Principal Product Manager, Protection Programs

At Evolve, we’re on a mission to make vacation rental easy for everyone. Our high-performing, customer-obsessed team runs on curiosity, communication, and accountability—working together to create exceptional experiences for our owners and guests. Whether solving big challenges, delivering outstanding results, or celebrating wins, we approach every day with purpose and passion. If you’re ready to join a mission-driven company where every teammate has the opportunity to thrive, Evolve might just be the place for you.

Why this role

Evolve’s Protection Programs help protect homeowners, guests, and Evolve from the unexpected. Programs such as damage protection, travel insurance, and chargeback insurance can reduce financial risk and give customers greater confidence throughout a reservation.

These programs sit at the intersection of product experience, commercial performance, and operational risk. Their success depends on more than a well-designed user flow: the right coverage, pricing, eligibility, partner economics, distribution, claims experience, and operational processes all need to work together. Evolve is looking for a product leader who can shape this portfolio as a durable business while making protection simple and valuable for customers.

As Principal Product Manager, you’ll own the strategy and roadmap for Protection Programs end to end. You’ll identify where protection can create value for customers and Evolve, build and optimize program economics with Commercial and partner teams, and lead cross-functional delivery with Design, Engineering, Operations, Finance, Legal, and other stakeholders.

What you’ll do

• Define and own the vision, strategy, and roadmap for Protection Programs, connecting customer value, risk reduction, and sustainable business performance.
• Build a deep understanding of homeowners, guests, internal teams, and insurance or protection partners; identify where protection addresses meaningful needs across the reservation lifecycle.
• Develop a portfolio strategy across offerings such as damage protection, travel insurance, and chargeback insurance, including where to invest, expand, refine, or retire programs.
• Own the commercial model for programs in partnership with Commercial, Finance, and external partners. Evaluate pricing, conversion, coverage, partner economics, claims costs, and operational expense to improve sustainable contribution.
• Identify and validate growth opportunities, including customer segments, distribution moments, packaging, pricing, and partner capabilities; translate them into clear business cases and measurable product bets.
• Improve the end-to-end experience, from understanding and selecting protection through purchase, servicing, cancellation, and claim, while making coverage terms, eligibility, and customer expectations clear.
• Partner with Commercial and go-to-market teams on positioning, packaging, channel strategy, and enablement so programs are compelling, accurately represented, and easy to sell or adopt.
• Work with Operations, Claims, Support, Legal, Compliance, and partners to make program rules and service processes reliable, scalable, and aligned with applicable requirements.
• Use customer research and data to monitor performance across awareness, attach or adoption, conversion, retention, loss and claims trends, customer satisfaction, and unit economics; adjust the roadmap as evidence changes.
• Lead cross-functional work through discovery, business case, definition, delivery, launch, and iteration, aligning teams around outcomes, dependencies, and decisions.
• Make clear choices across customer experience, commercial return, risk exposure, and operational complexity; communicate tradeoffs to senior stakeholders.
• Represent the voice of customers and the health of the Protection Programs portfolio in product decisions and help the organization build a shared understanding of both.

What makes you a great fit

• Minimum 10 years of product management experience, including 0-to-1 product buildouts and ownership of strategy and delivery for complex products or product areas.
• Strong commercial judgment and experience owning or materially shaping a product’s business model. You can evaluate revenue, margin or contribution, pricing, adoption, partner economics, and cost-to-serve alongside customer outcomes.
• A track record of turning ambiguous opportunities into focused strategies, business cases, roadmaps, and measurable results.
• Experience building products that involve financial risk, insurance, payments, lending, warranties, fraud or disputes, or other regulated or partner-dependent services; direct insurance experience is a plus.
• Ability to connect product decisions to go-to-market execution, including customer segmentation, positioning, packaging, distribution, and sales or channel enablement.
• Strong customer discovery skills and the ability to balance customer needs with business viability, risk controls, partner requirements, and operational realities.
• Experience working closely with external partners and internal teams such as Commercial, Finance, Legal, Compliance, Operations, Support, Design, and Engineering.
• Comfort using product and financial data to set success measures, assess program performance, understand unit economics, and make evidence-based investment decisions.
• The judgment to balance near-term performance with long-term customer trust, clear coverage expectations, and scalable program operations.
• Comfort working closely with Engineering on technical tradeoffs, system constraints, integrations, and sequencing.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to align senior stakeholders and cross-functional teams around decisions and outcomes.
• An AI builder mindset with a pragmatic approach to using AI tools, LLMs, and agents. You can rapidly prototype solutions, validate hypotheses, and address core customer needs, partnering closely with Engineering to transition proven concepts into scalable production features.
• Experience in insurance, fintech, travel, e-commerce, property technology, vacation rentals, or other consumer or B2B2C businesses is a plus.

Compensation

For this role, our salary range is $170K to $205K, depending on relevant experience. The role is also eligible for a variable annual bonus based on company and individual performance.

Location 

All Evolve team members must live in one of our approved locations by their first day. We can hire from anywhere in the U.S. except D.C. and Hawaii. Some positions may also have restrictions based on compensation in the following states: California, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington. If you live in Colorado, you can work remotely anywhere in the state, at our downtown Denver office, or a hybrid of both! If you're planning to move soon, please let us know, and we'll be happy to review your application again.

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How we reward Evolvers

We’re intentional about offering benefits that empower every Evolver to thrive both professionally and personally because they’re more than perks—they’re investments in our customer-obsessed, high-performing team.

We believe in treating others as they want to be treated, providing benefits that deliver real value, and challenging the status quo to meet the diverse needs of our team. Whether it’s helping you take care of your health, plan for the future, or celebrate life’s milestones, our offerings are designed to support you every step of the way.

• Financial Wellness: Industry-competitive pay, equity in the company, and a 401(k) with a 4% immediate vesting match.
• Family Support: 16-18 weeks of paid parental leave for birthing parents and 10 weeks for non-birthing parents, plus infertility coverage.
• Health & Wellness: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans, with 100% employer-paid dental and vision for individual coverage, a low-cost medical option, 10 free mental health visits, and pet insurance.
• Time to Recharge: Generous PTO, RTO (for full-time exempt employees), sick leave, holidays, and a personal holiday to celebrate what matters most to you.
• Travel Perks: Annual Evolve travel credit after one year and discounts on stays at all Evolve properties.
• Growth Opportunities: World-class onboarding programs, learning, and development resources to help you grow your impact.
• Connection: Employee Resource Groups celebrating our diverse communities at Evolve.

How we work together

With our core values as our guide, every Evolver helps shape the company we want to work for and the people we want to be. We’ve cultivated a culture of collaboration, care, and responsibility that we can all be proud of, and we’re excited to see what you’ll bring as your authentic self.

Still curious about who we are and what we do? Read more about our business and our culture at evolve.com.

EEO 

At Evolve, we are committed to diversity and inclusion. As an equal opportunity employer, all qualified candidates will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, age, sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), gender identity or gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, military service or veteran status, physical or mental disability, or any other legally protected characteristic. Evolve participates in e-Verify for all positions.

If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation at any point in the hiring process, please let your recruiter know.