Agile Project Manager – Product Delivery

Position Title: Agile Project Manager – Product Delivery Also considered: Product Delivery Manager Reports to: Product Quality Lead Department: Engineering & Development 1. Job Purpose The Agile Project Manager will serve as the operational backbone and communication bridge for Unifin's product delivery organization. You will be the torch bearer who guides alignment across our development teams, automation initiatives, and AI products—ensuring all teams see clearly and move together as a unified unit. This role owns the execution of agile ceremonies, backlog management, cross-functional communication, and release coordination across multiple simultaneous projects. You will work as a core member of the Product Team Committee alongside the Product Quality Lead, Lead Engineer, AI Lead, Operations, and Compliance—translating strategic direction into executable delivery plans and maintaining visibility into blockers, risks, and team health. You will not make technical implementation decisions or set QA acceptance standards independently—those remain the domain of engineers and QA leadership. Instead, you will empower teams to make those decisions by providing clarity, removing friction, and ensuring dependencies and blockers are surfaced and resolved quickly. This is a fully independent role with direct mentorship and support from your manager (the Product Quality Lead), who will help you grow into leadership, answer questions, and coach you through challenges. You'll be a core member of our Product Team Committee—sitting alongside the Lead Engineer, AI Lead, Operations, and Compliance to shape how we deliver products. You're expected to ask for help when you need it—and to be shameless about following up with teams, stakeholders, and leadership until blockers are resolved and priorities are clear. 2. Key Accountabilities Agile Ceremony & Process Leadership • Coordinate and facilitate sprint planning sessions, ensuring stories are ready, dependencies are clear, and teams commit to achievable goals • Lead daily standups (or async alternatives) for both development teams, identifying and escalating blockers same-day • Facilitate sprint retrospectives and backlog refinement sessions, capturing action items and driving continuous improvement • Own sprint retrospective follow-ups to ensure commitments are tracked and closed Jira Hygiene & Reporting • Create, maintain, and refine epics, stories, and tasks from business requirements—ensuring clear acceptance criteria and 'ready' status before sprint planning • Enforce consistent tagging, labeling, and status tracking across all projects and teams to enable accurate reporting • Build and maintain dashboards and reports that provide real-time visibility into project status, velocity, burndown, and cycle time • Generate weekly/bi-weekly status reports for leadership (Product Team Committee) on progress, risks, and upcoming releases • Audit story structure and completeness regularly, working with teams to improve estimation and clarity Blocker Tracking & Issue Resolution • Maintain a living log of dependencies, risks, and blockers across all active projects • Follow up on blockers relentlessly—escalating to the appropriate owner and tracking time-to-resolution (expect to follow up multiple times, with different people, until it's resolved) • Identify patterns in blockers (e.g., repeated delays from a single team or vendor) and flag for process improvement • Act as the escalation path between teams and leadership when blockers require decision-making above team level • Be shameless about persistence—if something doesn't have an owner or answer after 24 hours, you follow up again Cross-Team Communication & Alignment • Serve as the primary communication hub between the two development teams (split by geography), ensuring handoff clarity and no gaps in understanding • Facilitate knowledge sharing and best practice dissemination across teams • Maintain a shared view of all in-flight projects, dependencies, and timelines visible to all stakeholders • Identify and communicate conflicts, overlaps, or misalignment in project planning to the Product Team Committee early • Be willing to ask clarifying questions repeatedly, often, and without hesitation—ensuring requirements are understood before work starts • Drive cross-functional collaboration by connecting compliance, operations, development, and leadership in structured discussions Release Coordination • Own the planning, sequencing, and communication of releases across all products and projects • Coordinate with teams on release readiness, testing sign-offs, and deployment timing • Maintain release schedules and roadmaps—ensuring realistic timelines and dependencies are understood • Track and communicate release status to leadership and stakeholders Meeting Facilitation & Time Management • Schedule and organize all product delivery meetings, ensuring agile ceremonies happen on cadence • Manage meeting agendas, capture action items and decisions, and distribute notes promptly • Protect team time by enforcing meeting discipline and consolidating communication (reducing ad-hoc interruptions) • Facilitate discussions between compliance, operations, and development teams when requirements impact delivery timelines 3. Qualifications, Experience & Skills Required: • 2–5 years of hands-on experience as a Scrum Master, Agile Project Manager, or equivalent role (or equivalent demonstrated capability in agile delivery coordination) • Proven experience running agile ceremonies (sprints, standups, retros, backlog refinement) • Strong Jira proficiency: creating/managing epics, stories, tasks; building dashboards; running reports • Excellent written