Who We Are

Ascent is a Chicago-based startup that closed its Series B funding round of $19.3M in Fall 2019. Founded only four years ago, the team has since grown to almost 50 full time employees, led and supported by an executive team and board of directors with extensive experience in technology, regulatory compliance, sales and business operations. Ascent serves global financial institutions such as ING and CommBank, and is also working directly with regulators around the world in order to continually improve and advance our product.

A first mover in building proprietary RegulationAI™, Ascent delivers market leading regulatory knowledge as a groundbreaking new way for financial firms to manage compliance. It is our mission to help our customers protect their business from regulatory and reputational risk while reducing their overall cost to comply. 

We prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion and believe strongly that a team with different backgrounds and perspectives produces better results. Together, we are solving a $64 billion global problem in regulatory compliance. Watch this video to learn more about what we do.

Ascent is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Who You Are

We are seeking a game-changing product leader to grow our product function to the next level. You are a forward thinker who is obsessive about discovering market and customer needs, defining innovative products, and driving those products to significant commercial success. Most of all, you are a builder and a problem solver at heart, and you seek to develop thoughtful solutions that will delight our customers. As the VP of Product at Ascent, you will be a key decision maker and leader in guiding the direction of the company from day one.

About this Position

The VP, Product is responsible for the product strategy, discovery, definition, roadmap, design and delivery of Ascent product platform. Ascent product platform consists of 

• Regulatory Knowledge – Knowledge-as-a-Product 
• Customer Products that deliver this Knowledge, including: (a) SaaS platform, (b) API solution, and (c) other customer facing solutions.

This is a high impact leadership role at an exciting time at Ascent to take our products to the next level of maturity and realize significant market opportunities. You will be leading a centralized Product function to support a platform-wide strategy. You have a passion for, and significant track record in, defining and bringing successful products into the market, and have a desire to work on the cutting edge. You are an excellent high-energy communicator who is actively engaged with our customers and internal stakeholders to drive market leading product experiences and align internal functions towards implementation of those solutions for profitability and market success. You will lead a high impact team of product leaders, analysts, and designers to develop the strategy, roadmaps, product design and specifications, and marketing plans that satisfy the evolving business needs and requirements of our customers. Your objectives will be directly linked to business metrics such as revenue and customer satisfaction.

Responsibilities

• Lead the discovery and strategy for Ascent’s complete Product Platform (Knowledge as a Service, SaaS Platform, API, services, etc.)
• Lead product discussions with customers discovering requirements and aspirations for RegTech solutions in the global banks and financial enterprises  – lead with empathy for our customers delivering compelling customer experiences that drives retention and business growth
• Develop and maintain product strategy, owning compelling value propositions across our customer segments. Own insights on the markets and segments in which Ascent competes in order to stay abreast of industry trends and channels to anticipate customer needs.
• Ongoing competitive analysis and customer value analysis refining strategy and quarterly roadmaps
• Own the product roadmaps and specifications, create product catalogues with standard offerings, including specifications around each of the components of Ascent’s product.
• Coordinate requirements and feedback from internal teams, including customer support, customer success, and sales/marketing
• Drive the vision and requirements, translate them to functional specifications, facilitate a sound design and deliver a compelling user experience and leading product offering
• Evaluate and prioritize requirements in partnership with the business, leveraging industry best practices and new innovations. 
• Own product design for all customer facing solutions for differentiated product experience for target persona – relentlessly pursue continuous improvement of design and product experience
• Lead the team in defining and implementing product KPIs, customer satisfaction / NPS scores – driving strategic efforts to continuously improving product KPIs
• Lead the cross functional team to facilitate requirements definition across teams to decompose and document releases, epics, functional requirements to developer-ready user stories and acceptance criteria
• Lead product marketing strategies and align with business wide marketing strategies
• Manage and grow the product team 

Required Knowledge and Skills:

•  MBA or equivalent work experience with business and analytical skills preferred
• Deep SaaS product management experience having grown a product to significant revenue realization – B2B enterprise customer delivery experience is essential
• Extensive technology product management experience including product management tools and methodologies using agile methodology
• Product management experience for Data as a Product, or experience in a data rich industry a strong plus
• Experience in RegTech, FinTech, or Financial Industry a plus
• Experience working with enterprise software & APIs
• Experience leading and influencing cross-functional groups
• Customer obsession – Strong sense of design and empathy for the users
• Ability to demonstrate thought leadership in product, design, strategy, product marketing
• Attention to detail and ability to facilitate cross functional team discussions/workshops
• Ability to coordinate big picture strategy development and tactical execution
• Self-driven, ability to thrive in fast-paced, high-growth, uncertain situations
• Experience in managing a team, recruiting and growing a product function
• Strong written and verbal communication skills

Benefits

Ascent employees enjoy many benefits and perks, including:

• Competitive compensation
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance; premiums paid 95% for the individual
• Medical premiums paid 50% for covered dependents
• Life insurance
• 401K
• Commuter benefits
• Unlimited PTO
• Professional development stipend
• The opportunity to work with smart people on challenging problems!