Product Manager, Consultant

Job Description

Your Role

The Managed Care and Wellness agile release team works across multiple teams and stakeholders to identify and execute business opportunities that improve our managed care and wellness goals and metrics. The Agile Product Manager, Consultant will report to the Manager of Product Management. In this role you will lead the day-to-day management of our existing enabled use of care value stream, ensuring continuous improvement, performance optimization, and alignment with market demands and customer feedback. Our leadership model is about developing great leaders at all levels and creating opportunities for our people to grow - personally, professionally, and financially. We are looking for leaders that are energized by creative and critical thinking, building and sustaining high-performing teams, getting results the right way, and fostering continuous learning.

Responsibilities

Your Work

In this role, you will:

• Identify, define internal and/or external customer needs for a given BSC operational value-stream aligned to a technology product(s).
• Oversee the lifecycle management of existing value stream within the managed care and wellness agile release train (ART), ensuring continuous improvement, performance optimization, and alignment with market demands and customer feedback
• Help optimize the vision and roadmap for our care management, utilization management, and/or claims, appeals, and grievances products.
• Collaborate with business and technology stakeholders to define and prioritize epics and features required to meet customer needs, including alignment with BSC's strategy, business goals, objectives and key results (OKRs), and investment criteria.
• Assist with or lead the writing of major investment epics, the Lean Business Case, and supporting documentation to enable investment decision making.
• Partner with the stakeholders to enable the proposed functionality and deliver customer value throughout the product lifecycle.
• Lead activities to support the delivery of new functionality including product launch communications, training materials, user acceptance testing, business validation, success criteria measurement and analysis, and post-deployment assessment for continuous process improvement and evolution of functionality.
• Lead and participate in agile ceremonies including: Quarterly Planning preparation, Planning events which include presenting the product's vision, strategy and roadmap, and reviewing features to be executed during the interval, Team syncs to check on quarterly execution progress, evaluate scope adjustments, and mitigation plans, when necessary.
• Facilitate system demos to inspect, track, monitor, approve completed work, and adapt plans.
• Participate in retrospective events to provide feedback and drive continuous improvement.
• Help steer the direction of the Agile Release Train (ART) using deep knowledge of product management practices, agile methodologies, and ability to create and improve high performing teams
• Proactively manage and prioritize the flow of work in the Agile Release Train (ART) backlog for sustainable value delivery balanced with key economic drivers.
• Be accountable for measuring outcomes and performance vs. goals, developing resultant plans for inclusion in roadmap development.
• Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as customer satisfaction scores, product adoption rates, and cost of health care savings to measure the success and impact of developed features
• Serves BSC as the subject matter expert with respect to competition, industry trends, technological advances, and change customer/marketplace needs for the value stream and product(s) assigned.
• Demonstrate thought leadership and champion the product vision and product across BSC.
• Partner with cross-functional leaders and team members to resolve escalated issues.

Qualifications

Your Knowledge and Experience

• A Bachelor's degree is required, plus 7 years of experience in Product Management, Business Strategy Leadership, Management Consulting. MBA degree is preferred.
• Ability to drive products and communicate effectively with senior level executives.
• Excellent writing, presentation, and interpersonal skills with a keen ability to communicate ideas and vision effectively across executives and engineering teams.
• Experience in product development, value stream/journey mapping and related techniques.
• Required experience developing and monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Preferred demonstrated success in managing cross-functional teams and teams of teams and technical competencies in: relationship management, product release and deployment, strategic planning, market & competitor analysis, customer and user experience analysis, objectives and key results (OKRs) and key performance indicators (KPIs) definition and tracking
• Preferred experience with cross-functional initiatives with a high degree of complexity.
• Preferred Scaled Agile (SAFe) Framework and / or other Product Manager and Product Owner SAFe, Agile Product Management (APM) or SAFe Practice Consultant (SPC) certification(s).

About the Team

About Blue Shield of California

As of January 2025, Blue Shield of California became a subsidiary of Ascendiun. Ascendiun is a nonprofit corporate entity that is the parent to a family of organizations including Blue Shield of California and its subsidiary, Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan; Altais, a clinical services company; and Stellarus, a company designed to scale healthcare solutions. Together, these organizations are referred to as the Ascendiun Family of Companies.

At Blue Shield of California, our mission is to create a healthcare system worthy of our family and friends and sustainably affordable. We are transforming health care in a way that genuinely serves our nonprofit mission by lowering costs, improving quality, and enhancing the member and physician experience.

To achieve our mission, we foster an environment where all employees can thrive and contribute fully to address the needs of the various communities we serve. We are committed to creating and maintaining a supportive workplace that upholds our values and advances our goals.

Blue Shield is a U.S. News Best Company to work for, a Deloitte U.S. Best Managed Company and a Top 100 Inspiring Workplace. We were recognized by Fair360 as a Top Regional Company, and one of the 50 most community-minded companies in the United States by Points of Light. Here at Blue Shield, we strive to make a positive change across our industry and communities - join us!

Our Values:

• Honest. We hold ourselves to the highest ethical and integrity standards. We build trust by doing what we say we're going to do and by acknowledging and correcting where we fall short.
• Human. We strive to listen and communicate effectively, showing empathy by understanding others' perspectives.
• Courageous. We stand up for what we believe in and are committed to the hard work necessary to achieve our ambitious goals.

Our Workplace Model:

At Blue Shield of California and the Ascendiun Family of Companies, we believe in fostering a workplace environment that balances purposeful in-person collaboration with flexibility. As we continue to evolve our workplace model, our focus remains on creating spaces where our people can connect with purpose - whether working in the office or through a hybrid approach - by providing clear expectations while respecting the diverse needs of our workforce.

Two Ways of Working:

• Hybrid (Default): Work from a business unit-approved office at least two (2) times per month (for roles below Director-level) or once per week (for Director-level roles and above).Exceptions:

o Member-facing and approved out-of-state roles remain remote.

o Employees living more than 50 miles from their assigned offices are expected to work with their managers on a plan for periodic office visits.

o For employees with medical conditions that may impact their ability to work in-office, we are committed to engaging in an interactive process and providing reasonable accommodations to ensure their work environment is conducive to their success and well-being.

• On-Site: Work from a business unit-approved office an average of four (4) or more days a week.

Physical Requirements:

Office Environment - roles involving part to full time schedule in Office Environment. Based in our physical offices and work from home office/deskwork - Activity level: Sedentary, frequency most of work day.

Please click here for further physical requirement detail.

Equal Employment Opportunity:

External hires must pass a background check/drug screen. Qualified applicants with arrest records and/or conviction records will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with Federal, State and local laws, including but not limited to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, protected veteran status or disability status and any other classification protected by Federal, State and local laws.