Information Technology Spec 4 - Cloud & Infrastructure Services Product Manager

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities • Saint Paul, MN

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Product Manager acts as the liaison between the System Office IT and its campus stakeholders, transforming institutional needs into a prioritized service roadmap. This role owns the "service lifecycle"—from initial concept and stakeholder requirements gathering to communications and change management. By focusing on the "what" and "why" of IT delivery, the Product Manager ensures that technical resources are aligned with the highest-impact priorities, managing the project portfolio and external communications to deliver transparent, value-driven services to the colleges and universities.

Requirements

• Five (5) or more years of progressive experience in IT service management, product management, program management, business analysis, or a related role supporting enterprise technology services.
• A bachelor's degree may substitute for one (1) year of professional experience.
• Demonstrated experience working in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment, such as higher education, government, healthcare, or a large enterprise organization.
• Proven ability to translate business needs into clearly defined service requirements, roadmaps, and priorities.
• Experience planning, leading, and managing multiple concurrent initiatives across different technical teams while maintaining focus on outcomes, dependencies, and organizational capacity.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts in plain language to non-technical audiences, including facilitation of stakeholder meetings, service reviews, governance forums, and preparation for executive-level materials.
• Demonstrated capability in portfolio-level tracking and reporting, including milestone tracking and high-level status (e.g., Red/Yellow/Green).
• Working knowledge of enterprise services in at least two of the following areas: Collaboration and productivity platforms (e.g., Microsoft 365), Identity and access management (e.g., Okta and lifecycle/provisioning concepts), Infrastructure operations (servers, databases, data center operations).

Nice To Haves

• Experience working in higher education IT, particularly in a system-level or shared services environment.
• Familiarity with enterprise platforms such as: Microsoft 365 (e.g., Teams, SharePoint, Power Platform), Identity and Access Management (IAM), Cloud and hybrid infrastructure services.
• Experience supporting or coordinating services for multiple institutions, departments, or business units with differing priorities.
• Experience developing and maintaining multi-month or multi-year service roadmaps aligned to organizational strategy.
• Experience serving as a Product Manager, Service Owner, Project Manager, or Portfolio Manager for enterprise IT services.
• Demonstrated ability to balance demand against capacity, helping leadership make informed tradeoff decisions about scope, timing, and risk.
• Experience preparing executive-ready materials for directors, CIOs, or senior leadership.

Responsibilities

• Acts as the liaison between the System Office IT and its campus stakeholders.
• Transforms institutional needs into a prioritized service roadmap.
• Owns the "service lifecycle"—from initial concept and stakeholder requirements gathering to communications and change management.
• Ensures that technical resources are aligned with the highest-impact priorities.
• Manages the project portfolio and external communications to deliver transparent, value-driven services to the colleges and universities.
• Produce clear documentation such as: Service definitions and service catalog entries, User Stories of functional requirements, Stakeholder communication and briefing materials.

Benefits

• Low-cost medical and dental insurance with affordable deductibles
• Employer-paid life insurance
• Short- and long-term disability
• Pre-tax healthcare and dependent care accounts with a roll-over option
• Confidential Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for mental health, legal, and financial counseling
• 12 paid holidays
• Generous vacation and sick time
• Six weeks of Paid Parental Leave
• Pension Plan
• 457(b) and 403(b) retirement accounts
• Various investment options
• Dedicated professional development
• Tuition waivers for both you and your dependents

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior