Lead Product Manager - Labor Operations

Shift4 is expanding globally and hiring for a Lead Product Manager - Labor Relations!

Restaurants need tools to manage their most complex and costly operational challenge: their people. Scheduling, time tracking, and compensation management are deeply intertwined with how a restaurant runs day-to-day, yet they remain largely disconnected from the systems operators already use. That's the problem this new role exists to solve.

You'll own the product strategy and execution for Shift4’s integrated labor management suite — a set of capabilities that help restaurant operators manage their staff from scheduling through to compensation, all within the Shift4 ecosystem.

This role is onsite and can be based at any of the following Shift4 locations: Center Valley, PA (Preferred) / Atlanta, GA / Tampa, FL 

Relocation assistance may be available.

Responsibilities

The core of the product spans:

• Staff scheduling and shift management: Helping operators build schedules, manage availability, fill gaps, and communicate with their teams
• Time and attendance: Capturing hours worked, managing exceptions, and feeding accurate data into downstream processes — tightly integrated with POS activity
• Compensation processing: Ensuring operators can pay their staff accurately and on time, with a seamless flow from hours worked to funds disbursed

You'll own the experience end to end: what operators see and do, how we configure and extend capabilities, where we draw the line on customization, and how we evolve the products over time.

You Are

• An operator at heart: You understand what it actually means to run a restaurant — the chaos of scheduling around call-outs, the anxiety of payroll week, the frustration of a time punch dispute. You've either lived it or studied it deeply enough that operators feel understood when they talk to you. That empathy shapes every product decision you make
• A domain-depth PM: You've spent meaningful time in the labor management space — scheduling systems, time and attendance platforms, or compensation products. You have strong opinions about what good looks like and can explain why most solutions in this space still feel like legacy enterprise software
• A builder, not just a specifier. You don't wait for engineering bandwidth to prove out an idea. You can spin up a functional prototype using AI-assisted coding tools — good enough to validate a concept, demo to stakeholders, or stress-test a workflow.
• A cross-functional operator: Labor and compensation products touch compliance, finance, HR, and operations simultaneously. You know how to navigate regulatory surface area without letting it paralyze the roadmap
• Revenue-oriented and retention-focused: You understand why this product matters to Shift4's business. You track the metrics that reflect that: seat counts, active usage, attach rates, retention lift
• A disciplined executor: You bring structure to a product area with a lot of moving parts — partner dependencies, compliance constraints, implementation complexity, and a diverse operator base with varying technical sophistication. You set aggressive timelines, and keep the team focused on what matters most this cycle

What Success Looks Like

Six months in:

• You've developed a deep understanding of the current product experience — what operators love, where they struggle, and where Shift4 creates or breaks value
• You've established a clear 2026 roadmap with prioritized initiatives tied to adoption, engagement, and retention targets — reviewed and aligned with leadership
• Core performance metrics are defined, instrumented, and visible in a leadership dashboard

One year in:

• Active usage among enrolled operators has grown materially — you can attribute the improvement to specific product and activation interventions
• You've identified and shipped at least one capability that expands the product's value beyond its initial scope — a new operator segment, a deeper integration, or a compliance capability that opens a new segment

Two years in:

• Labor management is a recognized retention and revenue driver in the Shift4 VAS portfolio not a feature, but a platform layer
• You've shaped a multi-year vision for where this product goes next: additional integrations, expanded operator segments, or adjacent capabilities that deepen the platform's value
• When prospects evaluate Shift4 against competitors, labor management is a differentiating capability and not a gap

You Should Know

This is a high-trust product area. Operators rely on this to pay their people accurately and on time. Mistakes create real consequences — for their staff, for their business, and for their relationship with Shift4. You'll need to balance urgency with discipline.

Regulatory complexity is real. Wage and hour compliance, tip allocation, multi-state tax treatment, and evolving labor laws require ongoing attention. You don't need to be a compliance expert, but you need to know when to involve one and how to build product that doesn't create liability.

Adoption is the primary challenge. The opportunity in our existing merchant base is significant — many operators who could benefit from this product aren't yet using it. Unlocking that requires identifying friction in the activation funnel and partnering with commercial and implementation teams to convert eligible operators into active users.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in product management, with at least 2–3 years in a domain directly related to labor management, scheduling, time and attendance, or compensation software
• Demonstrated experience owning products with revenue or retention accountability — you can tie your product decisions to business outcomes
• Experience managing a product built or delivered through a strategic partner or vendor relationship — you know how to own the experience without owning all the code
• Strong analytical fluency — you can define metrics, interpret data, and build a business case without needing a data team to do it for you
• Exceptional communication skills, sharp executive presentations, credible conversations with operators and partners
• Experience in restaurant, hospitality, or retail tech strongly preferred — you understand the operational realities of shift-based businesses
• Familiarity with BI tooling and experience partnering with data teams to instrument and report on product performance

Why This Role Matters

Labor is the single largest cost in a restaurant. It's also the most operationally demanding — scheduling is a puzzle that changes every week, time data has to be accurate or you have a compliance problem, and if pay is late or wrong, you lose people. These aren't edge cases. They're the weekly reality for every operator we serve.

This is a high-visibility role with real business impact. You'll shape strategy, drive adoption, and build the operational layer that makes Shift4 the operating system for restaurants.

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