Senior Product Manager

Job#: 3040783

Job Description:

Apex Systems is a world class technology services business that incorporates industry or insights and experience to deliver solutions that fulfill our clients' digital visions.

Apex has an opportunity for a Senior Product Manager. For applicants who are interested in this opportunity, send your updated resume to .

Here are the details:

Position: Senior Product Manager

Location: Acton, MA or San Diego, CA

Project Duration: 6 months

Rate: Negotiable Bases on Experience

JOB DESCRIPTION

Candidates must be local to Acton, MA or San Diego, CA

Our client's Digital Customer Experience (DCX) organization runs on a growing, interconnected set of APIs and integration services that touch nearly every system in our technology stack. We have already built out thousands of individual API methods across more than 40 integrated systems, organized into more than 100 service domains. That is real scale. What we need now is a product leader who can bring order, intent, and forward momentum to that foundation.

This role leads product management for the Integration Services Platform, working across up to five engineering teams, each focused on a distinct domain of APIs and services. This person is accountable for the backlog just as much as they are accountable for the why, the value, the roadmap, and the strategy behind all of it. That means understanding the full pipeline of incoming work, pushing back where the value is unclear, sequencing with intent, and working closely with engineering leadership to set teams up for success.

This role will define and drive a transition toward a self-service integration platform built on MuleSoft, where any product team can build and deploy their own APIs and AI agents without depending on this team to do the work for them. The vision, the roadmap to get there, and the credibility to lead engineering and business stakeholders through that change are core to what this role delivers.

This is not a project management role. It is a product management role in the fullest sense: accountable for outcomes, not just outputs. Success is not measured by stories completed or sprints delivered. It is measured by whether what this team builds actually moves the right metrics, solves real problems for the teams and customers who depend on these services, and advances the platform toward what it needs to become.

How This Role Spends Its Time

This role holds both product management and backlog management responsibilities, spanning the product backlog (the strategy, sequencing, and value work that runs ahead of delivery) and the delivery backlog (the sprint-ready work the teams are executing against now). The balance between them is roughly equal, and maintaining that balance is itself part of the job. Here is the approximate breakdown:

Product Strategy and Roadmap (~25%): Defining and evolving the vision for the Integration Services Platform, including what it needs to become, in what sequence, and why. Building a roadmap grounded in real constraints and clearly connected to business outcomes. Communicating that roadmap credibly to senior leadership, engineering, and partner product teams.

Product and Delivery Backlog Management (~25%): Owning both backlogs across all platform teams. On the product backlog side, that means being a central participant in planning and strategy rhythms, including PI planning, roadmap reviews, and capacity conversations, and supporting the value and business case framing those processes require. On the delivery backlog side, it means evaluating every incoming request against existing priorities, writing well-reasoned features and stories that give engineering and QA teams the context they need, and sequencing work against capacity rather than just volume. Both backlogs are this person's responsibility: their contents, their readiness, and their priority.

Discovery (~20%): Maintaining a continuous practice of understanding the problems this platform is being asked to solve. That means direct engagement with the product teams who depend on these services, analysis of behavioral and operational data, and proactive exploration of integration needs before they become urgent requests. Discovery is not a phase at the start of an initiative. It informs every prioritization decision.

Team and Engineering Partnership (~20%): Building a strong, trust-based working relationship with engineering leadership and with the engineering and QA teams themselves. This person sets the tone for how product and engineering work together, making sure everyone on the team understands not just what they are building, but why it matters and how it connects to outcomes worth achieving. That kind of clarity is motivating, and it is how you build a team that performs like one regardless of org structure. This includes capacity planning, release sequencing, and trade-off decisions made in genuine partnership with engineering leadership.

Stakeholder Management (~10%): Managing incoming demand from across the business. Evaluating requests against existing priorities, communicating those decisions transparently, and building the credibility that comes from being the person who makes good calls, including saying no when that is the right answer.

