Principal Product Content Strategist

About the Role

As a member of O. C. Tanner’s Product Experience Team, the Senior Product Writer & UX Content Strategist Lead will establish and lead a dedicated Product Content discipline embedded within the Product Experience department. This role is responsible for the strategy, governance, and systems that determine how O.C. Tanner’s software platform communicates with users across product experiences, global nuances, workflows, notifications, onboarding, feature education, and AI-enabled interactions. This is a highly senior role for a strategic writer, content systems thinker, and user experience leader who understands that product language is not simply copy—it is a core part of the user experience, product adoption, engagement, trust, and scalability. You will collaborate closely with the Executive Creative Directors/User Experience, Product Triads, and Marketing.

Why This Role Matters

Because recognition is communication, the effectiveness of O.C. Tanner’s recognition experiences depends heavily on the clarity, consistency, empathy, and strategic quality of the communication systems that power them.

Responsibilities

• Product Content Strategy & Governance
  • Establish and lead product content strategy across user-facing software experiences, including product language systems, standards, governance, terminology, naming, and editorial quality.
  • Sync with brand standards and establish the UX voice, tone, terminology, interaction language, naming frameworks, accessibility, translatability, globalization, and AI readiness.
  • Create scalable governance models that reduce inconsistency, improve cross-functional alignment, and support faster feature development.
• UX Strategy & Platform Communication
  • Define how the software platform communicates with users across key workflows, onboarding moments, system notifications, product guidance, behavioral prompts, and user journeys.
  • Ensure product communication improves user comprehension, usability, engagement, adoption, and trust across the recognition ecosystem.
  • Bring O.C. Tanner brand strategy and communication expertise into product strategy and execution through user-facing content.
• Product Language Systems & AI Readiness
  • Build the language infrastructure required for scalable, AI-enabled experiences, including standards that keep AI-supported content consistent, trustworthy, brand-aligned, and policy-aligned.
  • Govern product terminology, feature naming, interaction language, and content patterns across the platform.
  • Partner with product, design, engineering, research, marketing, brand, client success, and other user-content stakeholders to improve consistency across user touch points.
• Leadership & Cross-Functional Influence
  • Establish Product Content as an embedded Product discipline that participates in product decisions from the outset rather than operating as downstream copy support.
  • Provide strategic direction, mentorship, prioritization, and content leadership for product teams and future Product Content roles.
  • Build credibility for content expertise within Product and help Product teams make stronger decisions around communication, terminology, feature naming, and user engagement patterns.

Requirements

• Extensive experience in product content strategy, UX writing, content design, software platform communication, product language systems, or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated ability to lead content strategy for complex digital products, platforms, or ecosystems.
• Strong strategic writing background with the ability to translate product strategy, user needs, and business objectives into clear, scalable communication systems.
• Experience creating voice, tone, terminology, naming, editorial, localization, accessibility, or content governance standards.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and cross-functional teams across Product, UX, Engineering, Marketing, Brand, Client Success, and Research.
• Deep understanding of how content drives adoption, engagement, usability, trust, and product performance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in SaaS, enterprise software, HR technology, recognition, employee experience, or workplace culture products.
• Experience building or scaling a content design, UX writing, or product content function.
• Familiarity with AI content governance, AI-assisted content production, or language systems for AI-enabled user experiences.
• Experience leading feature naming, product taxonomy, terminology systems, or design system content standards.

Success Looks Like

• O.C. Tanner has a clear, governed product language system across software experiences.
• Product teams have reusable content standards, patterns, and frameworks that accelerate delivery and reduce communication rework.
• User-facing product communication becomes more consistent, intuitive, trustworthy, accessible, translatable, and brand-aligned.
• Product Content becomes embedded in planning, design, feature development, and experience optimization.
• The organization is better prepared for AI-enabled product experiences and AI-supported content production.