Director of Product

Code for America

1d•$143,884 - $176,138•Remote

About The Position

The Director of Product Management leads a team of product managers to identify opportunities, build products and technology solutions, support our partners, and deliver meaningful impact for the people we serve. Product Management at Code for America spans multiple delivery areas, including Criminal Justice, Tax Benefits, and the Social Safety Net, and extends into new areas when the moment calls for it. As a Director, your work will touch across these areas depending on organizational priorities and emerging opportunities. You will set product direction for your group, guide and inform your team's product decisions so they are aligned with organizational strategy, and ensure your team has the clarity, support, and standards to deliver excellent work. You will work alongside the other Product Directors, collaborating on shared priorities while leading your group's distinct focus area. Each Director works on one or more specializations, with the total of their time on specialized responsibilities being about 25%. This specific Director of Product position will have a specialization in New Products (0-1 products), which entails: proactively identifying new product opportunities, leading teams through high-ambiguity discovery and validation, building new products from concept to launch, finding product-market fit, and developing business plans that validate whether these products can be sustainable over the long term. This role will report to the VP of Product and is expected to travel no more than 15% of the time. Code for America is based in California and can employ those who reside full-time within the United States. This is a remote position.

Requirements

10+ years of product management experience or equivalent experience, with at least 3 years in a leadership role managing direct reports
Curiosity, humility, and a learning mindset that embraces iteration and feedback
Familiarity with AI and emerging technologies, including practical understanding of how to apply them responsibly in product development
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to articulate product strategy, trade-offs, and decisions to both technical and non-technical audiences and across different levels, including executive leadership
Strong leadership skills with a focus on mentorship, team development, and fostering a collaborative team culture
Skilled at building trust with new partners and stakeholders in contexts where there are complex-stakeholder dynamics and/or where relationships are still forming
Experience working with agile methodologies and product delivery in dynamic, complex, high-priority environments, along with strong analytical skills and experience using data to inform product decisions and evaluate product performance
Ability to manage competing priorities, balancing short-term goals with long-term strategic impact, and to communicate clearly with teams to facilitate their understanding of priorities
Comfort with ambiguity, a preference for learning by doing over waiting for the perfect plan, and the ability to make progress when the path forward isn't clear
A proven track record of driving product strategy and execution within cross-functional teams, delivering results that meet user needs and organizational objectives
A deep commitment to Code for America's mission of making government services work well for the people who need them most
Demonstrated experience building new products from concept to launch, including leading discovery, validation, and go-to-market in ambiguous environments
Experience running structured experiments or time-boxed pilots to validate product ideas before committing to full investment
Experience partnering with business development or partnerships teams to shape and scope new product initiatives

Nice To Haves

Experience incorporating AI into products, including understanding of ethical considerations, limitations, and risk management
Personal experience with or professional experience working within the social safety net or other government services
Product advisory or consulting work with government, civic tech, or highly regulated industries
Familiarity with the civic tech and digital services ecosystem, including an understanding of the movement, culture, and dynamics
Experience in business-to-business (B2B) product management, and/or business-to-government (B2G) product management

