[Hiring] Sr. Director, Product Operations @Cambium Learning Group

Role Description

The Sr. Director, Product Operations is a strategic, detail-oriented leader responsible for orchestrating how product strategy and roadmaps are successfully executed across the portfolio. This role oversees both the Project Management and a new Product Investment Analytics function, including:

• Project staffing and capacity/productivity reporting
• Timekeeping & budget analytics
• Project/program management
• Strategic investment decision support

The ideal candidate will:

• Improve predictability and visibility in how product investments are allocated
• Establish alignment of investments with bookings-based returns
• Increase velocity in our development and release cadences
• Demonstrate quantifiable value realization via transparent data analyses and exceptional cross-functional alignment

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Technology, or related field; MBA or equivalent experience preferred
• 10+ years in product operations, program/project management, or related roles within SaaS or technology organizations
• 5+ years leading Agile environments (Scrum/Kanban; SAFe experience a plus)
• Proven experience managing Technical Product Managers and running large-scale product operations/PMO
• Demonstrated ability to translate customer feedback into roadmap actions that improve adoption and outcomes
• Skilled with Jira & Confluence (required); portfolio-level workflows and reporting
• Have worked with analytics/BI tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, Looker)
• Experienced with planning/resource tools (e.g., Smartsheet, Airtable, or equivalent)

Requirements

• Timekeeping & Effort Categorization: Implement and continually refine timekeeping compliance and reporting; ensure accurate project timekeeping and effort categorization for portfolio insights
• Budget Analytics: Forecast, track, and report portfolio budgets; lead variance analysis, scenario planning, and product margin reviews in partnership with Product Leadership and Finance
• Operational Performance: Establish operational KPIs, dashboards, and OKRs that illuminate throughput, quality, customer value, and financial performance
• Productivity Tracking: Articulate and document baseline levels of productivity across product organizations; support teams in implementing tools for scaling work efficiently
• Staffing & Capacity: Own the product staffing model, capacity planning, and allocations across product lines; set utilization targets and coverage plans for critical initiatives
• Systematize & Automate: Optimize systems and processes that enhance efficiency, quality, and cycle time across product development
• Portfolio Retrospectives: Establish a cadence for portfolio-level retrospectives with the goals of identifying churn, removing bottlenecks, and scaling repeatable patterns
• Delivery Practices: Refine and enforce best practices for project management, design, and development
• Project Management Ownership: Oversee the project and program management practices; standardize intake, planning, execution, and delivery across teams
• Agile Maturity: Drive Scaled Agile practices with pragmatic governance across the portfolio segments
• Portfolio Visibility: Assist in implementing tooling and processes for transparent roadmaps, dependencies, risks, milestones, and cross-functional communication
• Delivery Assurance: Monitor progress and proactively address delivery risks, scope changes, and impediments
• Engineering Partnership: Ensure tight collaboration with Engineering, Architecture, Data/Infrastructure, and Security
• Technical Standards: Establish consistent practices for technical documentation, integration specs, contract management
• Evidence-Based Decisions: Provide data-driven insights that influence prioritization, trade-offs, and investment decisions
• Dashboards & Reporting: Collaborate with Research & Analytics and the Business Data Analytics group to build dashboards and performance reports
• Customer Voice: Create clear pathways to assist Product Managers in amplifying customer feedback
• Central Orchestration: Serve as a central point of contact across Product, Product Marketing, Research, Sales, Support, and Finance
• Prioritization Forums: Ensure structured feedback loops and prioritization forums
• Executive Communication: Communicate plans, status, and outcomes effectively to executive stakeholders
• Annual & Quarterly Planning: Partner with the SVP, Product and VP, Product Strategy & Management on annual planning
• Roadmap Stewardship: Assist in building and maintaining product roadmaps and multi-quarter plans
• K–12 Compliance: Ensure operational compliance with K–12 data privacy regulations
• Risk Management: Partner with QA/Security to manage quality, security, and compliance scope

Benefits

• Remote First Work Environment: Flexibility and trust to balance work with life
• Reimbursement to help cover the cost of setting up your home or remote office