Product Manager in Virginia at PhoenixTeam

Overview

We are hiring a Product Manager for the modernization of the VA Loan Guaranty (LGY) technology portfolio. The job is translation under pressure: statute, policy, and a sprawling stakeholder ecosystem on one side, a backlog that ships to production every 30 days on the other, while a 20-year-old legacy platform keeps running until the modern one replaces it. If you can hold the Veteran, the lender, and the regulation in your head at the same time, keep reading.

The Opportunity

Most product roles let you invent demand. This one hands you something rarer: a product whose demand is guaranteed by law, which means every ounce of product discipline goes into making the experience better instead of making the funnel bigger.

The LGY portfolio spans the loan guaranty lifecycle: origination-adjacent workflows, servicing oversight and loss mitigation, claims, housing grants, and analytics. The modern platform is Salesforce-centered and configuration-first, supplemented by serverless capabilities in a government cloud. Users include VA program staff and thousands of external lender and servicer users.

The rhythm is fast and formal. Business needs enter through an intake process that produces an executable plan, with refined scope and level of effort, in days. Development runs on a monthly release cadence with an explicit quality bar: acceptance criteria sharp enough to support automated testing, defect detection above 95% before user acceptance testing, and accessibility built into every story. Your requirements are the first link in that quality chain.

You will partner with an Enterprise Solution Architect who owns the designs, an Engineering Lead who owns delivery, and a DevSecOps Lead who owns the platform. You own what gets built, in what order, and why.

What You'll Own

The backlog as an instrument of the mission. Turn business needs and policy changes into refined, traceable user stories with acceptance criteria precise enough that engineers build the right thing and testers can automate against it.

Intake to executable plan, fast. Drive new needs from raw business intent to a scoped, estimated, committed plan in days, working shoulder to shoulder with architecture and engineering.

The roadmap across the portfolio. Sequence modernization, sustainment, and legacy decommissioning, and keep the roadmap credible enough that the customer plans against it.

A stakeholder ecosystem, not a stakeholder. Balance VA program officials, field staff, and external lender and servicer users whose interests do not always align.

Value in every release. Own prioritization so every 30-day release ships something stakeholders can name, and coordinate user acceptance testing that runs smoothly because the criteria were right from the start.

The configure-versus-customize conversation. The program mandates configuration-first solutions. You represent the business value side of those tradeoffs and know when to fight for a custom exception.

Decisions informed by data. Ground prioritization in analytics, usage, and operational metrics, and push for instrumentation where it does not exist yet.

The transition experience. As functions move from legacy to modern, sequence the change so lenders, servicers, and VA staff are brought along rather than surprised.

AI-Native Product Management

AI is part of how PhoenixTeam works, and product management may have more to gain from it than any other discipline on the program.

We are looking for someone who already uses AI tools as a working part of their practice: analyzing policy and regulation changes to extract requirements impacts in hours instead of weeks, drafting and stress-testing user stories before refinement, synthesizing stakeholder feedback into decision-ready themes, and keeping the backlog coherent as the portfolio grows.

Judgment stays human. You know when AI output misreads a regulation or produces acceptance criteria that sound precise but are not. And boundaries are non-negotiable: federal environments govern what tools may touch government data and systems. Use AI wherever it creates leverage, and understand the security, data, privacy, and authorization boundaries governing where and how it can be used.

What Great Looks Like

Twelve months in, we would expect to see:

Intake is fast and trusted. Needs move from raw intent to committed plans in days, and the customer trusts the scoping because it keeps proving accurate.

Requirements stopped causing rework. Stories flow into development without churn, and ambiguity-driven defects trend toward zero.

Every release has a headline. Stakeholders can name what shipped last month and why it mattered.

UAT is uneventful. The business was engaged all along, not summoned at the end.

The roadmap is the plan of record, and it survives policy changes because you built it to flex.

AI is visibly part of your practice, with policy analysis, story drafting, and feedback synthesis running measurably faster.

What You Bring

We care about evidence more than resumes. Expect us to ask which products you have shaped, what your requirements looked like to the engineers who built from them, and how AI functions in your practice today.

A product management record on complex enterprise software, with real users, real stakes, and outcomes rather than ceremonies.

Housing finance domain fluency. You can hold your own with business stakeholders on day one. Depth in servicing, loss mitigation, or claims is especially relevant.

Requirements craft. You write stories and acceptance criteria that engineers praise and testers can automate against.

Federal delivery experience. You treat accessibility, security, and documentation as product constraints to design within, not obstacles to resent.

Stakeholder range. You facilitate rooms spanning senior officials, field users, and engineers, and you can say no to a stakeholder and keep the relationship.

Evidence-driven prioritization, with stated assumptions when data is thin.

Demonstrated AI-in-the-loop practice you can show us concretely.

Judgment under ambiguity. You make the call, document the reasoning, and own the outcome.

U.S.-based, and able to obtain and maintain a federal Public Trust clearance.

We do not screen on degrees or year counts. If your evidence is strong, we want to talk.

Preferred Qualifications

Direct experience with VA Loan Guaranty, VALERI, or other VA benefit programs.

FHA, USDA rural housing, or GSE experience, or lender and servicer operations on the commercial side.

Product work on Salesforce or a comparable configuration-first platform.

Familiarity with MISMO, URLA, Jira and Confluence, or scaled agile.

Leadership Expectations

This role leads through the product. You set direction that architecture, engineering, and the customer align around, present recommendations to federal decision-makers with evidence, and challenge direction that will hurt the program or the Veteran, respectfully and early, including ours. Silent disagreement is a failure mode here, and so is the PM who relays stakeholder requests without shaping them. When priorities conflict, you make the call and own the outcome.

Position Requirements

Full-time W-2 employment with PhoenixTeam.

Must be based in the United States.

Fully remote.

Work supports the Department of Veterans Affairs Loan Guaranty Service (LGY).

Must be able to obtain and maintain the required federal Public Trust clearance.

PhoenixTeam is a woman-owned small business focused on federal and commercial housing finance technology.

Physical Requirements

This position is primarily performed in a standard office environment. The employee is regularly required to sit for extended periods while using a computer, keyboard, and mouse or other pointing device. The employee must be able to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing, including participating in meetings, phone calls, and virtual conferences. Specific vision abilities required include close vision for reading documents and viewing computer screens for extended periods. The employee may occasionally need to stand, walk, bend, or reach to access files, office equipment, or supplies. Occasional lifting of up to 15–20 pounds (such as laptops, monitors, or boxes of materials) may be required. The role may involve occasional travel to client sites, which could include navigating varied environments and, at times, standing or walking for longer periods. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this role.

Mental/Cognitive Requirements

This role requires the ability to concentrate and maintain focus for extended periods, often while managing multiple tasks, projects, or client priorities simultaneously. The employee must be able to analyze complex information, exercise sound judgment, and solve problems independently as well as collaboratively. Strong written and verbal communication skills are essential, including the ability to clearly convey technical or complex concepts to varied audiences (clients, colleagues, and stakeholders). The position requires attention to detail, particularly when reviewing documentation, code, data, or deliverables for accuracy. The employee must be able to adapt to shifting priorities, work under deadline pressure, and respond effectively to unexpected issues or changes in scope. Comfort with continuous learning is important, as the role may require quickly understanding new tools, systems, or client environments. The ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a team, including receiving and incorporating feedback, is also required.

Equal Opportunity Employer including Disability/Vets