Title: Senior Product Associate
Industry: Financial Services / Banking
Location: Columbus, OH (Onsite – 5 days/week)
Duration: 1-year contract (potential to extend)
Pay rate: $38/hr
We are seeking a Senior Product Associate to support assisted credit card account opening experiences within a large financial services organization. This role is aligned to in-branch, banker-assisted customer applications and plays a critical role in both discovery and delivery across complex, multi-system product flows.
This is a highly hands-on product role with significant ownership of backlog management, story refinement, and end-to-end testing due to the absence of a dedicated QA function. The ideal candidate brings strong product fundamentals, deep testing experience, and the ability to operate confidently within fast-paced Agile environments.
Role scope and product ownership:
• Area Product Owner aligned to assisted credit card account opening
• Focus on in-branch, banker-assisted customer application flows
• Supports both discovery and development phases of the product lifecycle
• Maintains a structured, forward-looking product roadmap
• Ensures a healthy backlog with approximately three sprints of ready work
• Partners with an offshore scrum team in India for development execution
Core responsibilities:
• Own story refinement and backlog management in Jira
• Partner closely with product owners and cross-functional stakeholders
• Define and support clear acceptance criteria
• Lead testing activities in the absence of a dedicated QA team, including:
• Coordinate dependencies across multiple platforms and teams
• Support sprint planning, execution, and delivery within two-week sprint cycles
• Communicate progress, risks, and dependencies clearly across stakeholders
Testing and platform complexity:
• Banker entry point begins in Salesforce
• Multiple downstream system touchpoints including:
– Customer profile systems
– Digital profile creation platforms
– Pre-approved offer and eligibility systems
• Key challenges include ensuring data consistency across systems, validating profile creation, and managing complex platform dependencies
Required skills and qualifications:
• Product management experience (core requirement)
• Strong hands-on testing and QA experience (critical for success)
• Deep understanding of Agile delivery and Jira workflows
• Ability to operate effectively in fast-paced, iterative sprint environments
• High attention to detail and structured, analytical thinking
• Proven experience managing timelines, dependencies, and execution risk
Preferred and nice-to-have experience:
• Financial services or credit card product experience
• Familiarity with AI tools for epic creation, story writing, and requirements validation
• Exposure to Playwright or modern automated testing frameworks
• Business banking or business card knowledge
Work cadence and team environment:
• Two-week sprint cadence
• Larger initiatives typically span three to four sprints
• Small core team with broader collaboration across multiple locations and offshore partners
• Onsite role based in Columbus, OH, five days per week