Senior Product Owner - Org Portal

About Us

Merit’s verified identity ecosystem helps trusted organizations across government and enterprise solve critical real-world problems in workforce development, emergency services, licensing, education, defense readiness, and other sectors. Thousands of trusted organizations - including government agencies and nonprofits - use Merit for digital verification of credentials, licenses, training, and skills.

Using Merit, organizations can capture and certify people data in containers called merits (Watch this video to learn more: What is Merit?), and grant them to individuals. All of an individual’s merits are stored in one place, providing people agency over their verified data, giving people secure access, and selective sharing with other organizations.

By connecting organizations and individuals, the Merit Platform supports a robust verified identity network that serves as a source of truth and trust for entire industries; bringing visibility, liquidity, and trust to people’s data.

Florida Division of Emergency Management

The Florida Division of Emergency Management partnered with Merit to provide a fast, secure, paperless solution for the verification and time-tracking of thousands of volunteers and paid medical professionals assisting with the statewide COVID-19 vaccination efforts. As a result of our work together, FDEM was named a StateScoop 50 Award winner for the State IT Innovation of the Year.

Ohio Department of Education - Afterschool Child Enrichment (ACE) Program

After the Ohio State Legislature created the $125M 2-year Afterschool Child Enrichment (ACE) educational savings account program, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) contracted Merit to inform parents, guardians, and businesses about the new opportunity and eligibility requirements. Merit developed and delivered support systems, workflows, and digital assets for the ACE program. ODE issued digital credentials to parents and guardians certifying student eligibility, enabling them to use the grants with service providers listed in the Education Marketplace, and the Ohio ACE app is a single destination to view account balances and submit claims.

Virginia's Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR)

DPOR partnered with Merit to streamline licensing and digital credentialing for the more than 300,000 Virginia’s Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR) partnered with Merit to streamline licensing and digital credentialing for the more than 300,000 professionals across more than 40 industries that are required to have a license to work. With Merit, those licenses are now digital, accessible, and easily verifiable by consumers and businesses.

Our Values

Merit’s values are more than just words on paper – they permeate the company’s brand, culture, products, and even individual actions. Our values are:

Everyone is a friend. We see opportunities everywhere because Merit has endless ways to grow the already vast and self-propagating Verified Identity graph.

Building a network of truth and trust. Merit is modeling the real world of Verified Identity into a digital one, built on merits. Society values truth and merits represent the truth.

A rising tide lifts all boats. We think about entire industries and how to make the most impact on people’s lives. When we succeed, our employees, partners, and everyone on Merit should succeed.

Measure to meaningfully improve. Work is measured by output, not vanity metrics, and the things we do measure have goals.

Use Merit to build Merit. The strength of the Merit network, platform, and company compounds with the addition of every partner, consumer, and employee.

Benefits at Merit

Remote first with flexible working hours Unlimited time-off with encouraged minimums 

Medical plans designed to provide comprehensive, high-quality medical and prescription drug coverage with low to no deductible

Dental and Vision coverage 

Employee Assistance Program with 24/7 support Income protection through basic life insurance, voluntary additional life insurance, and disability insurance

401k Program

Fully paid parental leave for 6 months for both Moms and Dads

Additional support resources like Rightway care concierge, One Medical, Sibly, and SoFi to support employees in getting the most from their benefits from financial to mental health support

A dedicated People Operations team always looking for feedback and new opportunities to provide benefits that meet the needs of our employees

The Role

Merit is a startup environment where you will be expected to roll up your sleeves, take initiative, and get creative about finding solutions to challenges. This is a full-time, 100% remote role with travel required once per quarter.

Merit is looking for an exceptional Product Manager to take ownership of our core admin web portal and consumer mobile app. Merit is building a secure, global social network of “verified identity” and is powered by our graph platform, an Organization web portal, suite of consumer-facing mobile apps, and 3rd party applications. Our organization portal is a strategic asset for the company. In this role, you will define the overall vision & product strategy, and drive the roadmap of the org portal, and the consumer facing mobile app. For this role, you will need to have a proven track record of successfully owning the vision and roadmap of web portals at SaaS product companies in their entirety, not just key features, and a mind built for creative problem solving. We’re looking for a mini-CEO to own this product.