Responsibilities

Product Strategy and Roadmap

Define and own a platform vision that orients the team around a clear future state: an internal integration platform that enables other product teams to build and deploy their own APIs and AI agents with minimal dependence on this team

Build a credible roadmap that accounts for current constraints and future capability goals, with clear milestones and decision points along the way

Identify and sequence the investments required to evolve the platform's API design patterns toward greater resilience, reusability, and scale, including the continued buildout of experience, process, and system layers per MuleSoft best practices

Communicate the platform roadmap clearly to senior leadership, engineering, and dependent product teams, and keep that communication current as priorities evolve

Stay current on integration platform trends, AI agent tooling, and developer experience patterns to inform long-term platform direction

As the platform matures, define the scope of internal developer platform capabilities needed to enable other product teams to self-serve, including documentation, tooling, training, templates, and support pathways

Product and Delivery Backlog Management

Own both the product backlog and the delivery backlog across all platform teams, including their contents, their readiness, and their priority. A backlog that manages itself is a backlog no one owns

Be a central participant in planning and strategy rhythms, including PI planning, roadmap reviews, and capacity planning cadences. Where business cases or value statements are needed to support new initiatives, contribute to building them

Evaluate every incoming request on its merits: what problem is it solving, for whom, and how does it compare to what is already prioritized. Challenge work where the value is unclear before committing the team to it

Write clear, well-reasoned features, epics, and user stories that give engineering and QA teams the context they need to do their work well. Not just what to build, but why it matters, what problem it solves, and what done looks like

Maintain a delivery backlog populated far enough ahead that sprint planning proceeds without scrambling. At any given point, be able to answer what the teams will be working on two or more sprints from now

Accept stories against defined acceptance criteria throughout the sprint, not in batches at the end

Propose sprint goals as meaningful outcome statements, not just a list of committed stories

Represent platform needs and priorities in planning processes across DCX, including cross-team dependency management

Discovery

Maintain a continuous discovery practice through regular engagement with the product teams who depend on integration services, analysis of operational and behavioral data, and proactive identification of integration needs before they become reactive requests

Define problems clearly before committing to solutions. Understand what teams are actually trying to accomplish and whether a proposed integration is the right answer to that problem

Keep the product backlog grounded in current understanding, not just stakeholder requests from the last planning cycle

Make assumptions explicit and find ways to test them before committing engineering capacity to building

Team and Engineering Partnership

Build a trust-based, peer-level relationship with engineering leadership on this team. Be a credible product counterpart, not a project coordinator or a gatekeeper

Set the tone for how the broader team works together. Make sure engineers and QA understand not just what they are building, but why the work matters and how it connects to outcomes worth achieving. That clarity is one of the most motivating things a product leader can provide

Foster a team culture where people feel genuinely valued, where their work is connected to something meaningful, and where collaboration across disciplines is the norm rather than the exception

Partner with engineering leadership on capacity planning, release sequencing, and technical trade-off decisions without overstepping into engineering's domain

Collaborate with product managers across DCX to identify and prioritize integration needs ahead of demand

Stakeholder Management

Manage incoming demand from across the business with a clear framework: evaluate requests against existing priorities, communicate decisions transparently, and make trade-offs visible when new work would displace what is already committed

Build organizational credibility through consistent, evidence-based decision making, including saying no or not now when that is the right call

Communicate platform direction and roadmap proactively so stakeholders are not discovering priority decisions for the first time at a sprint review

Bring data to every prioritization conversation. Prioritize on evidence, not on request volume or stakeholder pressure

Outcome Accountability

This role is measured by outcomes, not activity. Key outcome areas include:

Platform value delivery: The work this team produces moves the metrics it was supposed to move and solves real problems for the product teams and end users who depend on these services. Shipped features are evaluated on whether they worked, not just whether they shipped.

Roadmap credibility: The platform roadmap reflects a coherent, well-sequenced plan that is understood and trusted by senior leadership, engineering, and dependent product teams. It is organized around outcomes to achieve, not just features to deliver.

Backlog health: Both the product backlog and the delivery backlog are populated, prioritized, and healthy. The product track is running ahead of delivery. Sprint planning is fast because preparation happened before the meeting. Engineering and QA teams are never blocked waiting for context or clarity.

