Lead Product Owner - Finance Data and AI

Company

Cox Automotive - USA

Engineering / Product Development

Lead Product Owner

Manager - Non People LeaderHybrid - Ability to work remotely part of the week

Yes, 5% of the time

Day

Compensation

Compensation includes a base salary of $111,500.00 - $185,900.00. The base salary may vary within the anticipated base pay range based on factors such as the ultimate location of the position and the selected candidate’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. Position may be eligible for additional compensation that may include an incentive program.

What You'll Do

Product Ownership

• Maintain the roadmap for financial data products and AI solutions serving internal finance stakeholders

• Partner with Product Owners for A/R and Billing to ensure aligned roadmaps

• Identify high-impact opportunities where AI and automation can eliminate manual work, improve accuracy, and accelerate financial processes

• Balance competing priorities across multiple finance functions while maintaining a cohesive product roadmap

• Partner with finance leadership to understand evolving business needs and translate them into actionable product requirements

Stakeholder Partnership & Discovery

• Build deep relationships with Finance, Accounting, AP, and FP&A teams to understand their workflows, pain points, and opportunities

• Facilitate workshops and discovery sessions to uncover unarticulated needs and validate solution approaches

• Translate financial domain expertise into clear requirements that engineering teams can execute against

• Serve as the voice of internal customers throughout the product development lifecycle

AI Solution Development

• Define use cases for AI/ML applications in financial processes such as invoice processing, expense categorization, anomaly detection, forecasting, and financial analysis

• Work with data science and engineering teams to scope, prioritize, and deliver AI-powered features that drive measurable business value

• Ensure AI solutions are explainable, auditable, and meet financial compliance requirements

• Monitor model performance and iterate based on user feedback and business outcomes

Product Execution & Delivery

• Maintain and prioritize product backlogs across multiple workstreams, ensuring clear acceptance criteria and definition of done

• Lead agile ceremonies including sprint planning, backlog refinement, and stakeholder demos

• Make data-driven decisions about feature tradeoffs, technical debt, and release timing

• Define and track KPIs that demonstrate product value and ROI to finance stakeholders

What You Bring

Required Experience

• Bachelor’s degree and 6 years’ experience in a related field. The right candidate could also have a different combination, such as a master’s degree and 4 years’ experience; a Ph.D. and 1 year of experience; or 18 years’ experience in a related field

• 7+ years in product management or product ownership, with at least 3 years focused on financial systems, data products, or AI/ML solutions

• Deep understanding of finance and accounting processes including general ledger, accounts payable/receivable, billing, financial close, forecasting, and financial reporting

• Proven track record of delivering complex B2B or internal enterprise products from concept to adoption

• Experience working with cross-functional teams including engineering, data science, design, and business stakeholders

• Strong technical acumen with ability to discuss data architectures, APIs, ML models, and integration patterns

Preferred Qualifications

• Background in finance, accounting, or FP&A (CPA, CMA, or MBA a plus)

• Hands-on experience implementing AI/ML solutions in financial operations

• Familiarity with modern financial systems (ERP, billing platforms, financial data warehouses)

• Experience with data governance, financial controls, and SOX compliance requirements

• Knowledge of generative AI applications for financial analysis and reporting

Skills & Attributes

• Exceptional ability to translate between technical and business languages

• Data-driven mindset with strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities

• Collaborative leadership style that builds trust across diverse stakeholder groups

• Comfortable with ambiguity and able to drive clarity in complex problem spaces

• Bias toward action and continuous improvement

• Strong communication skills with ability to influence without authority

Success in This Role Looks Like

• Finance teams save hundreds of hours monthly through intelligent automation

• AI-powered solutions drive measurable improvements in forecast accuracy, processing speed, or error reduction

• Strong adoption rates and user satisfaction across finance stakeholder groups

• Seamless product delivery with predictable roadmap execution

• Finance leadership views the product team as a strategic partner, not just a service provider

Why This Role Matters

Financial operations are the backbone of our business, yet too often rely on manual, repetitive processes that are error-prone and limit our ability to scale. By combining deep financial domain expertise with modern AI capabilities, you'll create solutions that allow our finance teams to focus on strategic analysis and decision-making rather than data entry and reconciliation. Your work will directly impact our ability to close faster, forecast more accurately, and make better business decisions.

To be employed in this role, you’ll need to clear a pre-employment drug test. Cox Automotive does not currently administer a pre-employment drug test for marijuana for this position. However, we are a drug-free workplace, so the possession, use or being under the influence of drugs illegal under federal or state law during work hours, on company property and/or in company vehicles is prohibited.

The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company’s needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members. Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave.Through groundbreaking technology and a commitment to stellar experiences for drivers and dealers alike, Cox Automotive employees are transforming the way the world buys, owns, sells – or simply uses – cars. Cox Automotive employees get to work on iconic consumer brands like Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book and industry-leading dealer-facing companies like vAuto and Manheim, all while enjoying the people-centered atmosphere that is central to our life at Cox. Benefits of working at Cox may include health care insurance (medical, dental, vision), retirement planning (401(k)), and paid days off (sick leave, parental leave, flexible vacation/wellness days, and/or PTO). For more details on what benefits you may be offered, visit our benefits page. Cox is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer – All qualified applicants/employees will receive consideration for employment without regard to that individual’s age, race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, physical or mental disability, veteran status, genetic information, ethnicity, citizenship, or any other c