Director of Product Management, Content

EBSCO Information Services (EIS) provides a complete and optimized research solution comprised of e-journals, e-books, and research databases - all combined with the most powerful discovery service to support the information needs and maximize the research experience of our end-users. Headquartered in Ipswich, MA, EIS employs more than 2,700 people worldwide, most now working hybrid or remotely. We are the leader in our field due to our cutting-edge technology, forward-thinking philosophy, and outstanding team. EIS is a company that will motivate you, inspire you, and allow you to grow. Our mission is to transform lives by providing relevant and reliable information when, where, and how people need it. We are looking for bright and creative individuals whose unique differences will allow us to achieve this inclusive mission around the world.

Are you a strategic product leader who has successfully developed and launched content-driven products while working across a fast-paced, complex organization? Do you have a proven track record of developing pragmatic, high-performing agile product management teams? If so, you might be a great candidate for this role!

As the Director, Product Management, you will lead experienced agile product managers who drive content product roadmaps across a large product portfolio as well as lead the agile product owners who drive team-level prioritization and execution. You will translate the company’s high-level strategic objectives into actionable business plans while ensuring our development and integration teams are executing effectively against those defined business objectives. The Director’s ability to internalize and articulate the needs of our internal and external customers – married with business savvy, project leadership, people development, and deep technical knowledge – are leveraged to build trust, discipline, and passion across the organization at all levels. This role requires a thirst for continuous learning, commitment to action, an attitude that anything is possible, and a relentless focus on the customer.

This is a highly impactful role within the organization and one that will span across every functional area, both business and technology stakeholders alike. We are looking for a diligent, thoughtful, data-driven, and detail-oriented agile product and people leader who is always intensely curious, ready to ask questions, open to being questioned, and encouraging others to do the same.

Responsibilities Include:

• Accountable for the execution of content initiatives – from idea through launch – while setting the right expectations with all relevant stakeholders across the organization at various stages of the initiative’s lifecycle.
• Lead PM team responsible for maintaining a robust 24-month content product backlog, collaborating with other Business and Platform stakeholders monthly to groom and refine it based on evolving needs.
• Foster a people-first product management organization with a strong emphasis on a coaching culture and servant leadership. Develop and lead a strong Product Owner team who can successfully write & prioritize market, functional, and system requirements along with the customer benefits and measurable success criteria.
• Work across the agile-release teams to solve ambiguous, complex problems and proactively mitigate planning risks before they become roadblocks.
• Ensure all content initiatives have clear, measurable success criteria and establish standards to measure progress over time across the full PM team. Ensure team proactively communicates progress against those measurements to stakeholders throughout the span of the initiative.
• Drive product ROI decision making related to the product portfolio by driving data-driven analysis to recommend investments to improve the roadmap, maintaining a balanced approach between technology and business drivers.
• Drive large cross-functional internal workshops with mixed audiences to analyze problems, perform gap analysis, and/or solution planning.
• Champion employee development and career advancement through developing and managing to APM/APO career models. Proactively and continually enhance employee engagement through soliciting quarterly stakeholder feedback, monthly performance discussions, and biannual professional development activities.
• Increase the teams' knowledge of our end users’ and purchasing customers’ market problems that need to be solved. Engage with sales, marketing, and launch teams directly. Identify opportunities to bring the customer perspective to the cross-functional development and integration teams.
• Support other important and urgent business initiatives led by other departments, as requested.
• Work across teams to ensure the biggest ROI is delivered with the intended solution and make fact-based decisions to mitigate budget risks if/when problems or blockers are escalated.

Required Qualifications:

• 7 years of relevant product strategy experience providing data-powered products, platforms, or services.
• 5 years of product management experience with a thorough understanding of the product management process and the software development lifecycle, ideally leveraging SAFe or Agile principles.
• 5 years of people management, not only attracting, recruiting, retaining, and developing top talent, but also identifying role-based competency gaps, workforce planning, and driving organizational change.
• 2 years of experience working with distributed data systems, data ingestion processes, and ETL architectures.
• Proven experience independently developing and implementing recommended approaches to complex / ambiguous problems while making timely decisions with imperfect data factoring in tradeoffs and roamed risks.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills demonstrated by 2 years of experience developing and delivering dynamic presentations to a variety of technical and business audiences. Great at presenting complex concepts, negotiating across departments, and advocating for cross-functional ideas.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Background in software development and program management preferred.
• Familiarity with SDLC software (e.g., Rally, NetSuite CRM, etc.).
• SAFe trained or related agile experience.
• Experience with libraries and/or education technology a plus.
• Organizational and leadership abilities demonstrating the ability to work collaboratively in a cross-functional organization.

COVID VACCINATION REQUIREMENT: As directed by Executive Order 14042: Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors, all current and newly-hired EIS employees in the United States are required to be fully vaccinated by January 18, 2022 or by their date of hire.
We are an equal opportunity employer and comply with all applicable federal, state, and local fair employment practices laws. We strictly prohibit and do not tolerate discrimination against employees, applicants, or any other covered persons because of race, color, sex, pregnancy status, age, national origin or ancestry, ethnicity, religion, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, training, promotion, discipline, compensation, benefits, and termination of employment. We comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as amended by the ADA Amendments Act, and all applicable state or local law.