Director, Strategic Transformation & Product Ops

QAD•Chicago, IL

6d•$140,000 - $160,000•Remote

About The Position

The Opportunity: Be The Active Copilot We are looking for a Director, Strategic Transformation & Product Ops who acts as a true strategic force multiplier. This is not a support role. It is a leadership role. You will serve as the Active Copilot to the President of our Manufacturing ERP unit, a business currently navigating a critical period of rapid transformation. The President cannot be everywhere at once. We need a partner who can take the controls, help navigate through turbulence, and ensure the entire crew is executing against the flight plan. You will help shift our culture from Reactive Firefighting to Proactive Execution. Who You Are You are a product thinker at heart. You have managed roadmaps, wrestled with prioritization, and shipped features. Now, you want to zoom out. You possess insatiable intellectual curiosity. You are the person who reads white papers on weekends, tests new AI tools for fun, and constantly asks, "Why do we do it this way?" The Core Mission Your primary mandate is to operationalize the President's vision. You will bring "Product Thinking" to the business itself. You will treat the organization as a system that needs to be optimized, debugged, and scaled.

Requirements

The "Product Sense" We Need
Strategy over Tactics: You do not just execute tasks. You understand why the task matters to the customer and the bottom line.
Customer Centricity: Even though this is an internal role, you obsess over the "Customer Experience" of the employees and stakeholders interacting with the President’s office.
Prioritization: You ruthlessly prioritize the President’s focus using frameworks like RICE to ensure we are working on the highest-value transformation levers.
Experience: 5 - 7+ years of experience with a background in Product Management Leadership or Strategy. You have likely been a Head of Product, Director of Product, or a Founder.
Domain Aptitude: You have an affinity for complex B2B ecosystems like ERP, Supply Chain, or Manufacturing. You enjoy the intellectual challenge of "hard" industries.
High Agency: You see a problem and own the solution. You do not wait for permission to fix a broken process.
Transformation Warrior: You are comfortable with ambiguity. You thrive in environments where the playbook is being written in real-time.
Overcommunicator: You leave nothing to guess. You communicate consistently, proactively, and excel at translating from one area to another.
Strategic Mobility (Travel): You are willing to travel (estimated 50-75%) because you believe strategy happens where the work is done. You will shadow the President at key offsites, represent the BU at corporate summits, and facilitate workshops to ground your strategy in reality.

Responsibilities

Strategic Force Multiplier (The Copilot)
Proxy & Decision Making: You will sit in for the President in critical meetings with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and cross-functional peers. You are empowered to make decisions, not just take notes.
The "Unblocker": Transformation creates friction. You will identify where the business is stuck. Whether it is a stalled product launch, a sales-enablement gap, or a hiring bottleneck, you will deploy the resources needed to clear the path.
Sounding Board: You provide a safe, intellectual space for the President to stress-test ideas. You challenge assumptions with data and "Product Sense" before strategies are rolled out to the wider team.
From Reactive to Proactive (The System Architect)
Rhythm of Business (RoB): You will redesign our operating cadence. You ensure that our Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs), Board updates, and planning cycles are forward-looking strategic sessions rather than rear-view reporting.
Predictive Intelligence: Instead of waiting for the P&L to show a problem, you will build "early warning systems" using leading indicators in pipeline, usage data, and sentiment. This allows us to course-correct months in advance.
Cross-BU Alignment: We operate within a larger enterprise. You will manage the diplomacy and connection points with other Business Units to ensure we leverage shared resources and do not reinvent the wheel.
Efficiency & Innovation (The Modernizer)
AI & Operational Leverage: You are intellectually curious and tech-savvy. You will lead the charge on integrating AI and automation across to increase velocity in all areas of the business.
Information Architecture: You ensure the President is the best-informed person in the room by synthesizing complex data from all components of the business unit into clear and actionable insights.

Benefits

Your health and well being are important to us at QAD. We provide programs that help you strike a healthy work-life balance.
Opportunity to join a growing business, launching into its next phase of expansion and transformation.
Collaborative culture of smart and hard-working people who support one another to get the job done.
An atmosphere of growth and opportunity, where idea-sharing is always prioritized over level or hierarchy.
U.S. benefits package includes medical, dental and vision coverage, a 401(k) plan with company match, short-term and long-term disability coverage, life insurance, paid-time off, parental leave, and well-being programs

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