Director, Product Development Operations

About the role

The Director, Product Development Operations leads the operational engine behind the Product, Engineering, and Design organizations. This role sets the strategic direction for product and engineering operations, including release management, tooling and workflow governance, product analytics enablement, and research operations.

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.
• 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.
• Maintain 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.
• Achieve and exceed goals and objectives.

Qualifications

• 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.

About the Organization

The organization's mission is to unlock the potential of every community. The founders started this work to serve the people they served with. They witnessed firsthand the barriers and inefficiencies in trying to navigate health and social services, and set out to improve that experience for veterans and their families. This quickly expanded to serving all people who need connections to care across the country. Through the organization's national network and software, community-based organizations, government agencies, and healthcare organizations are all connected to better collaborate to meet the needs of the individuals in their communities. The organization drives the collaboration to predict, deliver, and pay for services that impact whole-person health.

Environmental Job Requirements and Working Conditions

• This position is remote, U.S. based.
• The target pay range for this role is: $150,000 - 175,000. The proposed salary will be dependent on the candidate's skills, experience, and competencies, as well as location.
• All team members will be required to pass a background check which includes criminal, employment, and education verification.
• Benefits: Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance is offered to team members and eligible partners and dependents, including unlimited virtual mental health and acute medical visits. Wellness: Mental health benefits, such as the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and wellness platform subscription, are available to all team members. Flexible Time Off: Time off is available as needed, including volunteer days and mental health days. 14 paid, company-wide holidays are also offered. Paid Parental Leave: Adoptive parents are included. Employee Resource Groups: Opportunities to join ERGs to connect and engage with colleagues. Spending Accounts: Tax-advantaged health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), and commuter benefits are offered. 401(k) + Employer Match: Enjoy matching, immediate vesting and financial wellness resources. Additional Benefits: Life and AD&D - a company paid benefit, with the option to purchase additional coverage for yourself and your dependents. Accident Insurance. Pet Insurance.