Senior Product Manager - Payments Platform

WHO WE ARE

ActBlue is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating cutting-edge technology that fuels Democratic victories and enables progressive causes to thrive. 

Our vision is simple: building change through the power of people. Since our founding, we’ve been building innovative solutions to revolutionize grassroots fundraising – if you’ve donated to a Democratic campaign or a progressive organization online, you’ve probably used our platform! We believe in putting power in the hands of small-dollar donors by helping thousands of groups — from local candidates to national movements — mobilize their communities and create a lasting impact. Every member of our team is deeply committed to advancing our shared mission and core values. Together, we are shaping the future of democracy. 

THE OPPORTUNITY

ActBlue is seeking a Senior Product Manager to own and evolve critical components of our payments platform—the infrastructure responsible for moving money across the Democratic fundraising ecosystem.

ActBlue processes millions of contributions that power campaigns and progressive causes across the United States. The systems behind these contributions must operate with high reliability, financial correctness, and regulatory compliance under real-world fundraising conditions.

The Payments Platform team builds and operates the core infrastructure that enables money movement across ActBlue’s platform. This includes payment initiation, authorization, settlement, reconciliation, refunds, chargebacks, and disbursements, as well as the financial data systems that ensure funds move securely and accurately from donors to campaigns.

These systems integrate with external payment processors, card networks, fraud and compliance services, and internal platform services used across ActBlue’s product ecosystem.

As a Senior Product Manager, you will partner closely with Engineering, Finance, Payments Operations & Fraud, Account Operations, Legal, Customer Experience, and external payment partners to improve the reliability, scalability, and operational performance of ActBlue’s payments infrastructure.

This role carries meaningful operational responsibility. You will help ensure the systems that power donor contributions remain reliable under real-world conditions, including diagnosing complex payment failures, responding to production incidents, and continuously strengthening system resiliency and observability.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Own strategy and roadmap for key components of ActBlue’s payments platform across the full transaction lifecycle: authorization, capture, settlement, reconciliation, refunds, chargebacks, disbursements, and error handling.
• Build and evolve core payment infrastructure, including payment primitives, APIs, processor integrations, and internal platform services that support fundraising products across ActBlue.
• Design systems that support multiple payment architectures, including PayFac-style and platform/ISV models, while ensuring compliance with campaign finance regulations.
• Partner deeply with Engineering to design scalable, resilient platform capabilities and translate complex technical requirements into clear product strategies and delivery plans.
• Work closely with Finance and Payments Operations to ensure settlement accuracy, reconciliation correctness, payout reliability, and effective financial risk management across millions of transactions.
• Define and own key platform metrics such as authorization rates, decline patterns, payout success, refund rates, processing costs, and financial accuracy.
• Analyze operational and payment performance signals to identify opportunities to improve authorization success, reduce failure loops, strengthen resiliency, and optimize platform behavior through routing strategies, retry logic, and improved error handling.
• Lead integrations with new processors, payment partners, and platform services to ensure the payments infrastructure remains scalable, resilient, and adaptable to evolving fundraising and regulatory requirements.
• Own the operational performance of the systems you help build by partnering with engineering and operational teams to diagnose complex payment failures, participate in incident response, and drive improvements that strengthen system reliability.
• Communicate product strategy, progress, risks, and outcomes clearly across technical and non-technical stakeholders, ensuring strong alignment across engineering, leadership, and operational teams.

WHAT YOU BRING

• 5+ years of product management experience, including ownership of complex technical systems or platform infrastructure.
• Deep experience working on payments systems or financial infrastructure, with strong familiarity with the full lifecycle of a transaction from initiation and authorization through settlement, reconciliation, refunds, chargebacks, and disbursements.
• Experience building or operating high-volume payments systems within a fintech, marketplace, or platform environment.
• Strong familiarity with the payments ecosystem, including card networks, processors, and payment rails such as ACH and RTP, as well as regulatory frameworks including PCI DSS, NACHA rules, and card network mandates.
• Technical fluency and comfort working with APIs, payment specifications, and platform architectures in close partnership with engineering teams.
• Experience delivering capabilities within core payment workflows such as authorization systems, refund architecture, retry logic, failure handling, payment routing, or multi-processor orchestration.
• Strong understanding of financial data systems, including reconciliation, settlement accuracy, and supporting finance and accounting workflows in high-transaction-volume environments.
• Data-driven product instincts and comfort analyzing operational and financial metrics such as authorization rates, decline patterns, payment success rates, processing costs, and financial accuracy.
• Strong systems thinking and the ability to design modular platform capabilities across complex, interconnected systems.
• Comfort operating in production environments, including experience diagnosing system failures, participating in incident response, and improving platform reliability and operational resilience.
• Proven ability to lead complex cross-functional initiatives involving engineering, finance, operations, and external partners.
• Extreme ownership mindset with the ability to proactively identify problems, navigate ambiguity, and drive complex initiatives from strategy through execution.
• Passion for leveraging technology to protect our democracy, and excitement about building financial infrastructure that enables grassroots fundraising for progressive campaigns and causes.

WORK & BENEFITS SNAPSHOT

This posting is for a full-time, remote, salaried position. Travel may be required on a limited basis to attend all-staff and departmental retreats (1-2 times per year). Additional travel may be required for select positions. 

Registered States*: 

Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Washington D.C.

*While ActBlue is currently registered to support remote work in the states listed above, we possess the ability to register in additional states as needed. If you are located in a state not listed, we may still be able to proceed with your application, but please note that the offer process may take longer to accommodate registration requirements.

Work Schedule: 

This role requires availability during established, regular business hours (Mon-Fri).

Work Environment: Employees can expect to work with distributed teams across all U.S. time zones. Our roles require extended technology usage, and proficiency with virtual communication tools such as Zoom and Slack. Regular attendance in virtual meetings is inherent to every position.

Salary Range Details: $162,027 - $178,971 - $195,915

ActBlue is committed to consistent compensation practices across our organization. Final salary offers will take into account factors such as candidate experience, interview performance and current team salary parity. 

Benefits: 

• Flexible work schedules and an unlimited time-off policy
• Fully paid and trans-inclusive health, dental, and vision insurance for employees and their families; plus fully-paid health reimbursement arrangement to use for out of pocket expenses and fully-paid short- and long-term disability 
• Fully paid basic and AD&D life insurance and a voluntary supplemental life insurance option
• Dependent and health care flexible spending account options
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) benefits for employees 
• Automatic 2% Employer-paid 401K contribution, plus up to an additional 6% match on employee contributions
• A minimum of three months paid medical, family and parental leave (for all new parents, adoptions included)
• Commuter or home-office benefits, including a $1,000 home-office setup allowance for all new full-time remote employees
• Additional perks including quarterly snack deliveries and digital subscriptions to the Boston Globe & New York Times

ActBlue is unable to sponsor work visas at this time.

UNION INFORMATION

The terms and conditions of this position are subject to a collective bargaining agreement with the Communications Workers of America, the exclusive bargaining agent of covered ActBlue employees.

BACKGROUND CHECKS

As part of our hiring process, ActBlue will conduct a background check at the time of offer. This will be completed in compliance with applicable laws and will not be initiated without your consent.

INCLUSION STATEMENT FROM ACTBLUE

ActBlue is committed to equal employment opportunities and fostering a diverse, inclusive workplace. We celebrate unique perspectives, honor the dignity of all individuals, and recognize that diverse backgrounds and identities strengthen our mission.

If you’re passionate about our work and see yourself in this role, we encourage you to apply—even if you don’t meet every requirement.

We also provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities throughout the hiring process and employment. To request an accommodation, email recruitment@actblue.com.