Director, Product Management: DMS

Organization: Cox Automotive Product & Technology Group (CAPTG) | DealerOps (DO)
Reports To: Sr, Director of Product Management: Accounting, Data & Reporting
Location: Remote
About the Role
Cox Automotive is modernizing the dealership accounting experience as part of the DMS+ platform strategy. The Director of Product Management for Accounting will own the product strategy and execution for DMS+ Accounting, leading a team of Product Managers responsible for the PDLC of Accounting: General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, period close, deal posting, Journal Workbench, and adjacent workflows.
This is a build-and-lead role: the Director will simultaneously manage a live modernization effort, while managing team capacity / training, and represent Accounting's product point of view in strategic conversations - including planning tied to long term strategic outcomes.
What You'll Do
Team & Portfolio Leadership

• Provide leadership and oversight to the Accounting Product Management group, directing, monitoring, and evaluating the work of the Accounting Product Team.
• Partner with engineering, UX, and program management leads across the release train to ensure product and delivery are tightly aligned.

Product Strategy & Execution

• Own end-to-end strategy for the DMS+ Accounting product line: GL, AP, AR, period close, Journal Workbench, deal posting, and adjacent payroll workflows.
• Translate dealer accounting pain points (period close friction, reconciliation gaps, manual workarounds) into prioritized, data-informed product requirements.
• Establish and maintain product specifications, working cross-functionally with engineering, architecture, UX, and program management to ensure successful delivery.
• Apply and evolve Cox Data framework as it relates to accounting data integrity and downstream reporting.

Market & Competitive Insight

• Oversee research into dealer accounting requirements across dealer sophistication segments (from basic operators to strategic orchestrators), incorporating discovery findings into roadmap decisions.
• Maintain a working knowledge of the competitive DMS landscape (CDK, Reynolds & Reynolds, Tekion, Dominion) and how accounting capabilities differentiate DMS+ in market.
• Identify build-vs-buy/partner opportunities for adjacent capabilities (e.g., AP automation) and bring recommendations forward with clear business cases.

AI Strategy & Adoption

• Define and lead the AI strategy for the Accounting product discipline - identifying where AI/ML and agentic capabilities can meaningfully improve dealer accounting workflows (e.g., automated reconciliation, anomaly detection in period close, intelligent deal-posting review, AP automation).
• Set the standard for how the team uses AI in its own product discipline - from AI-assisted discovery and requirements synthesis to AI-supported delivery and quality practices - and build team fluency accordingly.
• Evaluate build-vs-buy-vs-partner decisions for AI-enabled capabilities, balancing speed to value against architectural fit within the broader DMS+ platform.
• Partner with architecture, data, and engineering leadership to ensure AI-enabled accounting features are grounded in reliable, well-governed data that meets compliance/audit expectations specific to financial workflows.
• Bring a point of view on responsible AI deployment in accounting contexts - accuracy, explainability, and auditability are non-negotiable given the regulatory and trust sensitivity of financial data.
• Represent Accounting's AI roadmap in executive strategy reviews, articulating both the opportunity and the guardrails.

Governance, Visibility & Executive Communication

• Provide management with end-to-end visibility across Accounting product activities - current focus areas, risks/issues, budget and cost tracking, and near/long-term priorities.
• Develop and deliver executive-ready materials (business cases, roadmaps, strategy decks) for reviews with senior leadership, including CAPTG and Cox Automotive executive forums.
• Support go-to-market planning and messaging for new accounting capabilities, partnering with marketing, sales, and dealer-facing teams.
• Ensure delivered capabilities meet quality standards without exceeding approved cost or timeline, escalating tradeoffs proactively.

Change Leadership

• Lead the team through any role and operating model evolution, bringing industry validation and change management rigor to the transition.
• Establish and refine policies and working agreements that improve consistency and predictability across the Accounting product team.

What You'll Need
Required

• 5+ years of product management experience, including 2+ years in a people-leadership role managing product managers/owners.
• Demonstrated experience owning a product line end-to-end - strategy, roadmap, delivery, and business outcomes - ideally in a B2B SaaS or platform environment.
• Experience with core accounting or financial workflows (general ledger, accounts payable/receivable, period close, reconciliation) either as a practitioner, adjacent stakeholder, or product owner of accounting/finance software.
• Strong track record translating ambiguous, cross-functional strategy into an executable roadmap, and communicating that roadmap to senior/executive audiences.
• Experience leading or participating in legacy-to-modern platform migrations (e.g., strangler-fig, parallel-run/dual-fire, phased cutover approaches).
• Skilled at building consensus across engineering, architecture, UX, and program management in a matrixed organization.

Preferred

• Experience in automotive retail, dealership operations, or DMS (Dealer Management System) products specifically.
• Familiarity with Product Planning Tooling for roadmap and delivery tracking.
• Experience standing up or evolving a product operating model
• Prior experience presenting to C-suite audiences on technical modernization strategy and business impact.

This description is intended to convey information essential to understanding the scope of the role and is not an exhaustive list of responsibilities. Duties may evolve as the DMS+ Accounting strategy matures.
USD 148,500.00 - 247,500.00 per year
Compensation:
Compensation includes a base salary in the range of $148,500.00 - $247,500.00. The base salary may vary within the anticipated base pay range based on factors such as the ultimate location of the position and the selected candidate's knowledge, skills, and abilities. Position may be eligible for additional compensation that may include an incentive program.
Benefits:
The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company's needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members. Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave.
Applicants must currently be authorized to work in the United States for any employer without current or future sponsorship.
EOE, including disability/vets