Director, Product Management

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary product interface between Payward's affiliated entities and NinjaTrader's brokerage, translating product ambitions into well-scoped, regulatorily sound, and technically executable plans.
• Own a multi-quarter brokerage product roadmap focused on enabling affiliated-entity initiatives while balancing new capability development with system modernization and operational resilience.
• Lead products from ambiguous, early-stage concepts to launched, compliant capabilities, often operating ahead of settled regulatory guidance and industry precedent.
• Make clear, data-informed tradeoff decisions and align stakeholders across two organizations.
• Serve as the go-to authority on the US futures regulated space, including FCM operations, the FCM–DCO–DCM relationship, clearing, settlement, margin, and client reporting, and understand how each constrains or enables new products.
• Partner with Compliance and Legal to navigate product classification, structural, and regulatory questions where guidance is still evolving, translating those outcomes into product direction.
• Maintain deep, current expertise as the regulatory and market structure landscape evolves.
• Develop a deep understanding of NinjaTrader's brokerage technology, including APIs, platform capabilities, and infrastructure, to identify opportunities, required investments, and realistic implementation paths.
• Collaborate with Technology throughout the full product lifecycle, including sprint planning, backlog grooming, stand-ups, reviews, and retrospectives.
• Lead, mentor, and develop a cross-functional team focused on brokerage enablement.
• Represent affiliated-entity product priorities in cross-functional leadership discussions with the CTO, CPO, and senior stakeholders.
• Build a culture of accountability, partner obsession, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Deep, demonstrated expertise in the US futures regulated space, including FCM systems and operations, clearing, settlement, margin, trade processing, and client reporting.
• Proven ability to take products from 0 to 1 within a regulated financial services environment, including operating where regulatory and structural precedent is still evolving.
• Technical fluency to reason about APIs, platform capabilities, and integration work, and to credibly define interfaces and capabilities with engineering teams.
• Strong track record of owning complex, multi-system product roadmaps with cross-functional stakeholders across Technology, Compliance, and Legal.
• Excellent communication and influence skills across all levels, from individual contributors to executives and partner organizations.
• Experience managing vendors that support financial or trading infrastructure.
• Strong strategic and analytical skills, with the ability to use data to prioritize work, measure impact, and make tradeoff decisions.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in a technical, business, or finance-related field, or equivalent professional experience.

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience with DCM and DCO operations.
• Experience with Prime Brokerage, Futures, Market Maker Financing, or retail brokerage products.
• Experience building partner-facing or platform/API products.

Compensation

• Salary range: $220,000 - $270,000 USD.
• Annual target bonus of 15% (based 50% on individual performance and 50% on company/team performance).
• 401K plan with up to 3.5% company match.
• PTO accrues at 23 days per year plus 7 paid holidays.