Manager, Technology Product Manager (Mainframe Middleware)

Nationwide • Columbus, OH

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

If you’re passionate about being part of a dynamic organization that enables a Fortune 100 company with nearly $70 billion in annual sales to drive innovation and adopt new technologies that deliver business results, then Nationwide’s Technology team could be the place for you! At Nationwide®, “on your side” goes beyond just words. Our customers are at the center of everything we do and we’re looking for associates who are passionate about delivering extraordinary care. This role will work a hybrid schedule coming into the Columbus, Ohio or Des Moines, Iowa office 2 days per week on Mondays & Wednesdays. The Technology Product Manager, Mainframe Middleware, is responsible for the overall leadership, stability, and strategic direction of the organization’s critical middleware systems and a wide range of independent software vendor applications and tools. This role manages daily operations, lifecycle management, modernization efforts, and ensures high availability, and compliance for critical Mainframe business applications. If you’re enthusiastic about delivering secure technology solutions to support a company providing extraordinary care to its customers, then Nationwide Technology is the place for you. Nationwide's industry-leading technology workforce embraces an agile work environment and a collaborative culture to deliver outstanding solutions and results. As a Technology Product Manager, you will lead infrastructure engineers involved in the analysis, design, development and implementation of hardware/software. This includes identifying hardware/software systems requirements, hardware/software design, project planning, prioritizing and monitoring progress. Resource allocation and monitoring project status and efficiency are key to success. You also may have opportunities to coordinate with other managers to integrate project with other systems hardware/software.

Requirements

• Undergraduate studies in computer science, management information systems or a related field is strongly preferred.
• Eight years knowledge of project management concepts and techniques.
• Experience leading multiple teams and assets across various technology platforms.
• Three years of management experience is preferred.
• Experience with concepts and solutions: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and package solutions.
• Demonstrated knowledge of project management concepts and techniques.
• Extensive knowledge of budgeting and financial analysis concepts and techniques.
• Ability to develop, implement and present application development strategies.
• Ability to lead a staff.
• Strong analytical and decision-making skills, interpersonal savvy, sound verbal and written communication and negotiation skills, and well-developed leadership ability.
• Ability to perform financial and risk analysis.

Nice To Haves

• Technology certifications or designation are not required, but encouraged (i.e.: AWS, Azure, scripting and development languages, delivery methods, security).

Responsibilities

• Provide day-to-day management and oversight of the Mainframe middleware environments, ensuring platform stability, performance, and availability aligned with business SLAs.
• Manage, coach, and develop a team of Mainframe Middleware engineers. Establish performance goals, conduct regular performance reviews, and support career development and succession planning. Ensure appropriate on-call coverage and resource allocation to support 24x7 operations.
• Define and execute the middleware roadmap, including version upgrades, tooling enhancements, and integration with enterprise modernization initiatives. Collaborate with application development, infrastructure, and architecture teams to enable modernization patterns such as API enablement, service integration, and hybrid connectivity. Evaluate new technologies, vendor offerings, and best practices to optimize the Mainframe middleware ecosystem.
• Partner with cybersecurity and risk teams to remediate vulnerabilities and ensure secure middleware operations.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for business and IT stakeholders regarding middleware capabilities and issues. Communicate platform health, risks, and roadmap updates to leadership. Coordinate with procurement, finance, and vendors (e.g., IBM) for support, licensing, budgeting, and strategic alignment.
• Manages a staff that is responsible for driving a competitive unit cost through efficient product lifecycle, capacity management, expense management and increasing value of the product.
• Responsible for applying secure software and systems engineering practices throughout the delivery lifecycle to ensure our data and technology solutions are protected from threats and vulnerabilities.
• Develops and maintains team knowledge and understanding of business domains, industry trends and product(s).
• Links ideation, new product development and introduction to business outcomes.
• Develops the team accountable for the first line of defense for product risk and security management.
• Assigns and allocates roles, in partnership with the Technology Product Executive, based on capacity and demand (finance, vendor relationship, marketing, etc.).
• Leads all activities associated with defining, managing and sustaining operational metrics.
• Leads a staff that is accountable for product management across platforms (on-premise and off-premise and across premise) and product lifecycle at product level including product strategy and roadmap.
• Responsible for delivery availability and resiliency following established operating mechanisms and best practices.
• Exhibits user empathy by partnering with User Advocates to understand and incorporate user sentiment.
• Is responsible for the vendor management/relationships and sourcing.
• Performs release cadence and business feature alignment using automation to drive speed.
• Leads associates through guidance and support on the execution of work; responsible for the management of associates including but not limited to performance management, salary planning, training, development, workforce planning, hiring and disciplinary actions; and attracts, hires, engages and develops the team through impactful recruitment, coaching and feedback.
• Develops and manages project budgets and deployment including the training and development of personnel.
• May perform other responsibilities as assigned.

Benefits

• medical/dental/vision
• life insurance
• short and long term disability coverage
• paid time off with newly hired associates receiving a minimum of 18 days paid time off each full calendar year pro-rated quarterly based on hire date
• nine paid holidays
• 8 hours of Lifetime paid time off
• 8 hours of Unity Day paid time off
• 401(k) with company match
• company-paid pension plan
• business casual attire

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: Associate degree