Director, Product Development

LanguageLine Solutions

2d•$165,000 - $180,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director, Product Development is a senior leadership position that defines and delivers the product vision, strategy, and roadmap, leading a team that is responsible for the launch of new, and enhancement of existing products and services. This position leads the Product Development team which is responsible for preparing product strategy recommendations, providing expert consultation, and performing assessments and analyses supporting corporate priorities, market strategies, product strategies and product launches. This is a multi-faceted position that requires strong interpersonal communication skills and the ability to work across teams delivering results in a fast-paced environment. The successful individual will possess the ability to solve business challenges with technology while establishing long-term solutions to improve the quality and delivery of LanguageLine’s products and services. The ideal candidate will help define and execute the product vision for LanguageLine Solutions. This is a high visibility role, meaning that the optimal candidate will be comfortable driving critical business decisions in a fast paced, high pressure, and often ambiguous environment. The successful candidate will be customer focused, highly analytical, resourceful, a big thinker, a strong writer, and an effective influencer able to operate at all levels of the organization. The candidate will serve as an evangelist for LanguageLine products and services and represent these products/services internally and with key vendors and clients. This candidate will also possess both a strong technical background that enables him/her to easily interact with Product Engineering team members as well as a strong business background that enables him/her to collaborate effectively with other teams within the business including Product Management, Sales, Operations, Marketing, Quality Assurance and Finance.

Requirements

Minimum 10 years’ experience leading Product Management, Product Development, or Product Engineering teams in a software-driven industry.
Proven track record defining product vision and transforming that vision into market reality.
Excellent critical thinking, analytical problem-solving and negotiating skills.
Demonstrated strategic orientation pertaining to Product Placement, Marketing, R&D, and Vendor collaboration.
Superior analytical and quantitative skills; experience using data and metrics to test theories, confirm assumptions, and measure success.
Skillful at building consensus and making thoughtful, data-driven recommendations for key decisions including prioritization, scope, solution design, issue management, risk identification and mitigation.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Comfortable speaking in front of a room full of industry or company executives, actively engaging with existing and prospective clients in discussions about product features and capabilities and diving deep into the details of a product requirement with a software or quality assurance engineer.
Masterful at cross-functional communication to ensure all stakeholders have everything needed to collaborate effectively.
Proven “radar” for recognizing when a given problem or solution needs additional guidance or knowledge and ability to seek out required information from experts throughout the organization.
Strong experience delivering solutions that delight customers and stakeholders and deliver on the intended value proposition; similarly, experience with helping stakeholders understand when / why a given solution will not deliver the value / results envisioned.
Excellent team building, mentoring, and leadership abilities.
Proven ability to manage multiple activities in parallel and to deliver product features on time.
Ability to see multiple solutions to problems and identify the optimal one for the situation.
Must possess excellent business judgment and a practical, common-sense approach to getting things done.
Bachelor’s degree in business, Computer Science, or a related field from an accredited college/university or equivalent business experience.

Nice To Haves

Master’s Degree from an accredited college/university.
Experience using rapid prototyping and other creative mechanisms to gather direct customer feedback early in the product development process.
Experience in working across multiple cultures, countries, and working with complex geographically diverse teams.
Technical aptitude and an interest in new and upcoming technologies to ensure the best possible solutions for clients.
Experience with Pragmatic Product Development Methodology and Jobs to be Done (JTBD) Framework.

Responsibilities

Lead and inspire the Product Development team in envisioning and building world-class products that will benefit and delight customers and contribute to LanguageLine’s top and bottom-line growth.
Be an advocate for customers and drive innovation on their behalf.
Understand and translate market requirements with substantiated customer/market feedback to support the product definition.
Anticipate the impact of the changing language access industry and regulatory environment on existing market segments and products and propose strategies, tactics, and new or modified products accordingly.
Lead cross functional teams in the research and analysis of new product concepts and product modification requests ultimately building a business case including product specifications.
Understand the thorough business case for proposed products and initiatives, including cost/benefit estimates, market trends, competitive analysis, risk analysis, industry best practices and product development timelines.
Collaborate with leadership and cross-functional product teams to form roadmaps in support of the strategic plans and customer needs and identify new opportunities for existing and new products.
Break down the strategic roadmap into a focused series of activities and deliverables that the team can rally around.
Plan and prioritize product features and requirements from conceptual stages through product life cycles to optimize revenue and meet operational, financial, and corporate objectives.
Collaborate on key design considerations and key architectural decisions.
Remove organizational and operational bottlenecks that impede product innovation, time to market, and execution.
As a key product stakeholder, be willing to do what is required to help the team, and to deliver to plan.
Facilitate internal communication and decision making for product-related issues.
Lead, coach, and mentor team members, upcoming leaders, and employees.
Model effective leadership, mentorship, and coaching for all employees.
Lead and directly manage a team of Product Analysts to successfully define and deliver LanguageLine’s product vision, strategy, and roadmap.
Supporting LLS’ Quality Management System (QMS) to continually improve the Division’s processes, procedures, and services; and thereby increase efficiency, productivity, effectiveness, and customer satisfaction.
Provide product expertise on company initiatives and other projects/tasks.
Develop in-depth knowledge of competitive products and contribute to analysis of competitive strengths and weaknesses.
Research and understand changing business environments, both external and internal, including but not limited to market factors, customer needs, trends, legal regulations, audit and compliance policies, information security, strategy adjustments, organization strategies, etc.
Perform such duties and assume such other responsibilities as may be required.