Sr. Manager, Product Owner

At MFS, you will find a culture that supports you in doing what you do best. Our employees work together to reach better outcomes, favoring the strongest idea over the strongest individual. We put people first and demonstrate care and compassion for our community and each other. Because what we do matters – to us as valued professionals and to the millions of people and institutions who rely on us to help them build more secure and prosperous futures.

THE ROLE

As the Sr. Manager, Product Owner for the Cash Processing and Collateral Management Platform and the Equity SMA Platform, you will set the strategic vision and direction for capabilities that deliver measurable value to the business and its clients. You will shape and prioritize a roadmap that reimagines how MFS ingests and processes cash data, strengthens cash and collateral controls, and improves transparency across key cash views (e.g., trade-date, settlement-date, tradable, and encumbered/collateral cash) and position-level activity.

In partnership with stakeholders across Operations, Investments, Compliance, and Technology, you will translate business needs into clear outcomes, actionable priorities, and well-defined requirements—ensuring alignment with enterprise objectives and seamless delivery. You will champion the product vision with Agile teams, balancing stakeholder engagement and competing priorities to drive continuous improvement and evolve the platforms to meet emerging business needs and market opportunities.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Set and evolve the product vision and roadmap for the Cash Processing, Collateral Management, and Equity SMA platforms, aligning priorities to business strategy and measurable outcomes.
• Partner with stakeholders across Operations, Investments, Compliance, Client Management, and Technology to understand needs, evaluate options and tradeoffs, and influence decisions aligned to long-term objectives.
• Translate business goals into clear outcomes, well-defined requirements, and prioritized backlogs; define user stories and acceptance criteria to ensure shared understanding and quality delivery.
• Ensure platform capabilities strengthen cash and collateral controls and transparency across cash views (trade-date, settlement-date, tradable, and encumbered/collateral cash) and position-level activity.
• Work with business stakeholders to understand strategic direction and long-term priorities to enable Retail SMA business to scale effectively:
  • Partner with business stakeholders to Re-image end to end workflows and data exchange for Retail SMA Manager traded accounts and Model Delivery accounts
  • Implementation of Portfolio Manager strategy changes including Rotation
  • Help provide innovative solutions to address the lack of standardization in the industry and leveraging automation to increase efficiency and controls
• Lead Agile delivery by managing dependencies, removing impediments, and keeping teams focused on sprint/release goals; participating in key planning and ceremony rhythms as needed.
• Embed strong product lifecycle management and SDLC practices to drive incremental, scalable improvements across both high-volume retail and institutional flows as well as high-customization SMA environments.
• Monitor industry trends and competitive landscape (e.g., SMA platform evolution) to identify opportunities for innovation and differentiation.
• Foster alignment and communication across cross-functional teams; serve as a trusted partner and primary communicator between business and technology.
• Contribute to the Product Owner Community of Practice by sharing ideas, skills, and best practices to strengthen product discipline across the organization.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• Deep domain expertise in cash processing and collateral management, including trade-date and settlement-date cash, margining (initial and variation margin), collateral eligibility, haircuts, and optimization across cleared and bilateral exposures
• Strong understanding of liquidity management and cash forecasting, including intraday liquidity, funding considerations, and the interaction between cash positioning and investment decision-making
• Knowledge of global settlement, payments, and reconciliation processes (e.g., T+1), including fails management, netting, and cash/collateral reconciliations across custodians, IBOR/ABOR, fund accounting, and counterparties
• Experience with securities financing and collateral mobility (e.g., repo, securities lending, rehypothecation) and the movement of collateral across custodians, prime brokers, and clearinghouses
• Understanding of collateral optimization, inventory management, and regulatory frameworks (e.g., UMR, Basel III), including allocation strategies (e.g., cheapest-to-deliver) and counterparty risk considerations
• Strong understanding of Retail Equity SMA business models, including:
  • Retail SMA Separately Managed and Model Delivery account structures and lifecycle
  • Retail SMA Industry best practices and tools
• Experience with SMA operational workflows, including end to end implementation of Portfolio Manager strategy changes for both Model Delivery and SMA Manager traded accounts, onboarding, reconciliations, rotations, technology solutions, and interaction with sponsor platforms
• Proven leadership experience as a Product Owner (or similar role) delivering large-scale, strategic initiatives in Agile environments and leading matrixed, cross-functional teams
• Experience with Agile tools and practices, including road-mapping, OKRs, backlog management and refinement, PI planning, sprint planning, and writing effective user stories and acceptance criteria.
• Strong stakeholder management, communication, and strategic problem-solving skills; ability to influence senior leaders, manage competing priorities, and deliver pragmatic, high-impact solutions
• 8–12 years of financial services experience with a Bachelor’s degree (CFA or equivalent preferred), plus familiarity with custodians/SMA platforms and tools such as Aha!, JIRA, SQL, and Tableau/Power BI

#LI-SS1

At MFS, we believe in fair and transparent compensation. For that reason, we’re including the salary range for this position. This range reflects our good-faith expectation for what we’ll pay depending on the candidate’s experience, training and education. In addition to the salary, we also offer significant and competitive incentive compensation based on both individual and company performance. Other components of our Total Rewards Package include:

• MFS contributes an amount equal to 15% of your base salary to your retirement account that is separate from the company -sponsored 401(k) 

• Education Assistance: MFS contributes $100 monthly up to $10,000 lifetime maximum directly to loan provider

• Education Assistance: Tuition reimbursement up to $8,000 annually 

• Education Assistance: Access to discounted tutors and college coaches

• Generous time off and fully paid leaves including 20-weeks for maternity, 12-weeks for parental and caregiver leaves

• Choice of medical and dental plans and an and an employer contribution into the Health Savings Account

• Tax deferred commuter benefits & flexible spending accounts (medical & dependent care)

• Wellness Programs: Robust wellness webinars, employee assistance program with a focus on mental health, subsidized fitness benefit via Wellhub (formerly Gympass), where you can workout at gyms, studios and boutique fitness locations near you, join virtual personal training sessions and access a wide variety of well-being apps

Our compensation philosophy is to pay competitively for talent while ensuring equity across employees performing comparable work. We are committed to transparency – if you have questions about how we arrived at this range or what additional benefits and bonus opportunities come with the role, we’ll be happy to discuss them

#LI-HYBRID

At MFS, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace. If you are excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly, we encourage you to apply - you might be just the right candidate for this role or others.

MFS is a hybrid work environment (remote/onsite) unless otherwise stated in the job posting.

If any applicant is unable to complete an application or respond to a job opening because of a disability, please contact MFS at 617-954-5000 or email [email protected] for assistance. 

MFS is an Equal Opportunity Employer and it is our policy to not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, disability, veteran status, or any other status protected by federal, state or local laws. Employees and applicants of MFS will not be subject to harassment on the basis of their status. Additionally, retaliation, including intimidation, threats, or coercion, because an employee or applicant has objected to discrimination, engaged or may engage in filing a complaint, assisted in a review, investigation, or hearing or have otherwise sought to obtain their legal rights under any Federal, State, or local EEO law is prohibited. Please see the Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal document, linked for your reference.