Head of Product

Onward Financial, Inc.

Head of Product

December 2019

Contact Details

Contact Name: Ronnie Washington, CEO

Physical Address: 80 M Street SE, Washington DC, 20003

Website: http://www.getonward.org

Job Details

Position title: Head of Product

Location: Washington, DC

Job Type: Full-time

Suggested start date: Immediately

What is Onward Financial?

Onward is a start-up Fintech social enterprise whose mission is to build a savings culture and emergency liquidity for the more than 79 million Americans who live with virtually no savings cushion at all. We are three months into our Pilot launch in Kansas City and are already getting great market receptivity as shown by new contracted clients and great customer feedback which is leading to a stream of referrals almost two dozen long. We are building a team that values the personal learning and scope of responsibility that an early stage company provides in exchange for the opportunity to be a partner in establishing the customer service standards and management processes needed to successfully scale and build on our strong start in the Kansas City market.

Summary of Role

Looking for an entrepreneurial, scrappy, self-starter with early-stage startup experience to help scale a financial technology business with early traction, build a team, and deliver the Onward product to assist millions of workers struggling with financial insecurity. A successful candidate will have the ability to identify problems both within their defined role and on the periphery while proactively and eagerly tackling those issues. The candidate should be ambitious with a strong work ethic with the ability to communicate constantly with team members. Core to the role is passion for the mission and the desire to put our users first.

This is an amazing opportunity to grow and learn, lead a product organization, and contribute to organizational strategy.

Company Background

In the U.S. nearly half of Americans don’t have just $400 in savings and more than 79 million American workers earn low wages, making it difficult to build a financial cushion. Without this, expenses like a car breakdown may mean a worker missing work, a day of pay, and the opportunity to cover their bills. That’s why we created Onward Financial, Inc., to provide every worker with the tools to build a financial cushion. What the 401K is for retirement savings, Onward is for emergency savings.

Founded in 2016, Onward Financial, Inc. is a non-profit that offers an employer-sponsored (paid-for by employers) mobile savings and credit app that primarily helps low to moderate income workers do the following:

1) deduct savings directly from their paycheck into a FDIC-insured emergency savings account,

2) engage with bite-sized and actionable financial tips, and

3) and access pre-qualified affordable credit in times of emergency

Incubated out of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, Onward has funding from Blackrock, JP Morgan, MetLife, Google.org, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and others and is set to scale. The founder, Ronnie Washington, has a personal connection to the problem and is looking for mission driven individuals with the passion and skill-set to help take Onward into its next phase of growth. Join us in creating a world where a $400 expense never again has the ability to destabilize a family by providing a financial cushion to every worker.

Specific Responsibilities

• Assist in building a team of qualified software developers and UI/UX professionals
• Help establish Onward’s product organization, working cadence, and product KPIs
• Manage and delegate tasks to technical team to efficiently meet product deadlines
• Oversee and participate in the collection of customer feedback to guide product strategy
• Internalize business goals and customer needs to create detailed product requirements for the development team
• Develop a long-term roadmap based on identified customer needs while addressing technical debt and efficiency requirements
• Oversee thorough quality testing to ensure product delivered to market is best-in-class
• Manage issue log and prioritize customer complaints, requirements from sales team, and business requirements for technical remediation

Specific Outcomes

• Produce product vision document including outline of existing infrastructure and future of savings, education, and lending products by April 2020
• Develop a 2 year product roadmap with associated requirement documentation by April 2020
• Hire two A Player FT developers and one UI/UX designer by May 2020

Qualifications

• Prior experience: 3+ years of Technical Product Management Experience (Financial Services or “FinTech” Experience a plus)
• Working Style: Visual communicator who loves human centered design, whiteboards, sticky notes, and prototyping
• Bonus: Technical Architecture experience

Compensation and Benefits

• Annual salary: commensurate with experience
• Benefits: Medical, Dental, and Eye insurance; 401K Retirement Account, parental leave

To apply

Send cover letter and resume via Indeed.

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis.

Job Type: Full-time

Benefits:

• Health insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Retirement plan
• Paid time off
• Flexible schedule
• Parental leave