Responsibilities

Product Vision and Strategy
Develop and proactively communicate a clear, actionable vision for your group's focus area, ensuring alignment with Code or America's organizational strategy and mission
Translate organizational priorities and emerging opportunities into product strategy for your group, making clear choices about where to invest and where to say no
Partner with the VP of Product and cross-functional leaders to ensure your group's strategy connects to the broader organizational strategy
Proactively identify, scope, and validate emerging opportunities across areas, in collaboration with other Product Directors, disciplines and teams (e.g. Philanthropy and Strategic Partnerships)
Consistently communicate product roadmaps, priorities, future potential opportunities, impact, and results across the organization, including to Philanthropy and Strategic Partnerships, ensuring those teams have enough time to plan their work around those insights
Collaborate with Strategic Partnerships on thoughtful pricing and revenue negotiations and approaches, aligned to organizational sustainability, market dynamics, and Code for America’s value creation
Leverage AI and emerging technologies to strengthen product discovery, prioritization, decision-making and delivery within your group
Define what success looks like for your group's work, setting goals and metrics appropriate to the type of work your group does
Build and Lead High-Performing Teams
Lead and develop a team of product managers, including managing people managers, providing guidance, mentorship, and feedback to support their growth
Empower product managers to take accountability and ownership of their work, including understanding and shaping product strategy, roadmaps, discovery, and key deliverables, while maintaining alignment with group and organizational goals
Set clear expectations for product quality and delivery, and hold your team accountable for results
Foster a culture of curiosity, collaboration, and continuous improvement within your team and identify opportunities for sharing knowledge and learnings across teams
Build your team's capabilities for the AI era, ensuring product managers are equipped to integrate AI tools and insights into their work, and supporting new ways of working
Directly address conflict or misalignment within and across teams and support teams and stakeholders in moving from misalignment to shared understanding
Lead teams through change with intention — communicate the why behind shifts in direction, address concerns before they become blockers, and maintain momentum without sacrificing buy-in
Stakeholder Collaboration and Partnership
Partner with engineering, experience, and program leadership to ensure product priorities are informed by user needs, policy opportunities, and technical feasibility
Partner with other teams, such as Strategic Partnerships and Philanthropy, to ensure that what Code for America commits to is impactful, achievable, well-scoped, and sets teams up for success
Collaborate with the other Product Directors to align on shared priorities, coordinate handoffs, and ensure coherence across the product organization
Communicate product goals, priorities, and progress to stakeholders across the organization, translating complexity for different audiences
Build strong relationships with external partners, ensuring product work is aligned with partner needs and Code for America's impact goals
Specialty Expertise: New Products (0-1)
Lead new product initiatives directly when needed – especially in early, ambiguous stages – and support PMs who are responsible for initiatives as they progress through scoping, validation, launch, finding product-market fit, and initial scaling
Define product vision for initiatives that don't yet exist, evaluating and shaping new product bets across and beyond Code for Americas's core delivery areas
Design and run time-boxed pilots with clear hypotheses, milestones, and decision points, and develop business plans that test whether new products can be sustained - validating both whether a product idea will meaningfully solve problems, and whether it can be sustained
Make stop/pivot decisions on early-stage work, using evidence, strategic fit, and resource considerations to determine whether to continue, redirect, or stop investment
Stand up and coach new product teams, defining roles and ways of working for highly ambiguous environments where the roadmap, users, and success metrics are all being defined simultaneously
Partner with other Product Directors to inform shared platform capabilities with learnings from new product work, and to transition products from early-stage to market delivery or growth/scaling
Lead and participate in external conversations regarding areas of new exploration, including contributing to thoughtful agendas, representing and pitching Code for America’s capabilities, dynamically interacting with partners in real-time, and contributing to relationship strategy
Other duties as assigned

Benefits

Leadership and teammates who share a strong work ethic and values, and who respect and care for one another
A collaborative, cross-functional, hardworking, and joyful environment
Laptop provided
A one-time $700 payment for remote environment setup; $200 stipend (in first paycheck) and up to $500 reimbursement, in accordance with our equipment policy
Cell phone and/or internet reimbursement of $50 per month
$500 annual (per calendar year) stipend towards professional development; prorated at time of hire
Up to $500 of professional development funds can be rolled over each year, up to a maximum of $1000
Training / guidance for staff required to utilize AI as part of their role, plus opportunities for employees to gain AI-related skills to support job and career growth
Employees receive a 100% employer match on the first 3% of contributions.
Employees with 3+ years of service receive an additional 50% match on contributions between 3% and 5%, for a maximum employer contribution of 5%
At least one no cost health insurance option for full-time employees for employee-only coverage
A minimum of 80% of the cost of dependent coverage
Code for America employees may work remotely across the US
Code for America employees main residence must be within the US
Full-time employees work 40 hours per week, Monday - Friday
Collaborative working hours: we aim to hold all internal meetings between 10 AM - 3 PM PT. We expect all Code for America staff to be available during these set working hours
Open personal time off (subject to manager approval), a minimum of 14 paid holidays, and an org-wide closure from Christmas Day through New Year's Day
Paid sick time; up to 96 hours annually
17 weeks of paid parental and family leave
3 weeks of paid sabbatical after 5 years of service