Job Description
Role: Business Product Manager – Data Exchange / Data-as-a-Service
Location: Hybrid in Cottage Grove, MN, 3 days onsite
Contract Duration: ASAP - 12/31/2026; extension or conversion likely
Rate: $65-$70/hour W2 depending on skills and qualifications
Travel: Minimal, less than 10%
Summary
We are seeking a Business Product Manager to help build a new Data Exchange / Data-as-a-Service capability from the ground up. This person will own the product strategy, roadmap, backlog, prioritization, stakeholder discovery, and delivery coordination for secure, governed data-sharing solutions across business and technology teams.
This is not a traditional reporting, dashboard, or analytics product role. The focus is on enabling business partners to access and consume trusted data through scalable integration patterns, APIs, data pipelines, and governed data-sharing capabilities.
The ideal candidate is a strong product leader who can operate in ambiguity, influence without authority, work directly with business stakeholders to uncover real needs, and partner closely with architecture, engineering, security, legal, application, data, and platform teams to move work forward.
Key Responsibilities
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Define and evolve the vision, strategy, roadmap, and operating model for a new Data Exchange / Data-as-a-Service capability.
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Partner directly with business stakeholders to understand objectives, pain points, data access needs, integration requirements, and emerging AI/data use cases.
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Translate unclear or broad business requests into well-defined problems, outcomes, priorities, epics, features, and actionable requirements.
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Own backlog prioritization based on business value, scalability, dependencies, security, risk, and alignment to broader enterprise initiatives.
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Partner with solution architecture and technical teams to evaluate API strategies, integration patterns, data movement approaches, middleware needs, event-driven concepts, and reusable data access models.
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Coordinate delivery across cross-functional teams, including engineering, data, application owners, integration teams, security, legal, platform teams, business analysts, and business stakeholders.
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Serve as the central point of accountability for what is being built, why it matters, when it will be delivered, and how it meets business needs.
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Facilitate delivery activities such as intake, backlog refinement, sprint planning, prioritization discussions, stakeholder demos, roadmap reviews, and dependency management.
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Ensure solutions are secure, governed, scalable, reusable, and aligned with enterprise data architecture.
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Communicate roadmap, progress, tradeoffs, risks, and value clearly to both business and technical audiences.
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Build credibility quickly with stakeholders of varying technical maturity and push back diplomatically when requests are not aligned to business value or timing.
Required Qualifications
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5+ years of experience in product management, business product management, data product ownership, or technology product roles.
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Proven experience owning product roadmaps, backlogs, prioritization, discovery, and delivery coordination.
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Strong understanding of data ecosystems, data movement, integrations, APIs, data pipelines, middleware, and system-to-system data sharing.
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Ability to work closely with solution architects and technical teams without needing to be hands-on engineering.
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Experience partnering with business stakeholders to uncover needs, define outcomes, and translate business problems into actionable product work.
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Strong cross-functional leadership skills with the ability to influence teams without direct authority.
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Experience coordinating work across business, data, engineering, application, security, legal, and platform teams.
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Strong communication, facilitation, executive presence, and stakeholder management skills.
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Comfort operating in ambiguity and helping build new processes, roadmaps, governance models, and product capabilities from scratch.
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Ability to balance customer service, business value, technical constraints, governance, security, and product discipline.
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Must be local to the Twin Cities area or able to work onsite in Cottage Grove, MN three days per week.
Preferred Qualifications
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Experience with Data-as-a-Service, data exchange, data products, enterprise integrations, API-based data sharing, or governed data access capabilities.
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Experience in organizations with distributed business units, franchise/dealer networks, retail operations, field operations, or complex stakeholder groups.
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Familiarity with data governance, permissions, identity/access concepts, security review processes, and legal/compliance considerations related to data sharing.
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Experience supporting business teams that want to use enterprise data for AI, automation, operational reporting, or third-party system integration.
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Experience helping establish a new product function, product operating model, intake process, or prioritization framework.
