Director of Product Operations & Delivery

Position Summary

Candid is a nonprofit that provides the most comprehensive data and insights about the social sector. We get you the information you need to do good. Candid currently has an opportunity for a Director of Product Operations and Delivery to support our transformation into the modern approaches to product management and delivery. We are seeking an individual deeply experienced in the process aspects of product management, product development and release management. This role provides organizing oversight, leadership and communication for the evergreen cycle of product ideation, discovery, design, rapid prototype, validation, build and release. They work closely with product managers, product leaders, organizational leadership, engineering project management, product marketing, and growth to ensure timely two-way communication and delivery in the formulation of product goals, value propositions, user stories and feature requirements to implementation teams.

We seek to achieve for Candid many of the sustained practices and positive outcomes that have been developed and validated in high-growth technology-centric companies. There are many approaches to achieving these outcomes, one example being the framework described by the Silicon Valley Products Group (svpg.com) and outlined in the book series by Marty Cagan. The position requires a high degree of organization, excellent communication practices, coaching, curiosity, flexibility, and constructive engagement.

Position: Director of Product Operations and Delivery

Reporting to: VP Product Management

Supervises: Project Manager

Schedule: 35-hour work week, Monday through Friday

Compensation: $130,000-$190,000 (this range is for the NYC area and will be adjusted for other localities; additionally, factors like skills and experience will be considered).

Location: Remote. In-person attendance is expected during our annual, weeklong all-staff summit. Additionally, participation for in-person meetings is expected at least once per year for most employees, at least once per quarter for senior leaders, and at least once per month for the executive team. Staff that are not in NYC are expected to travel for these meetings.

Benefits: Health insurance (medical, dental, vision), retirement contribution with additional option for a match, paid life insurance and AD&D, paid leave time (PTO, compassionate leave, volunteer, holiday, parental), short-term and long-term disability, pre-tax transit, flexible spending accounts, supplemental insurance, summer hours, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program eligible employer.

Responsibilities

• Own, drive, monitor and facilitate Candid's transition into best practices and sustained success in product management, build, delivery and release. This includes:




• Define, communicate, train and coach and consistent methodology, phase transition criteria, templates, documents, artifacts and rituals in a context of Candid culture and norms.
• Monitor and ensure cross-team compliance with modern product management and delivery practices, especially regarding alignment on solution discovery, design prototyping, build, and release expectations.
• Aggregate, organize, track and archive product management, discovery, and delivery-related documents and artifacts.
• Convene and preside over most product management process rituals including transitions from discovery to prototype, prototype to build, build to acceptance, acceptance to release, and post-release retrospectives.
• Coach and accelerate the adoption of rapid prototyping and experimentation in pursuit of solution discovery, refinement, and post-release continuous improvement.




• Own the measurement and reporting of product division performance metrics. This includes the management, monitoring, and continuous improvement of a closed-loop feedback process, from the reporting of critical product deficits to confirmed resolution of those deficits.
• Facilitate product manager awareness of any persistent product deficits or operational challenges, and report on progress toward resolution, as well as risks, blockers, or dependencies related to resolving such deficits.
• Release organization, planning, tracking, and communication. Includes:




• Own, maintain, and publish the schedule of high-integrity commitments and product initiatives and supporting solution and user-story epics expected to be satisfied in each sprint cycle (incremental release).
• Own, maintain and publish the schedule, content, user value propositions and success metrics for each milestone (major) release.
• Support the Senior Directors of Product Management in assembling and maintaining and communicating accurate product feature roadmaps
• Work back from committed milestones to determine potential dependencies and coordinate teams to mitigate delivery risks. Identify, flag, and resolve major risks, current long pole, and gaps for such major releases.
• Report regularly to senior leadership (including the Executive Team) as to status and metrics for progress and whether teams are on track.
• Raise any resource/priority/scope tradeoffs that should be considered. Ensure there is a "plan B" fallback for any major product deliverables which could be at risk.




• Work cross-functionally with senior leaders (including executive team) to facilitate and where necessary, negotiate alignment with organizational vision, stakeholder priorities, and team capacities.
• Create an organizing and access plan for a library of Product Management documents and templates including process artifacts, phase-transition sign-offs, and communication materials.
• Develop and drive product management recommendations for Jira best practices, configuration and training
• Identify, diagnose, and drive sustained resolution of post-release cross-divisional operational or process misalignments.
• Organize, schedule, drive team preparation for, and host company-wide communications from the product management division. Includes communication of any new product management processes, roadmaps, plans, updates and metrics.
• Evolve, publish and maintain a dashboard of product management process metrics.

Requirements

• 7+ years' relevant experience in product management, ideally with SaaS offerings
• Proven practical experience working and managing using modern best practices for product management, including deep user interaction, continuous releases, and rapid experimentation and prototyping to accelerate solution development, delivery and continuous improvement.
• Proven experience in software release planning and execution. Must include experience with release of a high-user-count SaaS product through multiple major and minor deployments and production launches.
• Highly organized in planning, communication, and execution.
• Proactive and logical in their approach to problem solving, planning, change management, and communication.
• Outstanding communicator across written, verbal and presentation formats.
• Expert in Atlassian products, specifically Jira and Confluence.
• Familiarity with Feature flags to support feature roll-out - ideal if familiar with specifically the DevCycle tool
• Highly collaborative in their formulation of plans, strategies, and solutions.
• Bachelor's degree in technical field or equivalent experience.
• Highly accountable and dispassionate enforcer of rules, agreements and commitments
• Willingness to perform other duties and special projects as needed/requested.
• Sensitivity and respect for racial, gender, sexual orientation, and cultural differences.
• Champions and represents Candid's core values: We're driven, direct, accessible, curious, and inclusive.

About Candid
Every year, millions of nonprofits spend trillions of dollars around the world. Candid finds out where that money comes from, where it goes, and why it matters. Through research, collaboration, and training, we connect people who want to change the world to the resources they need to do it. Our data tools on nonprofits, foundations, and grants are the most comprehensive in the world.

Candid's vision is an ambitious one. But we know when we make investments in our talent, it translates to more access and better knowledge for those working for social good around the world.

On February 1, 2019, Foundation Center and GuideStar joined forces to become Candid, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Candid is a qualifying nonprofit organization as defined by the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. As such, Candid employees may claim their employment time on their PSLF application. We offer a competitive salary and excellent benefits. Due to the high volume of applicants we typically receive, we regret that we can only contact candidates we would like to interview.

For more information on positions available at Candid, please visit our website: Work with us

Candid is an equal opportunity employer. Candid provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training. We are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion and especially encourage members of underrepresented communities to apply.