Product Owner & Enablement Lead, Advancement Salesforce CRM (Information Technology)

As the Product Owner & Enablement Lead for the Advancement Salesforce CRM you'll be responsible for enabling the business of advancement and shaping the future of fundraising, development, and alumni engagement practices for all five University of Massachusetts campuses. In this high-impact role, you'll lead through translating advancement needs into platform requirements. The Product Owner & Enablement Lead will act as the voice of advancement users and be responsible for the prioritization of the business roadmap through partnership with the Director of CRM Strategy and Solutions as well as with the Director of Data Strategy and Management at the University of Massachusetts Foundation (UMF).

You will serve as a collaborative partner and key liaison between campus advancement teams, the UMF IT team, and external vendors. In this role, you will evaluate needs, define the roadmap and platform strategy, set priorities, and ensure the platform aligns with the evolving requirements of advancement staff.

The successful candidate will have a deep understanding of the donor lifecycle and advancement operations, excel at cross-functional collaboration, and translate business needs into clear, actionable plans and product direction. They demonstrate exceptional maturity, professionalism, and sound judgment.

Product Ownership and Advancement Strategy

Align Salesforce technology and capabilities, the product backlog, and operational needs to UMass advancement strategy by prioritizing business value and user impact.
Understand and help maintain the product roadmap for Salesforce features that support the advancement mission, in partnership with campus stakeholders and leadership at the Foundation.
Translate business needs into actionable user stories, prioritize a feature backlog, and guide delivery with internal and external development teams.
Lead user training and onboarding efforts to improve user adoption, experience, and satisfaction with Salesforce tools among advancement professionals
Demonstrated experience and/or curiosity about ethical use of AI technologies including generative AI, predictive AI, and agentic AI systems.
Ability to evaluate, integrate, and manage AI tools to enhance operational efficiency.

Collaboration with Technical and Data Leadership

Partner with the Director of CRM Strategy and Solutions to ensure that enhancement requests are aligned with platform architecture, scalability, and system design best practices
Collaborate with the Director of Data Strategy and Management to ensure data quality, visibility, and reporting capabilities meet advancement analysis needs
Act as a bridge between business users and technical teams--not responsible for system architecture or engineering but deeply informed by the capabilities of the platform

Stakeholder Engagement and Communication

Engage campus-based advancement leaders and teams in regular feedback cycles and ensure their voices are reflected in roadmap priorities.
Communicate platform updates, roadmap changes, and key decisions in clear and accessible formats to all stakeholders.
Coordinate with training teams and campus partners; Facilitate and coordinate training requests for onboarding or empowering users Operations.
Maintain business process documentation and collaborate on the development of user guides, training content, and change communications.
Actively participate in agile ceremonies including Sprint Planning, Backlog Refinement, Reviews, and Retrospectives.
Support day-to-day operations of the Salesforce advancement platform through consultation and prioritization with campus partners.
Coordinate with third-party vendors and managed services providers as needed.

Qualifications

5+ years of relevant work experience, including:
Experience working with Salesforce, ideally within a fundraising or advancement context
Deep understanding of advancement business processes, including gift officer activity tracking, pipeline management, donor stewardship, and engagement.
Proven ability to work effectively with people of all levels of information technology expertise across a wide range of constituencies and organizational relationships.
Ability to prepare and deliver quality executive presentations, as well as to describe complex problems and proposed solutions concisely and effectively to non-technical stakeholders.
Experience with implementing and maintaining major CRM systems and business intelligence software tools.
Experience conducting user research, gathering information from many sources, filtering what is most important, and synthesizing findings into actionable recommendations.

Additional Qualifications and Skills

Experience in higher education or nonprofit fundraising environments
Familiarity with CRM support models, ticket workflows, and service-level management
Demonstrated ability to translate business needs into technical requirements for execution by CRM administrators and developers
Strong organizational, communication, and collaboration skills across diverse stakeholder groups
Salesforce Administrator certification is a plus, but not required

The following are preferred

Outstanding written and verbal communication skills as well as demonstrated presentation and negotiation abilities
Experience with agile methodologies
Demonstrates the following interpersonal attributes: Adaptable, flexible; uses grace and tact under pressure; unflappable when confronting challenges; resilient; positive outlook and "can-do" attitude; respectful and approachable style

Working Conditions

Additional support outside of regularly scheduled hours, including early mornings, nights, weekends, and holiday breaks, may occasionally be required.
Must be available by phone during business hours, and occasionally off-hours
This is a hybrid work environment and being in-person and onsite is essential for job success.
Onsite location is Newton, MA at the Mt. Ida UMass Amherst location.
Current working culture is 1 to 3 days onsite as needed or as discussed with your manager and colleagues
Travel to all 5 campuses may be required on an ad-hoc basis