Product Manager - Workforce Management at New York, NY (Hybrid) | W2 contract only

Job Title: Product Manager - Workforce Management

Location: New York, NY - Hybrid (plan for 25% presence in office in NYC every month. Candidate can be remote, but must spend 1 week every month in NYC)

Experience: 12+ Years

Must Have's:

• Ideal candidate should have worked in a Retail Store in the US
• Candidate should have worked on Workforce Management specifically Workforce scheduling
• Should have IT experience in WFM implementation and worked as a product manager.

JD:

We are seeking a seasoned Product Management Consultant with a deep, firsthand understanding of retail operations to lead the strategy and execution of our store scheduling and Workforce Management (WFM) platforms.

This is not a theoretical role. The ideal consultant has spent time on the retail floor, understands the operational realities of store associates, and possesses the strategic Product Sense required to build systems that balance corporate labor budgets with human-centric scheduling. You will act as the Informed Captain for our labor optimization initiatives, bridging the gap between complex engineering algorithms and the everyday reality of store managers.

Key Responsibilities:

• Product Strategy & Vision: Define the multi-year product roadmap for retail scheduling systems, ensuring alignment with overall enterprise business goals, compliance laws, and operational budgets.
• Empathy-Driven Discovery: Utilize deep Cognitive Empathy to conduct user research with store managers, regional leads, and associates. Translate their pain points (e.g., rigid shifts, last-minute changes, compliance fatigue) into actionable product requirements.
• Labor Optimization & Compliance: Partner with Data Science and Operations teams to build predictive scheduling models that accurately forecast labor demands while adhering to local labor laws (predictive scheduling, rest breaks, minor rules).
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Serve as the strategic bridge between IT Engineering, Data Science, Retail Operations, and Corporate Finance.
• Change Management & Adoption: Own the roll-out strategy for system updates. Ensure store operations teams are equipped for high adoption rates, minimizing friction during product launches.

Required Experience & Qualifications

• Retail Floor Experience: You have worked inside retail stores (as an associate, team lead, or store manager). You know firsthand how a broken schedule impacts morale, turnover, and customer experience.
• Product Management Expertise: 5+ years of experience managing complex B2B or enterprise SaaS products, specifically in Workforce Management (WFM), Human Capital Management (HCM), or Retail Operations Tech.
• Strategic Frameworks: Proven ability to own a domain using models like the Informed Captain making decisive, data-driven product choices while empowering cross-functional experts.
• Technical Fluency: Comfort working with complex algorithmic systems, demand forecasting models, and integrations with modern WFM systems.
• Analytical Polish: Strong capability to analyze labor metrics, operational KPIs, and financial impact models to prove product ROI to executive stakeholders.

What Makes a Candidate Highly Successful

• The Intersection of Domain Expertise & Empathy
• he ideal candidate doesn't just build software based on business requirements; they build with a vivid understanding of the store environment.
• They know that a scheduling system is only successful if it satisfies the business's bottom line *and* respects the associate's time.