Grants Management Product Lead

Job Title Principal Product Owner – Grants Management Platform Overview / Summary The Principal Product Owner will own the product strategy, roadmap, and backlog for a configurable grants management platform used by state government agencies and nonprofit organizations across the United States and Canada. This role requires deep functional expertise in grants administration across multiple funding programs and experience supporting both grantor and grantee processes.

The position involves close collaboration with engineering and architecture teams to enhance a mature product while maintaining configurability, scalability, and overall product value.

Key Responsibilities Own product vision, roadmap, and backlog for the grants management platform Gather, refine, and prioritize requirements from internal stakeholders, client agencies, nonprofit customers, implementation teams, and support teams Serve as the functional expert across the end-to-end grants lifecycle, including application intake, review, award, agreement setup, disbursement, monitoring, compliance, amendments, reporting, and closeout Define business requirements and user stories for multi-program grants use cases across domains such as health and human services, transportation, housing, and other public funding programs Lead product decisions for both grantor and grantee functions Partner with delivery, engineering, and architecture teams to ensure features are designed for configurability across multiple clients Support release planning, user acceptance, prioritization trade-offs, and rollout communications for new functionality and enhancements Balance market-wide product direction with client-specific needs across an installed customer base Use customer feedback, production insights, and implementation learnings to drive continuous product improvement Collaborate with sales, implementation, support, and executive stakeholders on roadmap communication and product positioning Participate in pre-sales activities including client discovery sessions, product demonstrations, RFP responses, and capability presentations Drive measurable pre-sales outcomes such as RFP win rates, demo-to-contract conversions, and sales cycle improvements Lead cross-functional alignment across product, engineering, sales, and client success teams through planning and backlog management Build strong relationships with internal teams, client executives, and technical stakeholders to drive alignment on priorities and trade-offs

Required Qualifications 8+ years of experience in product ownership, business analysis, program product management, or domain leadership in grants management or related enterprise platforms Demonstrated experience with grants management processes across multiple funding programs (e.g., health and human services, transportation, housing, workforce, education, or community development) Hands-on knowledge of both grantor and grantee workflows in government or nonprofit environments Experience working with configurable enterprise software products used by multiple clients or jurisdictions Strong ability to translate policy, operations, and customer needs into epics, features, user stories, acceptance criteria, and release priorities Ability to work effectively with technical architects, development teams, implementation teams, and executive stakeholders Excellent stakeholder management, facilitation, and communication skills Strong collaborative leadership skills with the ability to lead cross-functional teams, influence without authority, and mentor junior product staff Pre-sales experience including client discovery, product demonstrations, RFP responses, and aligning customer needs with product capabilities

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with state government human services, transportation, housing, or grants administration platforms in North America

Experience with SaaS or configurable COTS product management in regulated or public-sector environments Familiarity with reporting, audit, compliance, and fund tracking requirements in grants programs Experience supporting installed-client products with legacy complexity and phased…