Chief of Staff for Product and Technology

Candescent is a forward-thinking technology company transforming how financial institutions deliver Intelligent Banking experiences. We unite digital banking, account opening, and branch solutions that power and connect digital banking, account opening, and branch solutions—creating seamless engagement across digital, remote, and in-person channels.

Our Experience-Led, Intelligence-Driven approach combines human-centered design with data, automation, and cloud-based innovation. Built on an API-first architecture, our extensible ecosystem enables institutions to adapt quickly, integrate easily, and unlock new opportunities for growth—turning every customer interaction into a moment of clarity, confidence, and connection.

Reports To

Chief Product Officer (CPO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

Location

United States (Hybrid / Remote)

About the Role

The Chief of Staff reports to the CPO and CTO plays a pivotal role in driving operational excellence across the Product and Technology organization at Candescent. This role serves as the central hub for business operations, strategic execution, and organizational alignment across a large, multi-disciplinary team spanning product management, engineering, design, agile, architecture, and platform operations.

This position blends strategy with hands-on operational leadership. The Chief of Staff will oversee business operations for the Product and Technology organizations including financial planning, workforce allocation, transformation initiatives, product portfolio management, executive reporting, and operating rhythms.

A critical aspect of the role is running the operational cadence of the organization—ensuring that daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly leadership forums operate efficiently, decisions are made quickly, and teams remain aligned around priorities.

Acting as a force multiplier for the CPO and CTO, this leader ensures priorities are clear, execution is disciplined, and the Product and Technology organizations operate efficiently at scale—supporting outcomes that matter in a FinTech environment (e.g., reliability, security, compliance-readiness, and customer trust).

Key Responsibilities

Product & Technology Business Operations

• Lead the operational management of the Product and Technology organizations.
• Establish and maintain the operating rhythm across Product and Engineering leadership.
• Build operational dashboards and reporting that provide visibility into product delivery, engineering performance, platform reliability, and business outcomes.
• Ensure alignment across Product Management, Engineering, Architecture, Agile, Design, and Platform teams.

Executive Operating Rhythm & Leadership Cadence

Own and run the day-to-day operating cadence of the Product and Technology organization, ensuring meetings are well-prepared, the right attendees are invited, decisions are documented, and follow-through is executed.

Non-exhaustive indicative list of meetings include:

Multiple times a week

• Product & Engineering leadership standups
• Delivery and execution check-ins
• Issue escalation and rapid decision forums

Weekly

• Product leadership meeting
• Engineering leadership meeting
• Platform and architecture reviews
• Delivery and program status reviews
• Cross-functional coordination with Sales, Customer Success, and Operations

Bi-Weekly

• Updates for Veritas leadership

Monthly

• Product portfolio and roadmap reviews
• Financial and budget reviews
• Resource allocation and hiring reviews
• Product performance and KPI reviews
• Operational reviews with executive leadership

Quarterly

• Strategic planning and OKR alignment
• Roadmap prioritization reviews
• Board and CEO preparation sessions
• Quarterly business reviews (QBRs)

Financial Planning & Budget Management

• Manage the annual and quarterly budgeting process for Product and Technology.
• Track headcount budgets, vendor spend, and investment allocation across product lines and engineering initiatives; provide reporting on spend and trends against budget.
• Partner with Finance to maintain transparency into operating expenses and capital investments.
• Perform program cost forecasting, scenario identification, and scenario modeling to understand impacts of potential strategies for attaining cost targets.
• Support long-term financial planning tied to product roadmap and platform investments.

Resource & Workforce Planning

• Work with Product and Technology leadership to evolve organizational design as needed to meet strategic goals.
• Manage workforce planning across Product, Engineering, and Design organizations.
• Develop resource allocation models across products, platforms, and strategic initiatives.
• Maintain visibility into team capacity, utilization, and hiring priorities.
• Ensure staffing aligns with strategic product priorities and delivery commitments and aligns with budget.
• Help onboard new hires by providing Product and Technology-specific knowledge to enable new hires to hit the ground running.

Transformation & Strategic Initiatives

• Lead major transformation initiatives across Product and Technology.
• Drive improvements to the operating model, development processes, and delivery frameworks.
• Coordinate cross-functional initiatives that improve delivery velocity, product quality, and platform scalability.

Product Portfolio & Catalogue Management

• Maintain the enterprise product catalogue, ensuring visibility into products, platforms, APIs, and capabilities across Candescent.
• Work closely with Product Management leadership to maintain portfolio transparency and investment prioritization.
• Ensure alignment between product strategy, platform capabilities, and customer-facing solutions.

Leadership Enablement

• Serve as a strategic advisor and operational partner to the CPO and CTO.
• Prepare executive materials, strategy documents, board presentations, and leadership communications.
• Translate leadership strategy into operational plans and organizational priorities.
• Improve cross-functional communication between Product, Technology, Sales, Customer Success, and Operations.

Governance & Operating Model

• Establish governance frameworks for roadmap prioritization, platform investments, and major architectural decisions.
• Define and continuously improve the Product and Technology operating model.
• Implement best practices across product development, program management, and delivery execution.

FinTech/Regulated SaaS emphasis: Ensure operating rhythms, reporting, and execution practices support high reliability, auditability, risk awareness, and strong cross-functional alignment—especially where platform availability and customer trust are critical.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Computer Science, Finance, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years of experience in product, technology, consulting, or operational leadership roles.
• Experience working within large-scale SaaS, fintech, or enterprise technology organizations.
• Proven track record managing complex operational environments supporting large product and engineering teams.
• Experience working closely with executive leadership.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States.
• The base salary range for this position is $165,000 – $200,000 per year. This range represents the expected base compensation for this role and is based on factors such as skills, experience, geographic location, and job‑related qualifications.

Skills

• Strong strategic thinking combined with operational execution.
• Deep understanding of product development and engineering organizations.
• Financial planning and business operations expertise.
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to synthesize complex information into clear executive-level insights.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• Ability to lead and influence peers and teams, as well as manage upwards.

Preferred Background

• Experience supporting or working within Product or Engineering leadership teams.
• Familiarity with SaaS platform economics and product portfolio management.
• Consulting, strategy, or business operations experience within technology companies.
• Exposure to operating in regulated or risk-sensitive environments (e.g., FinTech), where reliability, security, and compliance considerations inform delivery and prioritization.

Statement to Third Party Agencies
To ALL recruitment agencies: Candescent only accepts resumes from agencies on the preferred supplier list. Please do not forward resumes to our applicant tracking system, Candescent employees, or any Candescent facility. Candescent is not responsible for any fees or charges associated with unsolicited resumes.