About the Position
A Senior Product Manager leads a team of Product Managers or a larger University Product to create, prioritize, monitor and deliver a product, along with related features and capabilities, that support the University vision through the continuous delivery of business value. An individual may lead through both influence and direct management, partnering with executive leadership across multiple functions to develop a cohesive product strategy and product roadmap, and ensure successful business outcomes. A Senior Product Manager leads their team through continued product discovery and delivery in a sustained fast pace of new feature development and makes critical decisions regarding technology, an appropriate balance of feature and operational priorities, and other important matters to ensure high quality and on-time delivery.
What You’ll Do
1. Set the strategic direction for product development and management; create and effectively nurture a data-driven and market-informed vision and strategy for the product that works in concert with the University’s approved strategic initiatives; identify the strategic product implications and opportunities resulting from major institutional strategies and change initiatives.
2. Provide direction and oversight to others supporting product development, such as design and engineering or other product managers; ensure rapid conversion of ideas into working prototypes; ensure close partnership with internal and external product and partner teams to create/maintain alignment on goals/scope, plan, critical path and operational risks.
3. Ensure development of clear and compelling user stories and user experience fundamentals that can seed and grow a thriving community of ideas and insights; clearly articulate to executive and senior leadership the product vision and strategy to get leadership buy-in and build organizational buy-in for an innovative and bold vision.
4. Proactively identify and resolve strategic issues that may impair or delay the team’s ability to meet strategic, financial, technical and delivery goals; collaborate as necessary with internal and external stakeholders to successfully resolve roadblocks.
5. Oversee the end-to-end lifecycle of the product, from conception through launch; strategize and oversee execution on growth initiatives; ensure appropriate analytics and experimentation using product KPIs and derive key insights to support executive-level decision making.
6. Ensure clear articulation of the product’s roadmaps, visions, priorities and requirements to multiple stakeholders and team members; gather and incorporate feedback from a diverse range of stakeholders, including internal and external customers, operational teams, legal and others.
7. Directly or indirectly leads a team of product focused employees to effectively deliver on product objectives and key results on time and within budget. Drive collaboration with the product team by facilitating discovery activities, aligning team members on project outcomes, bringing clarity where there is ambiguity, and keeping everyone aligned throughout delivery.
8. Perform other duties as assigned or apparent.
NOTE: The primary accountabilities above are intended to describe the general content and requirements of this position and are not intended to be an exhaustive statement of duties. Incumbents may perform all or most of the primary accountabilities listed above. Specific goals or responsibilities will be documented in the incumbents’ performance objectives as outlined by the incumbents’ immediate supervisor or manager.
Job Supervisory Responsibilities
Direct or indirect supervisory responsibility for a product focused team
What You Bring to the Table
MINIMUM EDUCATION AND RELATED WORK EXPERIENCE:
• Six(6) years of professional experience that includes at least five (5) years of UOPX customer/student facing products as either a subject-matter expert, manager, or director OR
• Six (6) years of product management experience - and at least five (5) years of people management experience, either by direct reports or by initiative or cross-functional leadership support OR
• An equivalent combination of education and job-related experience where one (1) year of relevant experience can replace every one (1) year of post-secondary education.
ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS:
• Master’s degree in a technical discipline
• Experience as a product or program manager within Agile/Scrum/Kanban enterprise-scale environment
• Previous experience as an Engineer, Product Designer, Scrum Master, or Agile Coach
• High level of conceptual and strategic thinking capability to develop impactful business strategies
• Strong analytical skills and experience with business case and ROI development
• Demonstrable competence in building relationships and effectively communicating to build credibility with and ability to influence cabinet level leaders; able to effectively present reports, projects and recommendations to executive management and external parties
Note: The ability to come into the Phoenix office a couple times per month is highly preferred
As an Equal Opportunity employer, we particularly encourage applications from members of historically underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, women, individuals with disabilities, veterans, LGBTQ community members, and others who demonstrate the ability to help us achieve our vision of a diverse and inclusive community.
If you are an active-duty military member seeking employment when off-duty, compliance with Department of Defense Joint Ethics Regulation, 5500-7-R, is required prior to starting employment with University of Phoenix. You are advised to contact your base Judge Advocate General to seek such approval and answer any questions.