Role: Lead Product Manager (PDM)

Mode: Onsite

Duration: Long Term Contract

Location: Baltimore, MD

Relocation: Acceptable

Job Description:

Senior Product Manager – Loan Originations

Catalyst represents that commitment in action: a strategic reset of our loan origination platform, built collaboratively across Product, Design, Technology, Operations, and Analytics to support client’s future growth. We are seeking a Senior Product Manager (Product Owner) to drive the execution of a defined product area within Catalyst. This role is responsible for translating strategic direction into actionable work, ensuring high-quality delivery, and maintaining strong alignment across engineering, business, and operations partners. The Senior Product Manager will partner closely with Engineering Leads, Product Designers, and cross-functional stakeholders to deliver customer-centric solutions aligned to the broader product roadmap, while serving as the primary day-to-day decision maker for their team.

Responsibilities-

·     Prioritization & Tradeoffs: Work closely with the Lead Product Manager to understand strategic goals, prioritization, and tradeoffs for the Program Roadmap. Quickly absorb new context and evolving priorities, ensuring higher-priority work is clearly defined, ready, and sequenced for focused delivery within their team.

·     Analysis, Requirements Definition & User Story Development: Collaborate closely with Business, Design, Engineering, and Operations partners to define detailed requirements at the Epic and Story level. Rapidly synthesize inputs and drive clarity, ensuring shared understanding across stakeholders.

·     Drive Sprint-Level Execution: Own day-to-day product execution for a dedicated team, ensuring sprint goals are clearly defined, achievable, and aligned with broader roadmap priorities.

·     Backlog Management & Readiness: Create, refine, and maintain a prioritized backlog with at least 2 - 3 sprints of ready work. Ensure user stories are well-defined, actionable, and meet acceptance criteria before entering team refinement and development.

·     Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Business, Design, Analytics, Engineering, and Operations to drive alignment, resolve ambiguities, and deliver cohesive solutions.

·     Dependency & Risk Management: Proactively identify, track, and manage cross-team dependencies to ensure teams can deliver sprint outcomes on time. Surface trade-offs with clear recommendations and adjust sequencing or scope to maintain momentum and enable independent delivery. 

·     Quality & Continuous Improvement: Ensure delivered features meet quality standards and business intent. Incorporate feedback and performance insights to iteratively improve product outcomes and team execution.

·     Stakeholder Communication: Provide clear, consistent updates to stakeholders on progress, risks, and outcomes at the team level.

Key Skills-

• Execution-Focused: Strong ability to translate strategy into clear, actionable work and drive delivery at the sprint level.
• Fast Learner & Adaptable: Quickly builds domain understanding, absorbs new information, and evolves it effectively to evolving product needs.
• Collaboration & Communication: Effective at working across legal, compliance, engineering, business, and operations partners to build shared understanding and alignment.
• Analytical & Detail-Oriented: Comfortable using data and insights to prioritize and validate outcomes.
• Customer-Focused: Understands customer pain points and ensures solutions address real user needs.
• Self-Managing & Solution-Oriented: Able to navigate ambiguity, manage competing priorities, and make informed tradeoffs.
• Ownership & Accountability: Takes responsibility for delivery within their product area and follows through on commitments.

Experience-

•  3-5+ years of experience in Product Management or a related role within a technology-driven organization
• Experience working in Agile environments with strong backlog management and sprint execution responsibilities
• Demonstrated ability to partner effectively with Engineering teams and cross-functional stakeholders
• Experience in Financial Services or consumer-facing digital products preferred
• Experience in working with and coordinating processes related to third party software products as part of product solution (such as verifications and credit lookup related products)
• Bachelor''s degree in engineering, business, or equivalent practical experience