This is an Individual Contributor role. As a Senior Product Owner, you will report directly to the CTO.

Responsibilities

• Own the product strategy and vision of Merit’s organization portal and consumer-facing mobile app, and translate the vision into an actionable roadmap
• Work with Go-to-Market, Customer Success and Marketing teams to evangelize and refine the roadmap
• Work closely with UX designers to turn complex, multi-step user journeys into simple, intuitive, self-serve flows
• Produce product requirement documents and specs alongside acceptance criteria
• Work with engineering teams that operate in an Agile environment to turn PRDs into development tickets, and iteratively release features every week
• Work with Test/QA team to validate test plans against acceptance criteria
• Be a strong advocate of security and ensure all features adhere to Merit’s strict data privacy safeguards
• Work with our Compliance team to ensure the platform adheres to all the industry compliance standards Merit is committed to
• Define non-functional requirements and KPIs
• Leverage internal & external user feedback and competitive analysis to understand user needs and improve product plans
• Maneuver comfortably against both the long-term product vision and current priorities
• Deeply understand our customer types and be the voice of the customers

Your Skills & Experiences

• Collaboration first approach. Collaborates effectively as a strong team player, managing input from and working cohesively with multiple stakeholders to foster alignment, identify, and deliver the most effective and impactful solutions for the collective
• Strong problem-solving skills. Demonstrates strong problem-solving skills by quickly identifying issues, assessing the accuracy and relevance of information, using sound judgment to generate and evaluate potential resolutions, and making thoughtful recommendations
• Excellent communication skills. Expresses information to both individuals and groups efficiently and effectively using multiple communication pathways. Able to take into account the audience and nature of the information (technical, sensitive, controversial) and adjust communication accordingly. Strong ability and willingness to practice active listening and to calmly de-escalate frustration
• An eye for detail. Exhibits a drive to approach all work in a thorough and conscientious manner, making a point to understand the scope and key success metrics with the goal of providing high-quality work outputs that help to advance business objectives
• An advocate and support system for others. Exemplifies a welcoming, supportive, and professional presence with a strong ability to assess individual needs, provide information or assistance to resolve issues or satisfy expectations, calmly and firmly set issues back on track, and show a strong commitment to providing excellent support
• Prioritizes success metrics. Engages in data collection and analysis, and stays up-to-date on industry trends to increase knowledge, establish strategies, and ensure that decisions are aligned with best practices and delivering business value 
• Adapts to shifting priorities. Can navigate ambiguity, effectively set clear plans, reprioritize tasks to align with strategic goals, and ensure on-time completion of multiple critical activities 
• Committed to core values. Understands and promotes Merit’s mission, vision, and values, and creates a clear line of sight to contribute to the organization’s goals and strategies

Requirements

• Must have 5-7 years experience as a product owner responsible for the strategy and roadmap of multi-tenant, secure, high-volume, SaaS web portals at B2B product companies
• Must have a strong product mindset with focus on repeatability, scale, security and agility
• Experience operating in environments that deal with sensitive PII data and compliance frameworks such as SOC2, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, etc
• Strong proficiency with launching new products and features to markets, while working closely with design, engineering, marketing, business development, and customer support teams
• Experience in managing consumer facing mobile apps is a huge plus
• Able to participate in an on-call role when needed
• While the role 100% remote, you are expected to travel once a quarter for offsites, project kickoffs and customer meetings

At Merit, we don’t just accept differences, we celebrate, support, and value them for the innate benefit of our employees, the competitive advantage of our products, and the strength of the communities we are a part of. Merit is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or veteran status. We encourage applications from veterans and military spouses.

Merit is dedicated to providing an accessible environment for all candidates during the application process and for our employees. If you need accessibility assistance or a reasonable accommodation, you may contact us at [email protected].