Product Director, Direct Mail

Vericast•San Antonio, TX

8h•$165,000 - $185,000

About The Position

Manages the entire life cycle of the Direct Mail channel product and capability — involving strategy, planning, and project leadership to achieve business goals. Owns the Direct Mail channel as both a standalone product sold to financial institution clients and as a channel component embedded within bundled solutions. Accountable for channel P&L and partners with solution Product Directors and Sales as the channel product owner. This role operates in an AI-enabled product environment. The successful candidate will be a practiced user of AI tools and will be expected to apply them actively from day one to accelerate capability definition, cost modeling, roadmap development, and operational planning.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree (Required)
8+ years prior leadership and management experience acquired within or outside of company required.
In-depth knowledge and extensive experience with direct mail operations, postal economics, print production, and channel-level P&L management.
Financial services advertising and product experience strongly preferred.
Knowledge of workflow and business relationships for all functional areas within company.
Demonstrated, hands-on use of AI tools as part of day-to-day product work required; candidates should be able to speak to specific tools used and outcomes achieved, not just familiarity with the concept.
Knowledge of Microsoft Office software required.
Analytical skills: Ability to read, analyze, and interpret common business and marketing information, financial reporting, postal cost data, and production economics.
Communication skills: Able to effectively write reports and correspondence, discuss ideas at all levels of the organization, and present information to others, inside or outside of the organization.
Financial skills: Ability to work with financial and profitability concepts and apply to practical situations including channel P&L ownership, cost-to-deliver modeling, and solution-embedded pricing.
Innovation skills: Ability to create and adapt channel capabilities based on business and marketplace change, using existing knowledge to discover original approaches that benefit the business, and to assess and implement ideas from others.
AI fluency: Actively uses AI tools to accelerate product work, including but not limited to capability documentation, cost modeling, vendor analysis, and roadmap planning. Comfort operating in fast-moving, AI-enabled workflows is required; this role is expected to move at AI speed.
Interpersonal skills - Able to empathize, influence, appreciate, and organize others.
Leadership skills: Ability to lead execution of capability projects and initiatives impacting various functional areas, and to effectively influence others to adopt a course of action on critical, complex, or sensitive information.
Problem solving skills: Able to solve complex capability and operational problems that have a broad impact within or outside the department. Proactively seeks input from others to determine course of action.
Strategic thinking skills: Ability to understand the business's long-term goals and align channel capability opportunities accordingly, with an in-depth understanding of the impact of decisions on overall organization.

Nice To Haves

Master's Degree (Preferred)
In lieu of the above education requirements, a combination of experience and education will be considered.

Responsibilities

Lead cross-functional capability development projects: Work as Project Lead on complex Direct Mail capability projects (new or run-the-business) that involve operations, technology and data partners, vendors, and cross-functional teams. Projects include defining format specifications, postal program requirements, production workflows, and capability integrations with solution Product Directors. Develop and execute project plans with clearly defined performance indicators. Report updates to stakeholders as needed. Cultivate strong relationships with cross-functional leadership internally and with print vendors and postal partners. Effectively influence others to adopt a course of action on critical, complex, or sensitive capability decisions.
Financial Review and Price Modeling: Conduct financial analyses to assess product viability. Develop business cases with pricing models to support strategic investment decisions, standalone Direct Mail product pricing, and channel-embedded pricing within bundled solutions. Collaborate with finance teams to track channel P&L, mitigate financial risks, and optimize postal and production cost strategies. Monitor Direct Mail revenue performance, analyze sales pipeline and cost trends, and leverage data-driven insights to refine monetization models and drive sustainable channel margin growth.
Set strategy: Collaborate with the Product VP and senior leaders to develop Direct Mail capability strategies aligned with financial goals. Support the conceptualization and execution of strategic channel initiatives including new format development, postal program expansion, vendor program development, and partner programs. Provide thought leadership by anticipating industry trends and client needs, incorporating insights from Sales, clients, and other key stakeholders to drive channel innovation.
Deliver capabilities to market: For capability launches, enhancements, or new postal programs, lead support functions through the entire go-to-market process ensuring: operational documentation and alignment, pricing strategy, marketing collateral and channel positioning, sales enablement materials, financial model, production specifications, and Sales training. Serve as an ambassador for the Direct Mail capability to internal and external audiences.
Evaluate ideas: Evaluate channel product ideas and enhancement opportunities within established processes to ensure development of differentiated solutions that meet customer demand and align with business feasibility. Assess new opportunities including format innovations, postal program changes, and vendor capabilities through a strategic lens while ensuring compliance with financial regulations, industry standards, and data security requirements. Partner with legal, compliance, and risk management teams to navigate complex regulatory landscapes, mitigating risks while fostering responsible financial product innovation. Advocate for a balanced approach to growth, prioritizing security, consumer protection, and long-term sustainability.
Create and communicate roadmaps: Support the quarterly channel capability roadmap planning processes to define capability enhancements and projects to be completed each quarter, working within capacity constraints.
Prioritize capability features: Maintain or improve channel capability efficacy, production process efficiency, and new capability features by consulting with and providing input to operational and vendor partners.