Principal Product Manager

Be essential at Cars Commerce

At Cars Commerce, we’re fanatical about simplifying everything about car buying and selling. We do right by our customers and consumers to better connect the industry with simplified and tierless technology to enhance, measure and drive local automotive retail. Whether through our No.1 most recognized marketplace, Cars.com , our industry-leading digital experience, Dealer Inspire , our trade and appraisal technology, AccuTrade , or our new Cars Commerce Media Network , Cars Commerce is essential for success in the automotive industry.

No one ever travels alone here: at its core, Cars Commerce is collaboration. In fact, it’s built into the very fabric of our shared values. We like to say we Rise Together – putting people at the center of what we do, from consumer to customer to community. Life at Cars Commerce makes it easy when we share the ethos to be Open to All , encouraging open-minded communication because we know diverse thinking yields better outcomes. But critical to our success is Caring to Challenge and Taking Ownership , fueling a competitive spirit in a respectful environment where we think about tomorrow but act today. At our foundation, we have integrity, Doing the Right Thing , even when it’s hard. It’s our shared commitment to these values that makes Cars Commerce a place where growth becomes not only possible, but downright unavoidable.

But don’t take our word for it. As a U.S. News & World Report Best Company to Work For in 2024, we're obsessive about the employee experience . We are among the top 20% being declared “Best” of our industry based on six critical factors that are important to employee wellbeing, like quality of pay, benefits, work life balance and more.

Principal Product Manager for Marketplace - New Revenue Generation/Customer Expansion

Role:

This Principal PM will be responsible for defining the strategy for expanding into new, revenue generating customer segments, building the necessary customer journey and self-service transactional capabilities, and overseeing and scaling the resulting P&L. This role requires a product expert that has deep expertise in ecommerce/online marketplaces, building consumer product experiences (specifically converting a consumer from top of funnel through purchase completion), and P&L management. This individual should be highly strategic as they will be required to define a long term strategy, develop and execute the plan to achieve it, and communicate their vision in a way that secures broad stakeholder support and engagement. This individual should be accustomed to thinking with a mobile app first mindset, but experienced in building across device types. This Principal PM should also demonstrate a strong track record of building best in class products as a result of their customer obsession, data driven decision making, and strong product sense/intuition.

Scope:

As a Principal Product Manager at Cars Commerce, you will help solve challenges unique to our dual-sided marketplace by leading innovation and value delivery for business critical product(s) while also mentoring other Product Managers and defining effective strategies for product development. You will work with a cross-functional group of designers, engineers, researchers and analysts to form and execute a best-in-class product roadmap (including defining, validating, and prioritizing epics/initiatives). You will support the definition of product goals and strategy and will advocate core product development principles across the business.

As a Principal Product Manager, you are a creative problem solver, a role model, coach, and thought leader to other PMs, and an executor driven by positive outcomes for our users. You demonstrate trust in and dedication to our vision, mission and values. You have strong customer empathy and make product decisions based on both qualitative and quantitative customer and business data. You make decisions by optimizing for ROI and driving bottom-line/top-line performance. You have a passion for solving complex, multi-sided marketplace problems, developing strategies and roadmaps, and executing plans that create new value for our users and our business. You are a natural collaborator and communicator who has a track record of building positive relationships across a broad, diverse organization. You can establish, communicate, and gain buy-in for a vision that extends across our full ecosystem of products.

Essential Functions:

• Define and deliver the roadmap for our most strategic and complex products.
• Be a hands on coach, mentor and role model to all Product Managers (and provide guidance and support to product leadership), while also building best in class products for your customers.
• Understand shoppers' and sellers’ problems in detail and ensure the problems are clearly defined and prioritized - making tradeoffs between scope, cost, schedule and business benefits to ensure tech resources are always focused on the highest impact work.
• Consistently deliver high value and impactful work that elevates the Cars Commerce consumer/customer experience, on schedule.
• Drive real customer and business value that shows up internally and externally, regularly and predictably.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teammates to improve our processes and ensure team alignment towards goals.
• Refine and contribute to team level goals (KPIs/OKRs), through the delivery of world class products. Measure and communicate successes and opportunities at all organizational levels.
• Establish effective, trusting relationships with key internal and external partners, including senior leadership.
• Establish yourself as an expert and thought leader across the full Cars Commerce product space.
• Communicate roadmaps, updates and key accomplishments effectively and broadly throughout the organization, including to senior leadership.
• Work across other internal teams to establish clear interconnected roadmaps to align on intersection points.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, computer science, or economics, or related field, or equivalent work experience.
• At least 10 years of experience as a Product Manager (across mobile and web) for high-impact, high visibility products, with a history of delivering significant and meaningful business and customer outcomes across strategic product lines.
• An impressive track-record of 0-1 and 1-N product development for high-impact, high visibility products.
• Experience working with senior product leaders to contribute to and execute high level product strategy.
• Demonstrated product sense with expert understanding of UX design principles and product experimentation (i.e. A/B testing, User testing, etc.).
• Strong analytical skills and a commitment to data driven decision making.
• You have experience working across the entire product process (strategy through to delivery) and have exceptional grasp of the fundamental principles of product management, lean product development and agile practices.
• Experience defining KPIs and product metrics and using them to drive decisions, and pairing that with a sense for how and when to balance data with intuition.

Nice to Have Qualifications:

• MBA or other advanced degree.
• Experience as a software engineer.
• Experience working in e-commerce, retail, marketplaces, transportation, logistics, or a related sector.
• SQL, Tableau , and/or other data analysis skills.

#LI-REMOTE ; #LI-AK2

In the spirit of pay transparency, we are excited to share the base salary range for this position which is not inclusive of bonuses, benefits or other forms of compensation that the position may be eligible for. If you are hired at Cars Commerce, your final base salary compensation will be determined based on factors such as skills and/or experience. If the salary range is close to what you're seeking, then we encourage you to apply and learn more about the total compensation package for this position.

Salary Range $149,800 — $187,300 USD

Our Comprehensive Benefits Package includes:

• Medical, Dental & Vision Healthcare Plans
• 401(k) with Company Match + Immediate Vesting
• New Hire Stipend for Home Office Set-Up
• Employee Stock Purchase Program
• Generous PTO
• Refuel - a service based recognition program where employees receive additional paid time away to learn grow and reset
• Paid Holidays, Floating Holiday, Volunteer Day, Recharge Day
• Learn more about our Benefits, Perks, & Culture on our LinkedIn Life Pages !

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.