Director, Product Management - Brokerage

What you'll do:

NinjaTrader is seeking a Director of Product Management – Brokerage to serve as the product authority and primary enabler for the regulated US futures brokerage capabilities that support our parent company, Payward, and its affiliated entities. This role sits at the intersection of regulated futures operations, financial technology, and product strategy. The team exists to help Payward's affiliated entities bring ambitious new products to market by unlocking what NinjaTrader's brokerage can do for them.

You'll own the brokerage product roadmap as it serves affiliated-entity initiatives, partnering closely with those entities to understand where they want to go and translating those objectives into compliant, executable, and technically sound product plans. You'll be the person who can sit across from a partner team, understand a novel product ambition, and map a credible path through the US futures regulatory framework and NinjaTrader's technology to make it a reality. You'll work closely with Technology, Compliance, Legal, and senior leadership across both organizations.

In this role you will:

• Serve as the primary product interface between Payward's affiliated entities and NinjaTrader's brokerage, translating product ambitions into well-scoped, regulatorily sound, and technically executable plans
• Own a multi-quarter brokerage product roadmap focused on enabling affiliated-entity initiatives while balancing new capability development with system modernization and operational resilience
• Lead products from ambiguous, early-stage concepts to launched, compliant capabilities, often operating ahead of settled regulatory guidance and industry precedent
• Make clear, data-informed tradeoff decisions and align stakeholders across two organizations
• Serve as the go-to authority on the US futures regulated space, including FCM operations, the FCM–DCO–DCM relationship, clearing, settlement, margin, and client reporting, and understand how each constrains or enables new products
• Partner with Compliance and Legal to navigate product classification, structural, and regulatory questions where guidance is still evolving, translating those outcomes into product direction
• Maintain deep, current expertise as the regulatory and market structure landscape evolves
• Develop a deep understanding of NinjaTrader's brokerage technology, including APIs, platform capabilities, and infrastructure, to identify opportunities, required investments, and realistic implementation paths
• Collaborate with Technology throughout the full product lifecycle, including sprint planning, backlog grooming, stand-ups, reviews, and retrospectives
• Lead, mentor, and develop a cross-functional team focused on brokerage enablement
• Represent affiliated-entity product priorities in cross-functional leadership discussions with the CTO, CPO, and senior stakeholders
• Build a culture of accountability, partner obsession, and continuous improvement

What you'll need:

• Deep, demonstrated expertise in the US futures regulated space, including FCM systems and operations, clearing, settlement, margin, trade processing, and client reporting
• Proven ability to take products from 0 to 1 within a regulated financial services environment, including operating where regulatory and structural precedent is still evolving
• Technical fluency to reason about APIs, platform capabilities, and integration work, and to credibly define interfaces and capabilities with engineering teams
• Strong track record of owning complex, multi-system product roadmaps with cross-functional stakeholders across Technology, Compliance, and Legal
• Excellent communication and influence skills across all levels, from individual contributors to executives and partner organizations
• Experience managing vendors that support financial or trading infrastructure
• Strong strategic and analytical skills, with the ability to use data to prioritize work, measure impact, and make tradeoff decisions
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in a technical, business, or finance-related field, or equivalent professional experience

Bonus points for:

• Experience with DCM and DCO operations
• Experience with Prime Brokerage, Futures, Market Maker Financing, or retail brokerage products
• Experience building partner-facing or platform/API products

Compensation:

The salary range for this role will be $220,000.00 - $270,000.00 USD. In addition, this position will also receive an annual target bonus of 15%. Bonus pay at NinjaTrader is based on individual performance (50%) as well as company/team performance (50%).

Salary and bonus earnings are only two components of the total compensation package offered by NinjaTrader. NinjaTrader offers a 401K plan through ADP under which the company will match up to 3.5% of employee contributions. Annual paid time off allowance accrues at a rate of 23 days per year (some positions may qualify for more) plus seven paid holidays.

Location:

This role is based in Chicago, IL. *There may be remote flexibility for exceptional candidates in the following states: California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Washington DC, Wisconsin.

Hybrid:

For Chicago-based employees, we follow a hybrid work schedule: In-office Tuesday through Thursday, with remote work on Mondays and Fridays. In addition to these weekly remote days, we offer:

• 20 additional flex remote days annually
• 5 Company Wide Office-Optional weeks tied to major holidays