Payments Product Owner

The Payments Product Owner is a senior individual contributor role responsible for end-to-end ownership of assigned payment products, including lifecycle management, technical readiness, vendor governance, and measurable performance outcomes. The position leads cross-functional coordination and decision-making within delegated authority to deliver payments roadmap commitments.

Responsibilities

• Own the strategy and multiyear roadmap for assigned payment products, defining objectives, target outcomes, capability sequencing, dependencies, and tradeoffs aligned to member and organizational priorities.
• Establish and maintain prioritized product backlogs through a transparent approach that weighs member and employee feedback, market trends, risk, strategic fit, effort, and expected value.
• Develop business cases and investment recommendations covering member value, costs, benefits, risks, and alternatives, and measure realized benefits after implementation.
• Evaluate emerging payment capabilities, including AI, automation, and personalization strategies, and recommend adoption decisions that improve member interactions and operational efficiency.
• Own product requirements and technical readiness for assigned payment products, including front-end and back-end components, system dependencies, data flows, and controls.
• Lead product-side analysis of APIs, batch and real-time file transmissions, middleware, tokenization, digital channel integrations, core system dependencies, and other emerging technologies.
• Define and validate requirements, control expectations, acceptance criteria, and test scenarios using recognized software testing standards, practices, methods, and tools.
• Govern release readiness for each payment product release, including change impact, test evidence, procedures, training, support readiness, and stabilization; decide or recommend go/no-go within delegated authority.
• Lead product-side incident analysis, root cause evaluation, business impact assessment, and corrective action tracking.
• Own assigned vendor relationships from due diligence and selection through implementation, performance governance, escalation, renewal recommendation, transition, and exit planning, as delegated by leadership.
• Establish vendor governance cadences and scorecards covering service levels, availability, incident performance, roadmap commitments, support responsiveness, corrective actions, and value realization.
• Monitor contractual commitments, billing and invoice reviews, and service level performance with internal partners; document deficiencies, partner with leadership on corrective action governance, and track commitments to closure.
• Govern alignment between vendor roadmaps and product strategy, including renewal readiness and exit planning analysis with negotiation recommendations.
• Lead complex, cross-functional payment projects and programs from business case and requirements through planning, execution, testing, implementation, stabilization, measurement, and post-implementation review.
• Govern product-side scope, milestones, dependencies, risks, decisions, stakeholder alignment, status reporting, and delivery outcomes.
• Establish integrated priorities across regulatory deadlines, production risk, strategic initiatives, and capacity; escalate conflicts requiring leadership decisions and partner with enterprise project managers when assigned while retaining accountability for product decisions, readiness, and outcomes.
• Lead cross-functional product governance to align business-line owners and their vendors across Payments, IT, middleware, digital services, Operations, Marketing, Compliance, Risk, and Finance.
• Represent assigned payment products in departmental and enterprise forums and deliver recurring executive-ready reporting on roadmap delivery, product and vendor performance, risks, and required decisions.
• Define, monitor, and report product performance measures and lead corrective action for material variances in adoption, availability, processing performance, member experience, operational efficiency, control effectiveness, vendor performance, and roadmap delivery.
• Own product-side identification, documentation, mitigation tracking, and escalation of operational, technology, implementation, third-party, member, and regulatory risks, partnering with Risk Management, Internal Audit, and IT to translate requirements into controls and procedures.
• Provide technical leadership, standards, knowledge transfer, and mentorship to peers and stakeholders without assuming supervisory responsibility; perform additional duties as assigned.
• Prioritize and sequence assigned product work within approved strategy, funding, capacity, regulatory commitments, and governance parameters; define or recommend requirements, acceptance criteria, performance targets, and business readiness criteria.
• Make documented business acceptance and escalation decisions within delegated authority, requiring issue analysis, action plans, and escalation from assigned vendors and internal workstreams when commitments are at risk.
• Recommend investment, renewal, remediation, replacement, or retirement decisions, and be accountable for roadmap delivery, product and vendor performance outcomes, and follow-through on corrective actions.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree (B.A.) from an accredited college or university (preferred), or an equivalent combination of education and a minimum of five years of related payment experience at a financial institution or payment facilitator.
• Minimum three years of product owner/manager and/or equivalent vendor management experience.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, cross-functional payment projects or programs from business case and requirements through implementation, stabilization, and post-implementation review.
• Demonstrated experience governing vendor performance, including service levels, roadmap commitments, corrective actions, and escalation.
• Experience collaborating with business-line owners, vendors, and stakeholders to integrate payment experiences, and developing business cases, performance measures, and executive-level reporting.
• High degree of knowledge of payment channels with the technical acumen to analyze and resolve issues involving APIs, batch files, tokenization, middleware, and integrations.
• Ability to synthesize diverse business, technical, risk, vendor, and financial information to define an optimal path and make informed decisions, including in ambiguous situations.
• Ability to lead through influence, facilitate cross-functional governance, negotiate priorities, escalate constructively, and mentor peers without supervisory authority.
• Ability to organize and prioritize work, balance competing demands and deadlines, and function autonomously within delegated authority.
• Ability to read, analyze, and interpret contracts, service levels, technical procedures, and governmental regulations in partnership with authorized experts.
• Excellent analytical, written, verbal, documentation, facilitation, executive presentation, and teamwork skills, with demonstrated ability to drive innovation.

Technologies

• AI
• APIs
• Tokenization

Compensation and Location

• Location: Denver, CO (Hybrid)
• Pay Range: USD 89,600 - 112,000 per year

Benefits

• Pay-for-performance compensation program including bonuses for all employees
• Competitive benefits package

Physical Demands

• Typically required to remain stationary for long periods and occasionally required to lift/move or transport up to 10 pounds.
• Occasionally move about inside an office to access files, mail, and office machinery.
• Constantly operate a computer and other office equipment such as a phone, copier/printer, etc.
• Position self to maintain computers, including under desks and in the server closet.
• Frequently communicate with members and coworkers and must be able to exchange accurate information.
• Travel to visit CU location as needed.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Core Competencies

Every position at Credit Union of Colorado is grounded in organizational Core Values and Core Competencies.