aligning product improvements to support vision, goals and opportunities
• Maintaining and growing a deep knowledge of the retail and automotive industries, specifically from the point of view of how technology is being applied to power the customer experience from shopping to purchase
• Leading consumer and dealer research and synthesizing it into relevant features and experiences
• Building business cases for the product roadmap and features, and continuously trueing back to defined customer and business KPIs
• Maintaining strong relationships with key stakeholders to ensure product plans are aligned with objectives/plans
• Establishing product testing plans and building roadmaps
• Defining product requirements, stories and personas; rationalizing and managing a product backlog
• Defining product KPIs and success metrics; monitor performance, identify and drive improvement opportunities

Experience:

• 7-10 years of experience in digital and customer experience product management
• 5+ years of experience leading teams

Education:

Required

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Computer Science or Engineering  

Desired

Master’s degree in Entrepreneurship, Business, Marketing, Computer Science or Engineering

General Skills:

• Blend of strategic and tactical thinking, creative and analytic reasoning, a deep knowledge of human-centered design, a love of data, and an interest in the auto industry
• Passion for identifying and solving real consumer and business problems, and proven ability to prioritize high leverage opportunities to deliver to market
• A bias to action and a proven track record of delivering both minimum viable products and scaled solutions within a matrixed organization to market at rapid speed
• A passion for and experience of not just launching products, but owning their success and growth
• Ability to lead and grow direct teams as well as matrixed partner teams and collaborate across brands and organization
• Understanding of the full tech stack required to build and launch scaled products using agile methodologies
• Ability to empower designers and developers to deliver great products
• Strong analytical mindset and ability to use data and qualitative insights to create exceptional digital experiences
• A fantastic storyteller who is at ease presenting to, and can influence executives, peers, and partners

Required Specialized Skills:

• Comprehensive understanding of the latest web and mobile product technologies and user experience best practices
• Success in developing strong working relationships across many layers of an organization, outside agencies and suppliers
• Experience managing the development and delivery of direct to consumer web or mobile applications.
• Ability to build, manage and monitor business cases and outcomes for experiences and products
• Deep understanding of user-centered product development practices, including journey mapping and design thinking.
• Knowledge and practice of core principals of Agile methodology and development practices including Scrum, Kanban, Lean software development, etc.
• Familiarity and experience using tools such as Jira and Confluence for product user stories and agile development
• Comfortable working with tight deadlines; must be proactive, self-directed and able to multi-task

Desired Specialized Skills

• Technical background desired
• Extensive experience working with dealers and understanding of dealers’ systems and processes

Work Flexibility:

• Travel 20% of the time

We are proud to be an EEO employer M/F/D/V. We maintain a drug-free workplace and perform pre-employment substance abuse testing.