VP, Merchant Experience Sr Product Manager

Synchrony is a leading financial services company, and they are seeking a VP, Merchant Experience Sr Product Manager to enhance merchant-facing capabilities and experiences for their financing products. This role involves leading a team, driving cross-functional alignment, and overseeing the end-to-end merchant lifecycle to ensure seamless integration of financing into merchant operations.

Responsibilities:

• Set direction for merchant distribution experiences by defining the product vision, strategy, and prioritized roadmap to drive adoption of financing products, features, and capabilities across channels
• Lead, coach, and develop a team of product managers (5 direct reports) by setting clear priorities/OKRs, establishing operating rhythms, building talent (hiring/onboarding as needed), and driving accountability for outcomes
• Drive cross-functional alignment and prioritization by partnering with stakeholders across the business to define, sequence, and govern the features/capabilities needed to support multiproduct and multi-source financing solutions; ensuring clarity on requirements, dependencies, and trade-offs
• Sponsor and oversee merchant experience modernization (e.g., portal redesign, improved navigation, alerts/notifications, streamlined workflows such as Apply/Buy/Lookup/Estimate Payments) by setting objectives, securing resourcing, removing blockers, and holding delivery teams accountable for efficiency and consistency improvements
• Oversee end-to-end merchant lifecycle experience including onboarding/enablement, POS workflows, reporting/insights, and operational servicing experiences
• Champion insight-led prioritization by leveraging market research, competitive insights, and merchant feedback to identify capability gaps and steer investment toward the highest-impact experience improvements
• Support and enable sound product decisions by maintaining a working understanding of existing product capabilities and guiding how Enterprise features/capabilities are embedded into merchant point-of-sale channels and merchant digital experiences (in partnership with execution owners)
• Provide regular updates to Senior Leaders and partner with go to market teams to support commercialization readiness, enablement, and rollout communications as needed
• Build a strong cross-functional network and foster close working relationships with internal stakeholders across Distribution, Enterprise Product, Technology, Design, Data/Analytics, Operations, and Risk/Compliance
• Build and sustain a high-performing product organization by coaching and mentoring leaders/ICs, establishing team operating norms, developing talent and succession plans, and ensuring the team is positioned to deliver against strategic priorities
• Perform other duties and/or special projects as assigned

Requirements:

• 8 plus years of experience related to product management (e.g., product strategy, program management, digital delivery, platform ownership), with end-to-end product lifecycle accountability
• Proven ability to lead diverse teams and influence senior executives in a matrixed environment
• Experience working in SAFe Agile frameworks or similar agile methodologies
• Ability and flexibility to travel for business as required
• You must be 18 years or older
• You must have a high school diploma or equivalent
• You must be willing to take a drug test, submit to a background investigation and submit fingerprints as part of the onboarding process
• You must be able to satisfy the requirements of Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act
• New hires (Level 4-7) must have 9 months of continuous service with the company before they are eligible to post on other roles. Once this new hire time in position requirement is met, the associate will have a minimum 6 months' time in position before they can post for future non-exempt roles. Employees, level 8 or greater, must have at least 18 months' time in position before they can post. All internal employees must consistently meet performance expectations and have approval from your manager to post (or the approval of your manager and HR if you don't meet the time in position or performance expectations)
• Legal authorization to work in the U.S. is required. We will not sponsor individuals for employment visas, now or in the future, for this job opening
• Bachelor's Degree preferred, or commensurate experience in product management, sales, or marketing in credit or financial services industries
• Proven ability to manage and develop product managers while driving multiple concurrent product workstreams through effective prioritization and delegation
• Passion for innovation and continuous improvement in digital financial products and merchant experiences
• Strong business acumen and understanding of compliance/regulatory considerations relevant to financial services
• Deep B2B/merchant experience (provider/merchant portals, POS enablement, servicing/operational tools) and comfort balancing merchant needs with internal operational realities
• Proven change leader with experience modernizing legacy platforms/processes and bringing stakeholders along through ambiguity and resistance
• Exceptional executive presence and stakeholder management across Sales/Commercial, Operations, Risk, and Technology in a matrixed enterprise
• Proven experience leading and scaling product teams, including direct people leadership, hiring and developing talent, and creating strong team culture and accountability
• Demonstrated thought leadership coupled with strong communication skills and ability to help teams connect the dots on new ideas, processes and strategy
• Ability to leverage technology to create new processes and drive efficiency gains
• Demonstrated strategic, analytical and problem-solving skills
• Excellent influencing and relationship-building skills at multiple levels of organization