Senior Principal Rewards Product Owner

In this hybrid role base at our Chicago headquarters, you will define and scale Alliant's enterprise rewards, loyalty, and engagement capabilities. Serve as the strategic bridge between business, technology, operations, marketing, digital, finance, risk, and servicing teams to ensure rewards capabilities drive member growth, loyalty, cross-sell, and partnership expansion. Operate at an enterprise level, influencing executive decisions, shaping strategic roadmaps, and coordinating complex initiatives across multiple business units. Establish long-term vision for rewards and loyalty capabilities while ensuring execution aligns with member experience, operational readiness, governance requirements, and business outcomes.

Essential Responsibilities

• Own the strategic vision, roadmap, and capability evolution for the rewards engine and adjacent engagement platforms.
• Define and champion the multi-year strategy for rewards, loyalty, referral, recognition, and relationship-based pricing capabilities.
• Partner with ELT members and senior leaders to align rewards investments with enterprise priorities, growth objectives, and member value propositions.
• Develop business cases, executive presentations, investment recommendations, and roadmap strategies for enterprise capabilities.
• Influence prioritization decisions across product, marketing, technology, operations, and finance organizations.
• Partner with business leaders to identify opportunities where rewards can accelerate adoption of products and strategic initiatives.
• Lead cross-functional working groups comprised of product, technology, marketing, digital, operations, business intelligence, risk, compliance, legal, finance, fraud, and servicing teams.
• Serve as the primary business leader for rewards-related initiatives, ensuring enterprise readiness from concept through launch and ongoing optimization.
• Align diverse stakeholder groups around shared objectives, operating models, governance requirements, and delivery plans.
• Establish governance frameworks, controls, approval processes, and operational standards for rewards and promotional programs.
• Ensure alignment with compliance, regulatory, risk management, audit, and fraud requirements.
• Develop KPI frameworks, reporting structures, monitoring processes, and performance management approaches.
• Evaluate and prioritize new use cases including rewards, referral programs, relationship pricing, member tiering, lifecycle incentives, partner offers, and promotional campaigns.
• Continuously assess market trends, competitive offerings, fintech innovations, and emerging loyalty models to inform future enhancements.
• Identify opportunities to leverage rewards capabilities to improve acquisition, engagement, retention, and member primacy.

Education & Years of Experience

• Minimum - 4 Years Bachelors Degree in Business or related
• Preferred - Graduate Degree in Business or related
• Minimum - 9 Years of Strategy, product management, loyalty/rewards, partnership, consulting, financial services, digital platforms or related

In Lieu of Education

• 15 Years of Strategy, product management, loyalty/rewards program development, scaling customer engagement strategies or related

Compensation & Benefits:

Typical hiring range:‏‏‎ ‎ $119,400.00 to $204,600.00‎ Annually. Actual compensation will be determined using factors such as experience, skills & knowledge. 

‎Benefits: Alliant provides a benefits package including health care, vision, dental, and 401k with employer match including:

• Annual performance bonus
• Work from home up to 3 days a week
• Paid parental leave
• Employee discount programs
• Time off including paid personal and sick days
• 11 paid holidays 
• Education reimbursement

*Note that eligibility and cost of benefits can vary depending on the number of regularly scheduled hours, and job status such as regular full-time, regular part-time, or temporary employment.

Adhere to and ensure compliance of all business transactions with policy and process of the Bank Secrecy Act. Ensures compliance with all applicable state and federal laws, company procedures and policies. Maintains integrity and ethics in all actions and conversations with or regarding credit union members and their accounts; complies with Privacy Act directives. 

The responsibilities listed do not contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this position. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.