Principal Product Manager
Caribou FinancialAt Caribou, we care about giving people financial freedom so they can focus on what’s most important to them. Today, less than two percent of Americans refinance their auto loans despite drastic increases in the cost of new and used cars. We see huge potential to help folks reduce their monthly auto expenses, as well as increase the predictability of those expenses over time. We do this by building technology to pair customers with community banks and credit unions, and ushering them through the process quickly. On average, our drivers save $130/month on their car loans while protecting their investment long term.
Caribou is led by leaders from the technology, automotive, and finance industries. We’re proud to be backed by a great team of investors, including QED Investors, Goldman Sachs, Moderne Ventures, Accomplice, Link Ventures, Motley Fool Ventures and others.
About the Role
We’re looking for a Principal Product Manager to lead a portfolio of foundational products that are central to Caribou’s growth and scale. This is a role for a systems thinker, a hands-on builder, and a strategic leader—someone who can seamlessly move between defining long-term vision, designing scalable architectures, and executing with precision.
You’ll be accountable for delivering high-impact solutions across the customer and operational journeys, with a focus on transforming our lending operations. You’ll collaborate with a talented team of engineers, designers, analysts, and business stakeholders to build products that drive conversion and efficiency for the end to end loan application through funding process that are intuitive, drive automation, and ultimately enable a simple, effortless experience for our customers and the members of our team that interface with them..
In this role, you will:
- Own and evolve the product strategy for a major segment of Caribou’s platform, aligning it with company-wide priorities and measurable outcomes.
- Lead cross-functional teams to define, build, and ship scalable features that serve both our customers and our internal teams—delivering value quickly while laying the foundation for what comes next.
- Architect durable, extensible product systems that account for operational complexity, regulatory constraints, and future growth and innovation.
- Drive prioritization with clarity, balancing short-term impact with long-term strategic bets.
- Develop a deep understanding of the business processes, roles and metrics that underly our operations in order to drive change and earn trust of operational leaders.
- Establish and monitor clear product health metrics and business KPIs to evaluate performance and guide iteration.
- Engage regularly with executive leadership, including direct partnership with our executive leadership in sales and ops, offering a strong product point of view on trade-offs, business cases, and technical enablement.
- Stay current on the fundamentals of marketplace lending–the technology, consumer behavior, and regulatory dynamics–all to ensure our roadmap is always grounded in relevance, future thinking, and opportunity.
- Champion a customer-first mindset, informed by data, research, and frontline feedback—ensuring we solve real problems with empathy and excellence.
- Help cultivate product excellence across the organization by mentoring teammates and modeling high standards in product thinking, execution, and collaboration.
About You
We want to hear from you if you thrive at the intersection of big-picture thinking and executional depth. You’re someone who doesn’t just ship products—you design systems, influence strategy, and rally teams around customer-centric goals.
You likely have:
- 10+ years of experience in product management, as a GM, or equivalent strategic ownership roles.
- 7+ years of experience building digital consumer lending products or platforms.
- A strong track record of defining vision, crafting roadmaps, and leading the end-to-end development of high-performing products.
- Technical fluency and systems-level thinking—able to design product architectures that are robust, scalable, and adaptable to evolving needs.
- A confident, collaborative approach to stakeholder engagement—including experience influencing C-level executives and Board members.
- A rigorous and data-informed mindset, with an ability to synthesize insights and drive decisions across ambiguity.
- Familiarity with the lending ecosystem, including AI-powered document verification, alternative data systems, and compliance-friendly product design.
- A proven track record of ambitious product delivery at scale, driving significant wins and achieving measurable impact in a product capacity–we want to be excited not only by your approach but by the wins you have under your belt.
How we will take care of you
Everyone at Caribou is a valued team member, and we always strive to live up to our value Take Care of Each Other. Our compensation and benefits package includes:
- Competitive compensation: $173k - $217k
- Equity options
- 401k savings program
- Generous paid time off including: Flexible Time Off (FTO) for all employees and 100% paid parental leave for all parents.
- Robust wellness benefits including company-paid plans for health, dental, vision, mental health, disability and basic life insurance.
- Optional benefits to suit your individual circumstances such as HSAs, FSAs, supplemental life and medical insurance, and pet insurance.
- Up to $1,000 per year for eligible professional development expenses.
We come from all walks of life and are joined together by our shared values, which guide our work and how we work together.
- Give a damn. What we’re doing matters. We show up determined to deliver results, and we love it.
- Velocity. We’re intentional about where we’re going and we race towards it.
- Make the assist. We have diverse strengths. We offer and ask for help so we all win.
Caribou is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, pregnancy status, marital status, military or protected veteran status, genetics, or any other characteristic protected by law. This position is not restricted solely to the responsibilities listed above, and the scope and responsibilities are subject to change. A pre-employment background check is required as a condition of employment.
*Caribou does not currently have employee operations in AL, AK, AR, CT, DE, GA, HI, IA, ID, IN, KS, KY, ME, MI, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, UT, VT, WV, WY.