Product Manager-NBS-SGO Disbursements at Nelnet

Job description

Nelnet Business Services (NBS), a division of Nelnet, Inc., provides payment technology and education services to more than 1,200 higher education institutions, nearly 12,000 K-12 schools, and millions of individual students, families, and supporters across the globe. Our culture of service enables us to form long-lasting and trusted partnerships, while our focus on creativity and innovative solutions empowers our customer communities to thrive. The SGO Product Management function leads the development, execution, and ongoing management of SGO Compass North Star product vision, strategy, and roadmap, including scholarship disbursements, fund management, payment processing, and financial transaction capabilities, in collaboration with business development, engineering, product marketing, and other cross-functional departments. This role ensures that products align with FACTS’ organizational strategy, meet market and stakeholder needs, deliver measurable student outcomes, enable timely and accurate distribution of scholarship funds, and achieve sustainable financial performance. This Product Manager, SGO Disbursements reports to the Managing Director, Product SGO with extensive collaboration and leadership on the SGO product strategy, Compass core solution ecosystem roadmap development, prioritization and execution, and leads the delivery of the Disbursement’s product module within the ecosystem. This role drives complex initiatives by translating market, client, and institutional needs into scalable platform solutions while influencing cross-functional alignment. The position owns the product experience from approved scholarship awards through payment authorization, disbursement, settlement, reconciliation, and exception resolution, supporting multiple payment models and recipient types. The position is responsible for delivering measurable outcomes in payment accuracy, disbursement timeliness, transaction efficiency, financial controls, and recipient experience and advancing the business’ competitive position with key clients. The Product Manager will engage in market and K12 research, competitive intelligence, product strategy, requirements development, prioritization, stakeholder engagement with business development, operations, engineering, and product marketing, and go-to-market planning. The role will also evaluate payment technologies, financial services partnerships, disbursement models, state scholarship program requirements, qualified educational expense controls, and emerging financial technology capabilities to support the evolving needs of SGOs, schools, families, and approved service providers. JOB RESPONSIBILITIES: Own and execute the end-to-end product strategy and roadmap for the Disbursement solution, including payment authorization, funds availability, recipient verification, payment execution, settlement, reconciliation, and financial exception management with in the SGO Compass ecosystem. Lead discovery efforts , including client engagement and research engagement with SGOs, schools, families, financial institutions, payment providers, merchants, and other stakeholders, to validate problems and define solutions. Translate insights into prioritized product requirements balancing scalability an d client needs, SGO operating models, payment recipient experiences, state program requirements, financial controls, and operational efficiency. Define, track, and optimize key product metrics to drive business outcomes and continuous improvement. Partner with engineering to deliver complex modernization and platform initiatives through iterative releases. Drive strategic initiatives such as AI-enabled capabilities within the product ecosystem. Ensure compliance with payment, security, and regulatory requirements , including applicable federal and state scholarship program rules, eligible expense restrictions, payment security standards, financial recordkeeping, and money movement obligations in partnership with Legal,