Senior Product Manager, Horizon

Nelnet•Remote - California, CA

6d•$100,000 - $150,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Nelnet Business Services (NBS), a division of Nelnet, Inc., provides payment technology, education services, and learning management solutions to education and faith-based organizations. Nelnet Campus Commerce (NCC) is launching a new, category-defining payment and financial wellness platform. The Senior Product Manager for Horizon will drive the strategy, roadmap, and execution for this critical new initiative serving NCC’s colleges and students nationwide. This role partners closely with engineering, design, client success, and higher education institutions to translate evolving market needs into next-generation, AI-enabled payment experiences. The position is pivotal to advancing our company's competitive position in the higher education payments space and will have high visibility among company leadership.

Requirements

3+ years of product management experience, including experience managing complex platform or SaaS products.
Experience delivering AI-enabled software to market.
Proven track record of shipping products in agile environments while partnering directly with engineering teams.
Experience defining and using product metrics to drive prioritization and measure success.
High agency: Taking ownership of outcomes beyond the formal scope of the role, removing blockers proactively, and driving decisions forward rather than waiting for direction. You default to action and accountability in ambiguous situations.
Design taste: Bringing a discerning eye for product quality, user experience, and craft. Pushing for elegant, intuitive solutions over feature accumulation and partnering effectively with design to elevate the standard of every release.
Strong strategic thinking: Connecting product decisions to long-term business outcomes and anticipating market shifts in higher education and payments.
Influence without authority: Building alignment across engineering, design, executive, and client-facing teams to move complex initiatives forward.
Customer obsession: Demonstrating rigorous discovery practices and translating client feedback into clearly framed problems and solutions.
Data fluency: Using quantitative analysis and qualitative research with equal confidence to make prioritization decisions and defend trade-offs.
Agility in ambiguity: Operating effectively in evolving conditions, making clear decisions with incomplete information while managing risk.
Candidates must already be authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future sponsorship.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree in a related discipline.
Product management certifications
Experience in higher education technology, payments, fintech, or B2B2C platforms.
Familiarity with compliance, payment processing workflows, or ERP integrations (Workday, Banner, PeopleSoft, Colleague).
Demonstrated experience leading substantial modernization, replatforming, or migration initiatives with measurable business outcomes.

Responsibilities

Own the end-to-end product strategy and roadmap for a core workstream within Horizon, aligning stakeholders across engineering, design, operations, and executive leadership.
Translate insights from colleges, universities, students, and payers into prioritized product requirements that balance institutional needs with scalable platform architecture.
Lead discovery efforts including client interviews, advisory councils, and student feedback loops to validate problems and pressure-test proposed solutions before build.
Lead the charge to define strategic and novel applications of AI in our product.
Define and track success metrics (adoption, retention, payment completion rates, NPS) and use data to inform trade-offs and continuously improve outcomes post-launch.
Partner with engineering leadership to break down complex modernization initiatives into incremental, shippable releases that minimize disruption to existing clients.
Collaborate with compliance, security, and risk teams to ensure all releases meet PCI Level 1 standards and applicable higher education regulatory requirements.
Drive go-to-market readiness in partnership with marketing, sales, implementation, and support teams, ensuring smooth client adoption and clear value communication.
Influence cross-functional roadmap decisions across integrated products (payment plans, cashiering, refunds, storefronts) to ensure a cohesive client and student experience.
Represent the voice of the client in executive forums, providing clear recommendations supported by qualitative research and quantitative analysis.