Sr. Director, Product Innovation

Senior Director, Product Innovation

At Early Warning, we've powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting-edge solutions like Zelle, Paze?, and so much more. As a trusted name in payments, we partner with thousands of institutions to increase access to financial services and protect transactions for hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses.

Positions located in Scottsdale, San Francisco, Chicago, or New York follow a hybrid work model to allow for a more collaborative working environment.

Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States, for any employer, at the date of hire. This position is ineligible for employment Visa sponsorship.

Overall Purpose

The Senior Director, Product Innovation will lead innovation to expand and enrich our digital payment offerings. This role will explore frontier technologies such as agentic commerce, biometric enabled payments, and tokenized point-of-sale payments driving early-stage research, concept development, and business casing.

Essential Functions

Evaluates, scopes, and develops complex strategic product initiatives with the objective to expand and enrich products.

Develops and presents business cases for innovative initiatives to internal senior leadership and key external stakeholders.

Analyzes opportunities, evaluates strategic fit, synthesizes findings, develops go-forward plans, and acts as part of the ongoing team to translate recommendations into plans and ultimately results.

Documents product requirements and collaborates with cross functional partners to design, implement, test, and deploy new product innovations.

Stays current with industry trends and emerging technologies that could enhance the organization's capabilities and / or product offerings.

Engages with customers, partners, and internal leadership to gather insights and shape future product opportunities.

Provides effective leadership, develops and manages a highly engaged, high-performance team.

Develops and maintains a deep understanding of our own product, our customer's needs and competitive landscape.

Supports the company's commitment to risk management and protecting the integrity and confidentiality of systems and data.

Minimum Qualifications

Education and / or experience typically obtained through the completion of a Bachelor's degree.

15+ years of experience in product management, partnerships, or strategy.

Knowledge of card-based payments systems including technical, business and legal considerations.

Knowledge of ecommerce, digital payments and network tokenization.

Experience deploying complex technology solutions to market.

Experience identifying market and business needs / gaps and translating those into fungible opportunities.

Experience conceptualizing and incubating new products and leading the customer development process from product ideation, MVP / PoC stages to general market launch.

Effective verbal and written communication and presentation skills.

Strong business acumen and effective leadership skills.

Background and drug screen.

Preferred Qualifications

Master's Degree in a relevant field.

Experience bringing new / alternative payments solutions to market.

Comfort with ambiguity and a track record of leading through fast paced evolving environments.

Physical Requirements

Working conditions consist of a normal office environment. Work is primarily sedentary and requires extensive use of a computer and involves sitting for periods of approximately four hours. Work may require occasional standing, walking, kneeling and reaching. Must be able to lift 10 pounds occasionally and / or negligible amount of force frequently. Requires visual acuity and dexterity to view, prepare, and manipulate documents and office equipment including personal computers. Requires the ability to communicate with internal and / or external customers.

Employee must be able to perform essential functions and physical requirements of position with or without reasonable accommodation.

The above job description is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. Incumbents will follow instructions and perform other related duties as assigned by their supervisor.

The base pay scale for this position in : New York, NY in USD per year is : $220,000 - $274,000. Additionally, candidates are eligible for a discretionary incentive plan and benefits. This pay scale is subject to change and is not necessarily reflective of actual compensation that may be earned, nor a promise of any specific pay for any specific candidate, which is always dependent on legitimate factors considered at the time of job offer. Early Warning Services takes into consideration a variety of factors when determining a competitive salary offer, including, but not limited to, the job scope, market rates and geographic location of a position, candidate's education, experience, training, and specialized skills or certification(s) in relation to the job requirements and compared with internal equity (peers). The business actively supports and reviews wage equity to ensure that pay decisions are not based on gender, race, national origin, or any other protected classes.

Some of the Ways We Prioritize Your Health and Happiness

• Healthcare Coverage Competitive medical (PPO / HDHP), dental, and vision plans as well as company contributions to your Health Savings Account (HSA) or pre-tax savings through flexible spending accounts (FSA) for commuting, health & dependent care expenses.
• 401(k) Retirement Plan Featuring a 100% Company Safe Harbor Match on your first 6% deferral immediately upon eligibility.
• Paid Time Off Flexible Time Off for Exempt (salaried) employees, as well as generous PTO for Non-Exempt (hourly) employees, plus 11 paid company holidays and a paid volunteer day.
• 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave
• Maven Family Planning provides support through your Parenting journey including egg freezing, fertility, adoption, surrogacy, pregnancy, postpartum, early pediatrics, and returning to work.

And SO much more! We continue to enhance our program, so be sure to check our Benefits page here for the latest. Our team can share more during the interview process!

Early Warning Services, LLC ("Early Warning") considers for employment, hires, retains and promotes qualified candidates on the basis of ability, potential, and valid qualifications without regard to race, religious creed, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, protected veteran or disability status or any factor prohibited by law, and as such affirms in policy and practice to support and promote equal employment opportunity and affirmative action, in accordance with all applicable federal, state, and municipal laws. The company also prohibits discrimination on other bases such as medical condition, marital status or any other factor that is irrelevant to the performance of our employees.

Early Warning Services LLC is a proud participant in E-Verify, a federal program to help ensure a legal and authorized workforce. As part of our hiring process, we electronically verify the employment eligibility of all new hires through E-Verify. For more information on your rights and responsibilities under E-Verify please visit Home | E-Verify.