Director of Product & Customer Experience

Background

Southern Bancorp is a different kind of bank. Focusing on underserved communities, Southern Bancorp combines traditional banking and lending services with financial development tools and public policy advocacy to help families and communities grow stronger. Our mission is to be wealth builders for everyone in the communities we serve, regardless of where they are on their personal financial journey.

Summary

The Director of Product and Customer Experience will reimagine and redesign Southern’s products, services and experiences across both consumer and business (retail, lending, treasury, and financial development services) to ensure Southern has the right offerings and market position to achieve its growth goals. This role will build a product and customer experience practice for the organization.  This role will be accountable for streamlining current consumer and business product and developing new products and services to best serve our target customers through the development of well-designed customer journeys, related processes and simple to use technology.  Performance will be measured based on product profitability as well as success at helping customers increase their homeownership, job creation and savings in the markets we serve and target.  Additionally, the role will aim to enhance self-service to ensure customers can have full access to products and services, regardless of access to physical branch.

Responsibilities

• Develops and creates a shared vision throughout the organization on the product and customer experience Southern wishes to achieve, including product strategies across Deposits, Lending and Financial Development Services for consumers and businesses
• Owns the design of financial products and services which enable our customers to improve their financial position, including features and experiences which make our products come to life, creating a distinct experience and advantage for Southern Bancorp in the marketplace
• Owns the overall product roadmap and provides executive stakeholders with visibility as to sequencing, timing, tradeoffs to achieve the vision
• Encourages a design culture in which customer feedback and user research are included throughout the course of product development
• Establishes KPIs to manage and demonstrate progress as business changes are implemented
• Executes financial discipline to ensure that product strategy aligns with budget
• Establishes clear expectations on financial and customer impacts associated with the changes to product offerings
• Develops the requirements, features, value proposition, and experiences for the product and service offerings
• Partners with Enterprise Integration to drive roadmap, prioritize work and deliver results, as well as to rationalize existing technology and vendors
• Stays abreast of emerging technologies and competitive offerings
• Oversees the documentation required to deliver products and services being delivered
• Works closely with Marketing and Communications to drive the acquisition pipeline and to ensure adoption of new products

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business Administration or related field and 7-10 years of service in product organizations
• Proven track record of successful product launches and growth
• Experience developing channels to hear customers, pain points, complaints, etc.; utilize both primary and secondary research to understand voice of customer
• Experience developing experiences that help customer seamlessly cross physical locations, contact centers and digital (online and mobile) ensuring low effort customer experiences
• Expert in Agile, design thinking and product management principles ensuring iterative delivery, customer focused design and outcome driven deliverables
• Strong understanding of market research and analysis
• Ability to relentlessly prioritize, saying ‘no’ often and ensuring alignment to organization and product vision
• Expert in how to leverage modern technology and select vendors in order to deliver the competitive experience desired
• Models excellent change agent behavior and helps others become change agents
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills
• Strong organizational and influencing skills, ability to engage stakeholders
• Strong project management skills and ability to manage multiple projects at once

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit, to talk, and to hear.  The employee must occasionally stand and walk, reach with hands and arms; stoop, kneel, or crouch.  Specific vision abilities required by this job include close and color vision.  The employe may be required to lift or move up to 10 pounds occasionally.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Compensation and Benefits

A positive impact on Your Future:

• 1% employee home loan
• 401(k)/Roth plan with immediate eligibility and employer match up to 6%
• Employee stock ownership plan
• Credit and housing counseling including free financial education tools

 Benefits to improve your health:

• No deductible medical insurance plan
• Dental and vision insurance
• Employer paid life and long-term disability insurance
• Flexible Spending Accounts

The opportunity to nurture your well-being:

• Paid holidays and paid time off
• Bonus plan
• Opportunity for merit raises
• Employee reward and recognition programs
• Community service opportunities

How to Apply

banksouthern.com/careers/