and verbal communication skills—ability to translate between technical teams and non-technical stakeholders • Demonstrated ability to coordinate across geographically distributed teams or matrix organizations • Experience with sprint planning, capacity planning, and velocity-based forecasting • Comfortable with ambiguity and able to drive clarity in loosely-defined situations • Strong organizational and time-management skills; ability to juggle multiple projects simultaneously • Not afraid to ask clarifying questions repeatedly and persist on follow-ups—thick skin and shameless about sending Slack messages/emails • Willingness to learn and adapt frequently; comfortable in a fast-moving, evolving environment Preferred: • Scrum Master (CSM) or Product Owner (CSPO) certification • Experience in regulated industries (finance, collections, or compliance-heavy environments)—or software product delivery in a regulated context • Experience with collections software platforms, compliance frameworks (FDCPA, GLBA, etc.), or collections domain knowledge • Familiarity with AI/ML product delivery or automation project workflows • Experience working with distributed or international development teams • Experience with Atlassian tools (Jira, Confluence) beyond basic usage • Track record of asking good questions and driving clarity in ambiguous situations 4. Competencies • Clarity & Communication: Distills complexity into clear, actionable plans; keeps teams aligned through proactive communication; willing to repeat information and ask clarifying questions • Execution Focus: Drives accountability and on-time delivery; follows through on commitments and ensures others do the same; shameless about follow-ups • Problem-Solving: Identifies blockers early and escalates appropriately rather than letting them fester; finds pragmatic solutions and asks good questions to understand root cause • Adaptability & Learning Agility: Comfortable in a growing, changing organization; willing to learn new processes, tools, and domain knowledge; adjusts approach based on feedback • Persistence: Not discouraged by 'I'll get back to you'—follows up, escalates, and ensures commitments are closed; comfortable being the squeaky wheel • Team Player: Ego-free; celebrates team wins and owns process failures; works well in a committee structure; brings people together • Attention to Detail: Hyper-aware of sprint health metrics, Jira data quality, and stakeholder reporting accuracy; catches gaps before they become problems • Growth-Oriented: Eager to develop deeper technical and process knowledge; sees this role as a stepping stone into leadership with direct mentorship and strategic visibility • Neutral Facilitator: Does not take sides between teams or departments; brings balance and fairness to discussions 5. Reporting Metrics & Success Criteria First 90 Days: • Jira fully structured and compliant across all active projects (epics, stories, acceptance criteria, labels, estimates) • Sprint ceremonies running on schedule for both teams with consistent attendance and engagement • Weekly status report delivered to Product Team Committee with accurate, actionable data • Blocker log established and reviewed daily; time-to-resolution tracked and trending • Cross-team communication cadence established (e.g., weekly sync between geographically distributed teams) • Release schedule and roadmap visible to all stakeholders with clear dependencies marked First 6 Months: • Demonstrated velocity and burndown improvements across teams • Zero surprises to leadership—all risks surfaced 2+ weeks in advance • Retrospective action items closed at >80% rate • Positive feedback from development teams on meeting efficiency and clarity • Identified and recommended 2–3 process improvements that have been implemented 6. Boundaries of the Role This role does NOT include: • Making technical architecture or implementation decisions (that's the Lead Engineer's domain) • Setting QA acceptance standards or defining test strategy (that's the Product Quality Lead's domain) • Hiring or managing the development teams directly (team leads manage their own teams) • Deciding product roadmap or feature prioritization (that's the Product Team Committee's decision) • Writing code or participating in technical design reviews • Acting as a go-between to shield teams from leadership—this is collaborative, not a buffer layer 7. The Product Team Committee You'll work as an equal member of: • Product Quality Lead (your direct manager) • Lead Engineer • AI Lead • Operations Lead • Compliance Officer This is a collaborative decision-making body. You bring the delivery perspective; others bring technical, risk, and operational perspectives. Decisions are made collectively. 8. Location & Logistics Location: Global (On-site or Remote) Travel: Location specific Timezone Consideration: This role requires availability 9AM - 5PM CST to support both development teams About Unifin Inc. Unifin Inc. is a leading collections agency committed to innovative, compliant, and customer-focused debt recovery solutions. Our competitive advantage comes from our technology investments—custom software, automation, and AI-driven capabilities. This role is pivotal to scaling our product delivery as we grow our engineering footprint globally. Equal Opportunity Statement: Unifin Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Next Steps Interested candidates should submit: • Resume highlighting agile/Scrum experience and multi-team coordination examples • Cover letter describing a time you coordinated across distributed teams or resolved a cross-team blocker • References from at least one prior manager or peer who can speak to your facilitation and communication skills