Introduction
At IBM Corporate Headquarters (CHQ) and Other Functions, diverse teams such as marketing, finance, legal, operations, HR, and more work together to keep IBM moving forward. These functions play a vital role in solving complex challenges, supporting our clients success, and creating collaborative environments for IBMers worldwide. Working in CHQ and Other Functions means contributing your expertise to a global network that values teamwork, problem-solving, and innovation. You'll have opportunities to grow your career while helping IBM operate with excellence and scale its impact across industries. With a culture that emphasizes learning, inclusivity, and career development, IBM offers the platform to apply your skills where they matter most. At the heart of our business.
Scope & Impact
- Accountable for product outcomes and influences strategy and execution across squads and stakeholders.
- Voice of the user; decide what to build and why; galvanize teams with an inspiring vision and outcomesbased roadmap; relentlessly drive discovery and delivery.
- Deliver against commercial and adoption KPIs (usage, NPS, timetovalue etc) while improving operational efficiency and support metrics with consumer grade experience on top.
Your Role And Responsibilities
We are seeking an experienced
SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central (EC) Benefits Product Manager with strong expertise in Benefits design, configuration, enrolment, life events, vendor integrations, and operational support.
The ideal candidate will leverage deep EC Benefits knowledge to design scalable, compliant, usercentric solutions that meet IBM's global Total Rewards strategy. This role requires owning the product vision, strategy, and commercial success for SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central (EC) Benefits.
You will lead and develop a multidisciplinary team (EC Benefits consultants, solution/technical architects, developers etc.) to deliver/maintain a scalable, compliant, and intuitive global benefits platform that advances our Total Rewards strategy and employee experience. You will be accountable for product plans, market/customer outcomes, and crossfunctional execution, and you influence strategy, portfolio priorities, and gotomarket alignment.
You role requires strong product ownership, problemsolving capability, and the ability to influence across HR Technology, Benefits Operations, Total Rewards, CIO, Finance, and other enterprise stakeholders.
Preferred Education
Master's Degree
Core Responsibilities
Required technical and professional expertise
Product Strategy & Roadmap
- Define and socialize the EC Benefits product vision, roadmap, and OKRs aligned to Total Rewards strategy and enterprise architecture; make datadriven tradeoffs across desirability, feasibility, and viability.
- Lead product discovery (research, journey mapping, experimentation) to simplify experiences for employees, HR partners, and Benefits Ops.
Requirements, Design & Governance
- Lead fitgap across plan designs, eligibility/coverage logic, life events, dependent management, pension and validations, leveraging standard EC Benefits capabilities.
- Establish configuration guardrails (naming/versioning, documentation, access/privacy), design patterns, and reference architecture for Benefits within the HCM ecosystem (Core HR, Time/Absence, Mobility, vendor interfaces).
Integrations & Data Flow
- Own the carrier/vendor integration strategy (eligibility/enrolment files, workflows, confirmations) file specs, mappings, schedules, reconciliation, monitoring, and permanent fix patterns for fallouts.
- Partner on PointtoPoint replication and adjacent data flows; ensure high data quality and resilience across upstream/downstream systems.
Delivery Excellence & Quality
- Oversee configuration, rootcause analysis, and defect resolution for plans, rates, eligibility, validations, enrolments, and life events.
- Lead SIT, regression, and UAT strategies with robust test data and acceptance criteria; instrument observability (dashboards, alerts, error queues) to reduce MTTR and recurring issues.
Operational Calendar & Readiness
- Orchestrate Annual Enrolment and key inyear events (midyear changes, dependent verification, plan amendments) including dress rehearsals, blackout windows, comms, training, and hypercare.
- Lead quarterly releases/HRSP impact assessments, regression scope, feature toggles, rollback, and business readiness; publish release notes and valuerealization updates.
Stakeholder, Vendor & Change Management
- Translate Total Rewards policies into product increments with measurable outcomes; partner with Finance, Risk/Compliance, Security, and Vendor Mgmt to maintain controls and auditability.
- Govern carrier/vendor performance with KPIs/SLAs and continuous improvement forums; engage SAP on roadmap items and adoption planning.
Required Qualifications & Experience
- Overall 12+ years if experience including 8+ years with SAP SuccessFactors; 5+ years specializing in EC Benefits (complex/global environments/multi regional).
- Proven people leadership managing consultants, architects, developers/integration, QA/test, and release; track record of coaching, performance management, and succession.
- Strong experience with vendor/carrier integrations (file design, mapping, reconciliation, monitoring).
- Demonstrated delivery of Annual Enrolment and multirelease roadmaps with high quality and minimal disruption.
- Excellent stakeholder management, written/oral communication, and datadriven decisionmaking.
- A professional certification in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Benefits is a must
People Leadership (People Manager)
- Lead, coach, and grow an experienced team (consultants, architects, developers, QA/test etc.). Own hiring, onboarding, performance management, coaching, career paths, and succession.
- Set standards for configuration quality, engineering practices, test rigor, documentation, and observability; remove blockers; model IBM growth behaviours (trusted, teamfocused, courageous, resourceful, outcomefocused).
- Build a talent pipeline, mentor PMs/analysts, and foster an inclusive, psychologically safe environment for calculated risktaking and continuous improvement.
Preferred Qualifications
Preferred technical and professional experience
- Handson EC Benefits configuration (plans, rates, eligibility, enrolments, life events, dependent validations) and issue remediation.
- Background in product management practices (roadmaps, OKRs, discovery, Agile at cale) and platform thinking.
- Familiarity with compliance/audit controls and the financial impacts of employer/employee premiums (conceptual).
- Proficiency in applying Agile and Design Thinking principles with a growth mindset expected.
Ways of Working & Growth Behaviours
- Growthminded, trusted, teamfocused, courageous, resourceful, outcomefocused; candid, transparent, and outsidein; enables decisions lower in the org; creates a psychologically safe environment; tests/learns and fails fast.
- Mentors others, builds crossdisciplinary networks, and leads by data, tying product decisions to measurable outcomes and enterprise strategy.
