Product Manager II

Cox Enterprises • Austin, TX

1d • $98,300 - $147,500 • Hybrid

About The Position

Cox Automotive's Enterprise Inventory Services (EIS) team builds and operates the Common Vehicle Inventory (CVI) platform, the capability that powers vehicle inventory across Cox Automotive's retail products. CVI connects inventory data between dealer solutions, consumer-facing sites and operational tools used by internal teams. We are hiring a Product Manager II to own discovery and delivery of inventory capabilities within a defined product area. You will work alongside senior product leaders while building your skills in problem discovery, spec writing, stakeholder engagement, and delivery. This is a growth role: you will be expected to develop toward independent ownership of broader product areas over time. The right candidate is execution-oriented, curious, and coachable. You ask thoughtful questions, build domain knowledge quickly, and take initiative to move work forward. You are learning the product management craft and are intentional about that learning.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree and 4 years' experience in a related field. The right candidate could also have a different combination, such as a master's degree and 2 years' experience; a Ph.D. and up to 1 year of experience; or 8 years' experience in a related field
• 2+ years of experience in software product management or product ownership
• Experience writing user stories, acceptance criteria, or product specs
• Experience working with engineering teams on software delivery
• Critical thinking skills to solve problems and ask the right questions
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Familiarity with AI tools and willingness to integrate them into daily workflows
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to develop relationships with team members and customers
• Applicants must currently be authorized to work in the United States for any employer without current or future sponsorship. No OPT, CPT, STEM/OPT or visa sponsorship now or in future.

Nice To Haves

• Execution Discipline. You complete what you commit to, on time and at the expected quality. You manage your own workload, keep your artifacts current, and do not require repeated prompting to deliver routine work. When you say you will do something, it gets done.
• Customer Curiosity. You are genuinely interested in understanding the people who use the products you build. You seek out conversations with users and stakeholders, not just to check a box but because it makes your product decisions better. You can describe what you learned from your most recent customer interaction and how it informed your work.
• Analytical Thinking. You use data to inform your recommendations, even when the data is imperfect. You can analyze usage patterns, identify trends, and frame findings for stakeholders. You distinguish between what the data shows and what you are inferring.
• Learning Orientation. You build domain knowledge actively: reading documentation, shadowing team members, asking questions, exploring the product. You use AI tools to accelerate your onboarding, whether that means synthesizing large volumes of documentation, analyzing data, or rapidly building context in unfamiliar areas. You do not wait for training to be delivered to you. You apply feedback quickly and visibly. You are honest about what you do not know and take steps to close the gap.
• AI Adoption. You use AI tools in your daily work and are building fluency. You experiment with AI for research, analysis, writing, and prototyping. You share what you learn with teammates and are curious about what is possible.
• Communication Clarity. You write clearly and speak up in meetings. You share your perspective even when it is still forming. You keep stakeholders informed of progress, blockers, and decisions without being asked. You are developing the ability to tailor your message to different audiences.
• Strategic Intentionality. You plan before acting. When a request comes in, you evaluate options before committing. You ask clarifying questions and consider tradeoffs rather than defaulting to "yes." You are developing the habit of starting with the end in mind.

Responsibilities

• Own Product Discovery for Your Area. You own discovery for a defined product space. That means conducting customer interviews, analyzing usage data, mapping workflows, and synthesizing findings into a clear problem statement and recommended direction. You engage directly with internal customers and stakeholders to validate problems before proposing solutions. As you build confidence and domain knowledge, the scope of what you own expands.
• Write Specs and Define Requirements. You write product specs in the team's Spec-Driven Development (SDD) format, defining the who, why, and what for features assigned to you. Your specs should be clear enough for a human or machine to evaluate feasibility and execute against. You ensure acceptance criteria are complete and testable. You iterate on specs based on feedback from your PM lead, architecture, and engineering partners.
• Manage Your Backlog. You maintain your assigned work in Rally. Status is current. Stale items are dispositioned. You track progress against milestones and surface blockers early. You are learning to judge how far ahead to plan: enough runway to maintain momentum without overcommitting to solutions that may shift in an AI-driven development environment.
• Engage with Customers and Stakeholders. You build relationships with operations teams, support staff, and leaders who use or depend on CVI capabilities. You also engage directly with dealers and integration partners to understand how inventory works in the field, and you are building the habit of seeking out that external and diverse perspective. You schedule and conduct regular touchpoints, log insights, and connect what you hear to product decisions. You do not wait for introductions; you reach out proactively.
• Collaborate Across Functions. You work daily with engineering, architecture, UX, business leadership, and solution delivery partners. You participate in team checkpoints, contribute to planning discussions, and ensure your teams understand the context behind the work. You ask questions when you do not understand and bring your perspective when you do.
• Go-to-Market. You drive the rollout for capabilities you deliver, partnering with Product Readiness to build the plan with implementation partners and operations. You create training materials and stakeholder communications, and you track adoption metrics against the success criteria for your area. You treat internal customers with the same rigor as external ones.

Benefits

• The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company’s needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members. Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave.
• health care insurance (medical, dental, vision)
• retirement planning (401(k))
• paid days off (sick leave, parental leave, flexible vacation/wellness days, and/or PTO).

What This Job Offers

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