Director, Product Development Operations

About the role

You will lead the operational engine behind our Product, Engineering, and Design organizations. This is a people-leadership role responsible for building and scaling the teams, systems, and processes that enable Product, Engineering, Design, and Data teams to plan, build, and ship high-impact, user-centric solutions efficiently and predictably.

Responsibilities

• Team Leadership & Organizational Development
• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing Product Development Operations team, including hiring, coaching, performance management, and career growth.
• Directly manage the UX Design team, including hiring, coaching, performance management, and career development, ensuring designers are well supported and grow in their craft.
• Serve as a mentor and escalation point for operational challenges across product lines, and as a thought partner to Product and Engineering leadership.
• Operational Strategy & Leadership
• Define and own the operational framework for the Product and Engineering organizations, including processes for planning, prioritization, and execution.
• Develop KPIs and define leadership-level reporting to track performance, velocity, predictability, and impact across teams.
• Facilitate cross-functional collaboration and alignment across Product, Design, Engineering, Data, Marketing, and customer-facing teams.
• Release Management
• Own release management strategy end-to-end across all products, ensuring consistent, high-quality, and predictable delivery.
• Oversee release planning and execution, managing cross-team dependencies, risks, and timelines.
• Manage release calendars, release notes, stakeholder communications, and post-release retrospectives.
• Tooling, Workflow & Systems Governance
• Develop subject matter expertise and support administration of enterprise tools such as Jira, Airfocus, Pendo, and related systems, ensuring streamlined workflows, accurate reporting, and consistent usage across Product and Engineering.
• Define and govern ticket hygiene standards, workflow configurations, and automations that support agile practices at scale.
• Monitor enterprise-wide compliance across the ticket ecosystem and analyze KPIs to measure adherence, data quality, and process effectiveness.
• Oversee Pendo administration and tagging strategy, ensuring product usage data is reliable for downstream reporting, adoption analysis, and user behavior insights.
• Product Analytics Enablement
• Partner with Data and Product Development leadership to design product analytics tools and frameworks that support reporting on business objectives across product lines.
• Drive organization-wide adoption of analytics tools and frameworks to improve data-informed decision-making.
• Design Leadership & User Research Operations
• Own design operations for the UX Design team, including workflow, critique cadence, design system governance, and tooling.
• Support Design and UX Research functions by operationalizing research roadmaps, tooling, recruiting, and repository management.
• Ensure research insights and design outputs are easily accessible and actionable across product teams.
• Strategic Planning & OKR Alignment
• Lead Product Development's quarterly and annual planning cycles and OKR alignment process.
• Facilitate backlog hygiene, sprint planning cadence, and roadmap transparency across the organization.
• Best Practices & Continuous Improvement
• Continuously evaluate, evolve, and scale product and engineering operations best practices as the organization grows.
• Assess and lead the deployment of new tools across the product organization (e.g., portfolio, roadmapping, or reporting & dashboarding tools).

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in product operations, engineering operations, program management, or a similar role, including experience in a technology organization.
• 2+ years of experience directly managing and developing a team.
• Proven leadership managing cross-functional teams and driving operational improvements at scale.
• Deep understanding of the product development lifecycle, agile methodologies, and release management.
• Experience owning and administering Jira, Confluence, Airfocus, and similar tools across a product and engineering organization.
• Experience administering Pendo or a similar product experience/analytics platform.
• Strong grasp of user research and product analytics best practices.
• Experience conceiving, developing, deploying, and owning new processes across a product and engineering org, with strong change management skills.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills; able to lead through both direct authority and influence.
• Data-driven mindset with the ability to develop and act on meaningful insights.
• Prior experience in SaaS, consumer tech, or enterprise software preferred.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business Administration, or a related field.
• Master’s degree in a relevant field preferred.

Skills

• Strong project management and organizational skills.
• Experience with Agile methodologies and release management.
• Knowledge of Jira, Confluence, Airfocus, and Pendo.
• Experience with user research and product analytics tools.
• Ability to lead and mentor a team.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Mental Health Benefits
• Wellness Programs
• Flexible Time Off
• Paid Parental Leave
• Tax-Advantaged Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)
• Commuter Benefits
• 401(k) + Employer Match
• Employee Resource Groups
• Life and AD&D Insurance
• Pet Insurance