Manager, Product Operations

Hearst•New York, NY

25d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Product Operations team helps turn strategy into execution by improving how cross-functional teams plan, collaborate, execute, and adapt. This is achieved by building scalable systems, reducing operational friction, and thoughtfully integrating AI, automation, and emerging technologies into day-to-day workflows. This role is highly adaptive and hands-on, requiring individuals who are builders and problem-solvers comfortable navigating ambiguity and improving teams, systems, and processes. As Manager, Product Operations, you will drive alignment, improve execution, and build operational foundations for teams to deliver meaningful outcomes. This role encompasses program leadership, workflow design, planning operations, tooling, team enablement, and organizational effectiveness. You will partner with stakeholders across product, engineering, design, editorial, advertising, finance, and marketing to advance complex initiatives with clarity and momentum. Additionally, you will identify opportunities to leverage AI, automation, and emerging technologies to enhance collaboration, execution, and operational efficiency. This is an ideal opportunity for someone who enjoys solving operational challenges, leading cross-functional initiatives, and building scalable systems that help teams work smarter.

Requirements

Experience in Product Operations, Program Management, or Product Management within a technology or digital product environment.
Strong understanding of Agile product development practices and organizational operations.
Experience designing scalable workflows, operational systems, and process improvements.
Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and influence without direct authority.
Strong analytical skills and experience using operational metrics and reporting to guide decisions.
Experience leading organizational change management and adoption initiatives.
Experience designing and implementing AI-assisted workflows, automation solutions, and operational systems that improve team effectiveness and reduce manual overhead.
Ability to build systems that balance flexibility, usability, scalability, and long-term maintainability.
Airtable — advanced experience required, including relational data structures, automations, interfaces, and workflow design.
Jira
Confluence
Miro
Figma
Google Workspace & Microsoft 365
Looker
Power BI
Google Analytics
Spreadsheet modeling, operational reporting, and data analysis
Experience using AI and automation tools to improve workflows and operational efficiency, including: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Cursor, Zapier, Make, Power Automate.

Nice To Haves

AI-Native and Curious: You actively experiment with AI tools and workflows in your own work and are excited about helping organizations adapt to AI-enabled ways of operating. You think beyond simply using AI tools and toward redesigning systems and workflows around new capabilities.
Systems Thinker: You naturally connect people, processes, tools, and information into scalable operational systems. You identify patterns, bottlenecks, and opportunities others may miss.
Builder Mentality: You are proactive, resourceful, and comfortable creating structure from ambiguity. You enjoy building and iterating quickly.
Outcome-Oriented: You focus on measurable impact and understand how operational improvements influence team effectiveness, product outcomes, and business results.
Strong Facilitator & Communicator: You can align stakeholders across disciplines, facilitate productive discussions, and communicate clearly with both leadership and execution teams.
Operationally Excellent: You are highly organized, detail-oriented, and capable of managing multiple complex initiatives simultaneously.
Trusted Partner: You build strong relationships, follow through on commitments, communicate challenges openly, and consistently improve the systems and teams around you.
Change Management: You are skilled at driving adoption of new systems, processes, and ways of working across cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

Drive execution of high-priority, cross-functional initiatives aligned to organizational goals and measurable business outcomes.
Coordinate across teams to reduce dependencies, improve alignment, and increase execution clarity.
Support leadership in operationalizing strategic priorities across the product organization.
Facilitate planning sessions, retrospectives, workshops, and operational reviews that drive alignment and accountability.
Own and evolve planning cadences, including quarterly roadmapping, intake processes, prioritization frameworks, and operational governance.
Build scalable workflows, operational systems, and documentation practices that improve consistency and visibility across teams.
Improve visibility into team capacity, delivery health, risks, and outcomes through dashboards, reporting, and operational metrics.
Help teams measure outcomes — not just output — across initiatives and workflows.
Identify opportunities where AI, automation, integrations, and existing tools can improve team effectiveness, reduce operational overhead, and accelerate execution.
Continuously optimize how teams use existing platforms and workflows to maximize the value of the organization’s tool stack.
Experiment with tools and operational patterns that improve planning, communication, reporting, documentation, and knowledge sharing.
Develop scalable automations, templates, systems, and playbooks that help teams responsibly integrate AI into day-to-day product development.
Serve as an advocate for evolving ways of working, helping teams adapt thoughtfully as technology and organizational needs change.
Serve as a strategic owner and administrator for collaboration and productivity platforms, including Jira, Confluence, Airtable, Miro, and AI tooling ecosystems.
Build workflows, templates, and automations that improve operational efficiency and collaboration.
Support onboarding, documentation quality, transparency, and knowledge sharing across teams.
Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-trust team environment grounded in continuous improvement.