About the roleThe Technical Product Manager owns Pearl's backend, API product surface. This is not a UX-first role, Pearl has dedicated PMs running consumer and partner-facing products with interfaces. This role sits one layer deeper, at the infrastructure of what makes those products possible.
Today, that ownership spans three core product areas:
- Integrations & Public Programs, an area we expect to continue expanding
- The Certification App, including oversight of the team that supports it
- Contractor-facing tools and applications
You will work directly with backend engineering teams - both onshore and offshore - to shape, plan, and deliver the systems that power Pearl's platform. You'll translate technical changes (API updates, data model shifts, pipeline improvements) into clear product requirements, and you'll be equally comfortable discussing schema design with an engineer and communicating release implications to a business stakeholder.
This is a mid-level role for someone who has lived in the backend world, who understands the real challenges of data pipelines, service dependencies, and deployment cycles and who brings the product discipline to turn that technical fluency into organized, well-communicated delivery.
Key responsibilitiesBackend & Data Pipeline Product Ownership- Own the product roadmap for Pearl's backend systems, API layer, and data pipelines.
- Define requirements and acceptance criteria for backend initiatives in close collaboration with engineering & product.
- Maintain a deep understanding of how backend and data layer changes ripple through to consumer and partner-facing products.
- Identify and articulate downstream product impact when APIs, data models, or pipeline logic evolves.
Engineering Team Partnership- Serve as the primary product partner for Pearl's backend engineering teams, including offshore teams.
- Run structured planning and communication rhythms with offshore engineers, clear briefs, async documentation, detailed technical tickets and regular check-ins.
- Help engineering teams stay unblocked by resolving ambiguity, making scoping decisions, and escalating the right tradeoffs.
- Translate between technical and non-technical stakeholders so that backend work is understood and trusted across the organization.
Release Planning & Deployment Support- Lead release planning for backend and data pipeline initiatives, coordinating timelines, dependencies, and deployment readiness.
- Own the product tasks that surround deployments: release notes, internal communication, rollback planning, and post-deploy validation.
- Maintain a clear view of what is in flight, what is coming, and what is at risk.
Quality & Ownership- Take ownership of quality control across backend product deliverables - not just shipping, but shipping well.
- Drive new initiatives from problem definition through delivery, maintaining momentum and accountability.
- Proactively flag risks and quality gaps, and work with engineering to resolve them before they become incidents.
- Take pride in that most initiatives on the roadmap have a dependency on the BE running smoothly and have a drive to deliver.
Communication & Visibility- Act as a visible, communicative presence across the engineering and product organization.
- Write clearly requirements docs, release summaries, decision logs, and stakeholder updates.
- Enjoy being the person who brings clarity and context to the room, whether that's a planning meeting or a Slack thread.
What we are looking for- 3-5 years of product management experience, with meaningful time spent on backend, API, or data platform products.
- Hands-on familiarity with backend engineering workflows - you understand how APIs are built and versioned, what data pipelines involve, and what makes deployments risky or smooth.
- Demonstrated ability to work effectively with engineering teams, including distributed or offshore teams.
- Strong written communication skills - you can write requirements, release plans, and stakeholder updates that people actually read and act on.
- Product sense: you can reason about how a change deep in the stack will affect the products built on top of it.
- Experience owning release planning and deployment coordination for backend or infrastructure products.
- Comfortable driving new projects from scratch and taking ownership of quality outcomes, not just delivery timelines.
- No deep UX expertise required, but curiosity about how backend decisions shape end-user experience is a plus.
- Alignment with Pearl's mission and values.
Compensation and Benefits:- Market salary based on experience and local conditions, in the range of $95k to $112k
- Medical, vision and dental coverage provided at no cost for employees and their families (with an option to purchase upgraded coverage at a minimal cost to employee)
- FSA, HSA, and dependent care accounts
- Life insurance coverage
- Employer paid cell phone service
- 401(k) with employer match up to 4%
- Stock options
- 15 vacation days during the calendar year, plus holidays (including the week between Christmas and New Year's Day), a floating holiday for your birthday, sick days, and paid parental leave
- Flexible work environment: work remotely from anywhere within the U.S.
The pay range for this role is:
90,000 - 112,000 USD per year (Remote (United States))
