Assistant Director - Product Management

Principal Financial Group

Des Moines, Iowa(remote)

JOB DETAILS
SALARY
$127,000–$171,000 Per Year
LOCATION
Des Moines, Iowa
POSTED
9 days ago
What You'll Do:
We’re looking for an Assistant Director join our Product Management team! In this role you'll lead the product management function across the Defined Benefit and Pension Risk Transfer product family. They are accountable for performance and health of the products and the PMs who form the product management team. They evangelize the customer and product mindset and seek to integrate and promote clarity. They are responsible for coaching, mentoring, and providing holistic strategic direction to the product staff. They are a peer and critical partner with Senior leaders of disciplines like engineering, experience, and various business and technical functions.
 
You'll have the opportunity to:
  • Product Strategy:
    • Guides and defines product strategies for our DB and PRT product family (a set of products which deliver against a shared strategic or business-critical outcome).
    • Deep understanding of, and solutioning for, the end-to-end product experience.
    • Partners with product managers and stakeholders to align across organizational boundaries and ensure strategic continuity among teams.
    • Ensures product strategies align with business and enterprise strategies and priorities; and partners with finance and senior leadership to allocate necessary resources to pursue targeted outcomes.
    • Integrates business, customer, user, and partner insights to inform a clear understanding of problems to solve and risks to manage. Continuously seeks to improve the clarity and effectiveness of the product family strategy.
    • Ensures products within the family are leveraging data and insights inform product team decisions (in collaboration with design/experience experts)
    • Effectively shares vision, intent, and objective of product family and component products with key partners.
  • Product Discovery:
    • Accountable for an effective parallel discovery and delivery model in place across the product family.
  • Product Delivery:
    • Is accountable for success of overall product family delivery.
    • Communicates product family releases to stakeholders
    • Product Assessment: Accountable for maintaining clear line-of-site on the target outcomes compared to investment levels and expectations.
    • Monitors and communicates product family health, impact of product family releases, and progress against product family goals.
    • Accountable for ensuring healthy feedback loops among teams within the product family; and among product families in a broader value stream.
    • Responsible and accountable for meeting product family outcomes and if necessary, making enhancements to go to market strategy, products, etc. in order to meet them.
    • Responsible for making performance information accessible and visible to Sr. Director of Product and other key stakeholders. Includes storytelling to clearly connect performance with strategy.
    • Stakeholder Management and Communication:
      • Proactively shares key information (strategy, priorities, plans, experiments, results, etc.) regarding the product family with stakeholders.
      • Communicates effectively as a leader of the product family and as part of a broader portfolio.
      • Collaborates with business leaders and finance to manage budget, go to market strategy, etc.
      • Build strong working relationships with diverse stakeholders across organizational unit lines to enable value realization.
      • Partner with leaders of technical and non-technical functions to foster a strong and aligned cross-functional team for the product family.
  • Product Leadership
    • Lead, mentor, coach, and manage Product Managers and Sr. Product Managers Champions product mindset and culture building with leaders of collaborating functions (such as Engineering, Design, Data, Product Development, etc.)
    • Periodically assesses the health and maturity of the product management practice within their sphere of responsibility; and works to continuously improve.
    • Formal staff reporting
 
Operating at the intersection of financial services and technology, Principal builds financial tools that help our customers live better lives. We take pride in being a purpose-led firm, motivated by our mission to make financial security accessible to all. Our mission, integrity, and customer focus have made us a trusted leader for more than 140 years!
Who You Are:
  • 8+ years of business, technology, or product management experience; or equivalent demonstrated through the following: work experience, training, military experience, or education.
  • 5+ years working in a highly collaborative, fast-paced product environment.
  • 2+ years of informal or formal leadership experience.
  • Demonstrated success establishing business strategy for multiple products.
  • Demonstrated success managing complex stakeholder expectations across multiple products.
  • Demonstrated success in driving product outcomes in a multi-product environment.
  • Demonstrated expertise in product domain knowledge and related data and insights.
  • Demonstrated ability to figure out solutions to complicated problems using sound judgement and strong relationships to assess risk, and lay-out your argument in a well-structured, data-informed narrative.
  • Coaching and mentoring experience in a professional setting.
  • Demonstrated understanding of the techniques and methods of modern product discovery and product delivery and the ability to coach that in others. Understands various approaches and tools for research, synthesis, ideation, and testing in a dynamic dual track discovery and delivery loop.
  • Excellent communication skills.
Salary Range Information: Salary ranges below reflect targeted base salaries. Non-sales positions have the opportunity to participate in a bonus program. Sales positions are eligible for sales incentives, and in some instances a bonus plan, whereby total compensation may far exceed base salary depending on individual performance. Actual compensation for all roles will be based upon geographic location, work experience, education, licensure requirements and/or skill level and will be finalized at the time of offer. Salary Range: $127000 - $171000 / year Time Off Program: Flexible Time Off (FTO) is provided to salaried (exempt) employees and provides the opportunity to take time away from the office with pay for vacation, personal or short-term illness. Employees don’t accrue a bank of time off under FTO and there is no set number of days provided. Pension Eligible: Yes Additional Information:
Work Environments
This role offers in-office, hybrid (blending at least three office days in a typical workweek), and remote work arrangements (only if residing more than 30 miles from Des Moines, IA, Raleigh, NC or Charlotte, NC). You’ll work with your leader to figure out which option may align best based on several factors.
 
Work Authorization/Sponsorship
At this time, we're not considering applicants that need any type of immigration sponsorship (additional work authorization or permanent work authorization) now or in the future to work in the United States. This includes, but IS NOT LIMITED TO: F1-OPT, F1-CPT, H-1B, TN, L-1, J-1, etc. For additional information around work authorization needs please use the following links.
 
Investment Code of Ethics
For Principal Asset Management positions, you’ll need to follow an Investment Code of Ethics related to personal and business conduct as well as personal trading activities for you and members of your household. These same requirements may also apply to other positions across the organization.
 
Experience Principal
At Principal, we value connecting on both a personal and professional level. Together, we’re imagining a more purpose-led future for financial services – and that starts with you. Our success depends on the unique experiences, backgrounds, and talents of our employees. And we support our employees the same way we support our customers: with comprehensive, competitive benefit offerings crafted to protect their physical, financial, and social well-being. Check out our careers site to learn more about our purpose, values and benefits.
 
Principal is an Equal Opportunity Employer
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.
 
Posting Window: We will accept applications for 3 full days following the Original Posting Date, after which the posting may remain open or be removed based upon applications received. If we choose to post the job again, we will accept additional applications for at least 1 full day following the Most Recently Posted Date. Please submit applications in a timely manner as there is no guarantee the posting will be available beyond the applicable deadline. Date First Posted (TTF): 3/23/2026 Latest Post Date: Careers - US: 3/23/2026

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About the Company

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Principal Financial Group