30+ years leading product at PE-backed SaaS companies, a Fortune 5 enterprise, and founder-led businesses — as founding CPO at both WorkForce Software ($68M→$150M ARR, acquired by ADP for $1.2B) and BS&A Software, building the product function from scratch at each and scaling the cloud SaaS business.
Founding CPO at two PE-backed companies — I've created the product management practice from scratch where none existed, assembling the team, governance, and operating model, then scaling each into a growth engine that delivered material enterprise value, including a $1.2B exit.
Built product organizations recognized among the world's finest — WorkForce Software's product & design team earned a spot on Comparably's Top 50 Best Product + Design Departments (2022), a global list alongside Microsoft and Amazon. Great teams make great products.
Every product investment decision I've made has been anchored in revenue impact. I've doubled ARR, tripled EBITDA, and built the product foundation for a $1.2B acquisition.
Not just AI features — an AI operating model. In a tight partnership with the CTO, I designed BS&A's first AI strategy, shipped its first AI-powered customer features, and led an AI-first cultural shift — reshaped the SDLC into an AI-driven lifecycle (AI-DLC) and drove AI tooling adoption across every engineering team.
Four acquisitions across three companies — Per-Se at McKesson, Workplace and FoKo Retail at WorkForce, and Boyce Systems at BS&A — each integrated into the product portfolio and, where it mattered, migrated onto cloud. Comfortable in the room for diligence and investor meetings, including WorkForce's $1.2B exit to ADP, and stepped in as Interim CRO through a leadership transition.
Focused product investment on making BS&A's cloud SaaS product clearly better than its on-premise predecessor — innovative new capabilities that accelerated customer adoption and scaled the live cloud base. Backed initiatives to improve implementation margin and lower the cost to support cloud customers, feeding the company's multi-year value-creation plan.
Built BS&A's in-app customer feedback and CSAT engine from scratch — measurably reduced the cloud detractor rate and turned at-risk strategic accounts into promoters. Stood up the Customer Advisory Board to validate the roadmap directly with the people who run on it.
Joined as founding CPO at a founder-led municipal ERP company following a major private-equity investment by Serent Capital. Built the product function from scratch — team, governance, tooling, and PM playbook. Helped more than double company revenue while nearly quadrupling EBITDA — turning the core software business from loss-making to profitable through on-premise to cloud migration, new products, and implementation-margin work. Shipped BS&A's first AI products and co-led, with our Head of Payments and CTO, the launch of the company's first native integrated payments product — now a core growth engine — while partnering with the CTO to drive an AI-first cultural shift, transforming the SDLC (AI-DLC) to accelerate ideation to deployment and aligning product investments to support the company's five-year growth strategy.
Serent Capital PE-Backed · GovTech · Municipal ERPBrought in by the new CEO following Insight Partners' investment to create and lead the company's first product management practice as the founder exited. Led global product strategy for a 85+ country enterprise SaaS platform, doubling ARR from $68M to $150M with 1,100 enterprise customers and 6.3M active users. Built a 30-person product organization recognized as one of the world's best. Expanded the portfolio through M&A — integrating Workplace (UK) and leading the build/buy/partner evaluation behind acquiring FoKo Retail (Canada) to add an employee-experience capability. Partnered with CEO and investment bankers on funding and strategic exit — product investments contributed directly to WorkForce Software's acquisition by ADP in October 2024 for $1.2 billion in cash. Participated in investor roadshows, ADP executive meetings, and due diligence leading to the transaction.
PE-Backed · Enterprise WFM SaaS · Acquired by ADP $1.2BLed $56M P&L across pharmacy systems, POS, mobile, and payment processing at a Fortune 5 healthcare enterprise. Doubled revenue, tripled EBITDA, and captured ~25% retail pharmacy market share. Sunset a 35-year-old product while retaining 70% of the customer base.
Fortune 5 · Healthcare TechnologyWorkForce Software's product and design department — built and led by Joe — was named to Comparably's Top 50 Best Product + Design Departments, a global list alongside Microsoft, Amazon, and HubSpot.
Read Recognition →BS&A Software announced Joe Ross as Chief Product Officer — hired to build the company's first formal product function from the ground up and lead product strategy across its municipal ERP portfolio.
Read Press Release →The company Joe led as CPO from 2016–2023 was acquired by ADP for approximately $1.2 billion in cash — one of the largest enterprise HCM acquisitions of the year. Joe participated directly in the due diligence and executive meetings that led to the transaction.
Read Press Release →BS&A acquired Boyce Systems and its Keystone software. Joe led the product integration onto the BS&A cloud platform, delivering MVP feature parity and defining the contract, pricing, and migration strategy.
Read Press Release →Joe and CTO Greg Heil publicly shared their product & technology leadership philosophy — reflecting the tight CPO/CTO partnership that drove BS&A's engineering velocity, AI transformation, and product execution.
View on LinkedIn →BS&A Software publicly launched its AI strategy at the Engage 2025 user conference, including Invoice Entry AI and Conversational Reporting — the culmination of Joe's AI product strategy and monetization framework built during his tenure.
Read Press Release →BS&A Software earned GovTech 100 recognition in both 2025 and 2026 under Joe's product leadership — the industry's premier recognition for companies most likely to have a significant impact on the government technology market.
Read Press Release →Exploring CPO and VP Product roles at PE-backed SaaS companies in the $50M–$300M ARR range.