Director, Product Management - Auto Finance & Risk Intelligence

Hearst•Lawrenceville, GA

13d

About The Position

Black Book is seeking a hands-on, AI-first product leader to grow its Auto Finance & Risk Intelligence portfolio. The role owns product strategy for products serving automotive lenders, captive finance companies, securitization issuers, institutional investors, and banks. Its primary focus is discovering, validating, and bringing a new product for automotive finance risk and valuation workflows to market, while also managing the existing portfolio. The Director will use AI throughout product discovery and development, including turning customer conversations into working prototypes, testing and iterating with customers, and translating validated learning into direction for Engineering to build enterprise-ready products. The role works closely with Data Science, Residuals, Automotive Valuations, Data Operations, Product Engineering, Sales, and other teams. It also owns prioritization, launch readiness, product performance, and the development of a Product Owner, and partners with the SVP Product & Technology on packaging and pricing. Success includes an executable product strategy and roadmap, validated anchor customers and an initial contract at or above target pricing, a launched product with clear positioning and commercial readiness, and measurable customer value.

Requirements

8+ years of product management experience, including 3+ years owning a product portfolio or leading cross-functional product initiatives across strategy, discovery, requirements, delivery, launch, and post-launch performance for complex data, analytics, SaaS, or workflow products.
Deep experience in automotive finance and understanding of lender, captive, servicer, issuer, or investor decisions and workflows, including how recovery, loss severity, and residual values affect credit loss and lease economics.
Working fluency in asset-backed lending, structured finance, or securitization, including collateral performance, risk monitoring, and the information needs of lenders, issuers, servicers, and investors.
Track record of turning data, analytics, or complex domain expertise into products customers buy and use.
Experience leading 0-to-1 product discovery and validation, including customer interviews, prototypes, business cases, willingness-to-pay conversations, and design-partner development.
Ability to work hands-on while influencing Data Science, Engineering, Operations, Sales, and executive stakeholders.
Experience using customer feedback, product usage, and commercial results to make product decisions.
Ability to partner effectively with Data Science and Product Engineering, with understanding of predictive models, APIs, analytics workflows, data quality, and product instrumentation.
Excellent written and verbal communication, including explaining complex automotive and financial concepts to technical and commercial audiences.
Demonstrated hands-on experience using AI tools such as Claude Code, Lovable, or comparable tools to rapidly prototype product workflows, learn from customer feedback, and iterate toward validated requirements.
Willingness and ability to travel, including occasional travel to Canada.

Nice To Haves

Direct experience applying or commercializing vehicle residual values, automotive valuation, lease or loan portfolio analytics, collateral surveillance, or remarketing intelligence.
Experience commercializing API, SaaS, data, or analytics products for enterprise customers.
Experience with pricing and packaging for data or workflow products.
Existing relationships with automotive lenders, captives, servicers, ABS issuers, investors, or related industry participants.

Responsibilities

Own the Auto Finance & Risk Intelligence product strategy, roadmap, and portfolio prioritization across new opportunities and the broader portfolio.
Lead customer and market discovery with automotive finance participants, including lenders, captives, securitization issuers, institutional investors, and banks.
Identify and validate opportunities in automotive finance risk, portfolio analytics, collateral intelligence, valuation decision support, and scenario analysis.
Develop product theses and business cases linking customer value, data feasibility, commercial potential, competitive differentiation, and delivery investment.
Translate customer needs and Jobs to Be Done into product outcomes, workflows, prototypes, and requirements.
Lead an AI-first discovery process that builds prototypes from customer conversations, tests them with customers, and iterates toward validated requirements.
Partner with Product Engineering, Data Science, Residuals, Automotive Valuations, and Data Operations to validate feasibility, align requirements, and maintain connection to customer needs.
Secure early customer validation, including anchor customers willing to pay, before significant product investment.
Own launch decisions, launch readiness, sales enablement, and the feedback loop from early adoption into the roadmap.
Partner with the SVP Product & Technology on packaging and pricing, taking increasing ownership as the product and commercial model mature.
Define and monitor product performance, including adoption, usage, retention, expansion, revenue contribution, and evidence of customer value.
Coach and develop one Product Owner and establish clear product practices across the portfolio.