Senior Data Product Manager / Data Strategy Lead

Job Title: Sr Product Owner (Data Product Manager, Strategy Lead) Location: Charlotte, NC / Plano, TX Duration: Contract - 12 months Pay Range: Charlotte: $76.38/hr (W2); Plano: $80.12/hr (W2) Job ID: 407162 About BCforward BCforward is a leading global IT consulting and workforce solutions firm providing services and support to Fortune 500 and government clients. Founded in 1998, BCforward has grown with our customers needs into a full-service business solutions provider. With delivery centers and offices across North America and India, we take pride in building long-term relationships and delivering excellence through innovation, collaboration, and integrity. Job Description We are seeking a Sr Product Owner (Data Product Manager, Strategy Lead) to join our dynamic team. The ideal candidate will have strong experience in data governance, data strategy, and architecture within global payments and a proven ability to define data-domain strategies, govern standardized patterns, and drive predictable delivery across a complex portfolio. Responsibilities: Define data domain and capability strategies, target patterns, and modernization pathways; co-develop and maintain roadmaps with delivery, incorporating Inspect & Adapt learnings, technical debt, and audit findings. Assess new portfolio intake to drive data landscape simplification, modernization, and governance; influence scope and design decisions. Lead governance routines to adopt target data patterns; co-own business-driven governance with DSME; ensure control efficacy and compliance readiness. Partner with Enterprise Architects to align with enterprise blueprints; lead strategic enablers during PI Planning and enforce standardized data patterns. Support delivery verticals by validating Epic acceptance criteria for strategic and governance fit; advise on design trade-offs, prioritization, and dependency management. Serve as the strategy-layer product manager and voice of the customer; capture and prioritize client, regulatory, and operational use cases to drive reuse and measurable value. Advance Data-as-Product practices including canonical data contracts, shared services, interoperability, culture change, and pattern libraries. Required Skills & Qualifications: Primary skill: Data governance, protection, and data management. Secondary skill: Data modeling and architecture. Tertiary skill: Cloud architecture. Global Payments domain expertise: payment rails, clearing/settlement, cross-border flows, correspondent banking, treasury/payments operations; ISO 20022 and SWIFT MT/MX. Regulatory and reporting knowledge: PSD2/Open Banking, AML/Sanctions, NFRR/FRR reporting controls, audit readiness; data retention and lineage requirements. Data strategy and architecture: canonical data modeling, shared contracts/APIs, event-driven and batch patterns, lineage/metadata, reference/master data, and data quality controls. Governance leadership: design-pattern stewardship, control frameworks, standards enforcement, and policy-to-implementation traceability. Enterprise alignment: collaboration with Enterprise Architects, blueprint adherence, pattern libraries, and PI Planning of strategic enablers (SAFe or similar). Product management: roadmap definition, value hypotheses, backlog curation, Epic/Feature acceptance criteria, and prioritization for reuse and measurable value. Portfolio intake and discovery: ability to challenge scope for simplification and modernization; dependency and risk management across delivery verticals. Communication and stakeholder management: executive storytelling, cross-functional influence, and collaboration across EMEA and global teams. Experience: typically 10+ years in data, architecture, or product roles, including 5+ years in Payments/Treasury or banking; delivery in regulated environments. Preferred Skills: Modern data practices: data mesh and product-based operating models; event streaming platforms such as Kafka; interoperability standards. Cloud and modernization: migration to Azure or AWS, data lakes/warehouses, streaming, and real-time payments integration. Certifications: SAFe POPM/Architect, CDMP/DAMA, and cloud certifications (Azure/AWS). Work Arrangement & Notes: Hybrid schedule with a minimum of 3 days per week onsite. Glider assessment: BOA-TOD-0. Why BCforward? At BCforward, we believe in advancing lives and careers. When you join our team, you gain access to: Competitive compensation and benefits Opportunities for growth with global clients A supportive, inclusive culture that values innovation and people Exposure to cutting-edge technologies and projects About Our Commitment BCforward is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or veteran status. Interested? Apply Now! If this sounds like the right opportunity for you, please apply with your most recent resume.