[Hiring] Product Operations Director @Applied Systems

Role Description

Product leaders at Applied turn customer signals, market context, and technical possibility into clear decisions. In this role you will lead how our product organization applies AI to its own work, own the tooling and infrastructure it runs on, and own the operating system that connects them: the mechanisms, standards, and measurement that turn customer insight into delivered outcomes. You make them repeatable, measurable, and adopted.

• Lead AI enablement for product teams.
• Set the strategy, standards, and governance for how Product and Engineering apply AI to product operations work.
• Own the skill registry, connectors, and shared automations.
• Evaluate and select AI tools, define access and data guardrails, and measure adoption and impact so AI use scales without adding headcount.
• Build and run training that equips product teams to use AI tools and workflows effectively.
• Own the product operations infrastructure.
• Be accountable for the connected stack that product teams run on: integrations between analytics, roadmap, customer-feedback, and capability-mapping systems, plus the data flows, dashboards, and automations built on them.
• Set architecture, ownership, documentation, and reliability standards for this stack, and make it AI-ready.
• Own the product tooling portfolio.
• Be accountable for strategy, adoption, ROI, and outcomes for product analytics and user behavior (Pendo, including Session Replay), roadmap and discovery (Jira Product Discovery), customer ideas (Salesforce-based PAC/AC Ideas), and other tools.
• Decide where to build, buy, consolidate, or retire.
• Govern tenant-level configuration and access.
• Be accountable for subscription architecture, instrumentation and tagging standards, privacy and unmasking governance, access and provisioning, and usage and overage forecasting.
• Set the standards others follow, automate where possible, and delegate day-to-day requests to the right owners.
• Manage vendors and contracts.
• With Procurement, negotiate renewals, expansions, and new-tool evaluations.
• Run vendor governance and quarterly business reviews.
• Hold vendors to evidence-based outcomes.
• Steward our operating system and run its mechanisms.
• Maintain and version the operating system with Product and Engineering leadership.
• Lead the working groups, adoption, and change management for the transition to 2027.
• Own the central calendar, agenda and pre-read standards, and sunset criteria for ad hoc meetings.
• Measure meeting load and retire what doesn't earn its place.
• This includes the mechanism for sourcing cross-functional customer feedback (Sales, Support, CX, Adoption) into annual allocation and planning decisions.
• Standardize how work moves through the lifecycle.
• Own the min-spec templates, launch-readiness scorecards, and telemetry and instrumentation standards.
• Hold teams to them, and train product roles on the operating system, templates, and tools.
• Build the measurement layer.
• Build the data and dashboard infrastructure that delivers the metrics defined with the Portfolio Strategy Director.
• Own operating-level and how-we-work metrics, such as meeting load, template adoption, and telemetry coverage.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of professional experience, with 10+ in product operations, product management, program management, and/or project management.
• Enabled teams with AI tools and workflows (agents, skills, connectors, automations), governed their use, and can show measurable impact on efficiency or quality.
• Owned tools end to end: strategy, implementation, adoption, ROI, vendor negotiation, and contracts.
• Designed and run integrated tooling infrastructure, including data flows, dashboards, and system integrations.
• Built operating models and repeatable processes where none existed, and led the change management to get them adopted.
• Led through influence without positional authority, and credible with engineers, product leaders, and the C-suite.
• Communicated in writing and data, and scrappy enough to pull your own data when the perfect report doesn't exist.
• Facilitated high-stakes cross-functional discussions and drove them to a decision.
• Genuine curiosity about insurance technology.

What could set you apart

• Stand up AI enablement for product teams.
• Launch the skill registry and connector standards, define governance for access and data, and set adoption and impact measures.
• Set the tooling and infrastructure roadmap.
• Define the multi-subscription Pendo architecture and 2027 budget, map integrations across the product stack, and set the vendor strategy.
• Take the operating system from draft to v1.
• Run the working groups, publish the min-spec and launch-readiness templates, and support the first teams to adopt it in Q1 2027.
• Build the cross-functional feedback mechanism.
• Turn the XFN customer feedback process into a standing mechanism that feeds annual allocation and planning, with clear drivers, inputs, and outcomes.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Holiday and vacation time.
• Health and wellness days.
• A day off for your birthday.
• The anticipated base salary range for this position is $160,000 - $200,000 USD. Starting pay reflects the role’s scope and the successful candidate’s relevant experience, skills, and location.

Candidate security

Applied communicates with candidates through an @appliedsystems.com email address or our official careers portal. Our recruiters will never request payment or ask for bank account details, government identification numbers, or other sensitive financial information during initial recruiting conversations.

Background checks

Employment is contingent on successful completion of the background checks and verification steps that apply to the role and location.

Use of AI in recruitment

Applied may use AI-enabled tools to support parts of the recruitment process, such as organizing application information, scheduling, and workflow administration. Hiring decisions include human review and follow applicable laws and company policy.

Equal employment opportunity

Applied Systems is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. We make employment decisions based on job-related qualifications and business needs, without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law.