At Wave, we help small businesses to thrive so the heart of our communities beats stronger. We work in an environment buzzing with creative energy and inspiration. No matter where you are or how you get the job done, you have what you need to be successful and connected. The mark of true success at Wave is the ability to be bold, learn quickly and share your knowledge generously.
Wave’s Payroll business is a core pillar of our mission to make finance effortless for small business owners. As the Senior Product Manager, Payroll, you will own the strategy, roadmap, and execution for critical Payroll experiences and underlying platform capabilities. You will shape how entrepreneurs onboard, run payroll, stay compliant, and trust Wave to handle their most sensitive financial workflows.
You will drive the long-term vision for Payroll, translate customer and regulatory insights into durable product strategy, and lead cross-functional teams across Engineering, Design, CX, Operations, Risk, Finance, and Compliance. You will balance strategic clarity with operational excellence—ranging from conceptualizing entirely new capabilities to managing the scalability, reliability, and regulatory soundness of our existing systems.
This role is ideal for a senior leader who can operate at multiple altitudes: visionary enough to chart the future of Payroll at Wave and pragmatic enough to guide teams through ambiguity, complexity, and rapid iteration.
Here's how you'll make an impact:
Product Strategy & Vision
Own the end-to-end product vision and multi-year strategy for Payroll, aligning it to Wave’s broader Embedded Services roadmap.
Identify and size new product opportunities: leveraging customer research, regulatory insights, and competitive analysis.
Execution & Delivery Leadership
Lead cross-functional teams to build platform capabilities that simplify onboarding, enhance compliance, improve reliability, and scale Payroll sustainably.
Translate strategy into clear roadmaps, requirements, and measurable outcomes that accelerate product performance and revenue growth.
Drive disciplined execution—balancing experimentation, technical debt, and delivery velocity.
Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Leadership
Partner with CX, Operations, Risk, Compliance, Finance, and Engineering to ensure alignment on processes, risk tolerances, regulatory expectations, and customer goals.
Build strong business cases and communicate tradeoffs across executive and senior leadership stakeholders.
Influence the broader product ecosystem by collaborating with other PMs on payments, onboarding, risk, and customer experience flows that intersect Payroll.
Data-Driven Product Decisions
Use analytics, qualitative insights, and operational data to guide prioritization and evaluate success.
Proactively identify friction points, investigate performance risks, and design scalable mechanisms to improve user experience and operational efficiency.
Thought Leadership
Serve as a subject matter expert on Payroll, compliance, financial workflows, and employer/employee money movement.
Provide strategic guidance to senior leadership on how to evolve Wave’s Payroll offering to win in market and better serve small businesses.
You'll thrive here if you have:
Have 5+ years of working experience in product management and a minimum of 3 years in the financial services industry.
Familiarity of financial products onboarding experiences including KYC, KYB and risk and fraud mitigation practices.
Experience leading product teams and taking new products from ideation to launch to scale in a Fintech environment
Proven ability to prioritize and make hard decisions in a fast-paced environment, while actively identifying and mitigating issues that have an impact on successful completion of goals.
Excellent communication and presentation skills with the integrity and confidence to liaise with executives and senior management.
Have experience in and enjoy product management from conception to launch and growth. You understand what is possible, while pushing the envelope on innovation.
Well-versed in customer and market research and can methodically go about understanding the needs of customers, the trends in the market, as well as the depth and breadth of competitors’ products.
Experience leading and building software products from concept to launch and growth. A growth background is a plus.
Strong stakeholder management and leadership skills.
Can effectively communicate and influence customers, business partners, product managers, engineers, and other Wavers in meaningful ways.
Can build different types of narratives, with the communication skills to connect with Customers, Engineers, and other Wavers in meaningful ways.
Understand and articulate customer problems and know how to translate them into solutions that drive business outcomes.
$137,000 - $154,000 a year
Wave's Total Compensation Also Includes:
- Bonus Structure
- Employer-paid Benefits Plan
- Health & Wellness Flex Account
- Professional Development Account
- Wellness Days
- Holiday Shutdown
- Wave Days (extra vacation days in the summer)
- Get A-Wave Program (work from anywhere in the world up to 90 days)
Visit our site to find out more about life at Wave!
At Wave, we value diversity of perspective. Your unique experience enriches our organization. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds. Let’s talk about how you can thrive here!
Wave is committed to providing an inclusive and accessible candidate experience. If you require accommodations during the recruitment process, please let us know by emailing [email protected]. We will work with you to meet your needs.
This advertised posting is a current vacancy.