Team cohesion and motivation: The engineering and QA teams working on this platform understand how their work connects to outcomes that matter. They operate as a team, not a collection of individuals executing tickets. Team members feel valued and are set up to do their best work.

Discovery continuity: Product decisions are grounded in current evidence, including regular engagement with dependent product teams, operational data, and continuous assumption testing, rather than historical planning cycles or stakeholder requests alone.

Platform direction: The organization is making measurable progress toward a self-service integration model. Dependencies on this team for individual API builds are decreasing over time, and other product teams are gaining the capability to operate more independently.

Required Leadership Skills and Behaviors

A product leader who leads with conviction, not consensus. You form a point of view based on evidence and hold it under pressure from stakeholders and engineering alike

A team builder. You understand that the people doing this work need to feel connected to what they are building and why, and you make that connection visible and real in the day-to-day work, not just in big planning moments

Strong enough technically to earn the trust of highly skilled engineers without needing to be the most technical person in the room

Direct communicator who can translate complex technical and strategic decisions into clear language for a wide range of audiences

Comfortable operating in ambiguity. You do not wait for perfect clarity before making a call

Emotionally intelligent. You can bring people along through significant change without bulldozing or capitulating

Accountable. When something breaks down on the product side, you own it and fix it

Disciplined about protecting product track time. The immediate urgency of delivery-level work will always compete with the equally important work of strategy and discovery, and holding both is not optional

Required Skills and Competencies

Demonstrated experience as a product manager, not a project manager, managing a technical platform or infrastructure product, including backlog ownership and roadmap development

Proven ability to manage incoming demand from multiple stakeholders, prioritize with a clear framework rather than by volume or loudness, and communicate those decisions credibly

Strong understanding of API design principles, including RESTful patterns, layered architecture concepts, and the tradeoffs involved in building APIs for scale and reusability

Hands-on familiarity with enterprise API management platforms. MuleSoft experience is strongly preferred. Comparable experience with Apigee, AWS API Gateway, Azure API Management, or similar platforms, combined with the ability to ramp quickly on MuleSoft, is acceptable

Experience writing product requirements that are specific enough to be buildable and contextual enough that engineers understand why the work matters

Comfortable working within Agile and SAFe frameworks, including cross-ART coordination, PI planning, and dependency management

Strong enough understanding of developer experience concepts to credibly lead a long-term transition toward a self-service integration platform

Data-literate: comfortable using behavioral analytics, operational data, and outcome metrics to inform prioritization and evaluate whether shipped work delivered the expected value

Experience working in global, regulated technology environments is a plus

Everforth Apex is a world-class IT services company that serves thousands of clients across the globe. When you join Everforth Apex, you become part of a team that values innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning. We offer quality career resources, training, certifications, development opportunities, and a comprehensive benefits package. Our commitment to excellence is reflected in many awards, including ClearlyRateds Best of Staffing in Talent Satisfaction in the United States and Great Place to Work in the United Kingdom and Mexico.

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Everforth Apex Benefits Overview: Everforth Apex offers a range of supplemental benefits, including medical, dental, vision, life, disability, and other insurance plans that offer an optional layer of financial protection. We offer an ESPP (employee stock purchase program) and a 401K program which allows you to contribute typically within 30 days of starting, with a company match after 12 months of tenure. Everforth Apex also offers a HSA (Health Savings Account on the HDHP plan), a SupportLinc Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with up to 8 free counseling sessions, a corporate discount savings program and other discounts. In terms of professional development, Everforth Apex hosts an on-demand training program, provides access to certification prep and a library of technical and leadership courses/books/seminars once you have 6+ months of tenure, and certification discounts and other perks to associations that include CompTIA and IIBA. Everforth Apex has a dedicated customer service team for our Consultants that can address questions around benefits and other resources, as well as a certified Career Coach. You can access a full list of our benefits, programs, support teams and resources within our 'Welcome Packet' as well, which an Everforth Apex team member can provide.

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