Job Title: Director of Product & Customer Experience
Reports to: Chief Strategy Officer
Managerial Classification: Management
Location: Remote/Hybrid
We are a different kind of bank. Focusing on underserved communities and people, Southern Bancorp combines traditional bank products and services with financial development tools and public policy advocacy to help people 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.
The Director of Product and Customer Experience reimagines and redesigns 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 builds a product and customer experience practice for the organization. This role is 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 is 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 aims 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.
Education/Experience/Skills
- 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 the voice of the 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 help 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.
What Southern Bancorp offers employees:
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
Accepting applications from the following states: AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, NC, SC, MS, MO, TN and TX,
Southern Bancorp is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, status as a protected veteran, among other things, or status as a qualified individual with disability. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
As a Community Development Financial Institution, Southern Bancorp desires its workforce to reflect the diversity of the customers and communities that we serve. Racial and ethnic minorities, people from working class backgrounds, women and LGBTQ people are often underrepresented in many financial service industry professions. Therefore, we strongly encourage applications from people with these identities or who are members of other marginalized communities.