Principal Product Manager, Storytelling

Ancestry

19d•Hybrid

About The Position

About Ancestry: When you join Ancestry, you join a human-centered company where every person’s story is important. Ancestry®, the global leader in family history, connects everyone with their past so they can discover, preserve, and share their unique family stories. With our unparalleled collection of more than 65 billion records, over 3.5 million subscribers, and over 27 million people in our growing DNA network, customers can discover their family story and gain a new level of understanding about their lives. Over the past 40 years, we’ve built trusted relationships with millions of people who have chosen us as the platform for discovering, preserving, and sharing the most important information about themselves and their families. We are committed to our location flexible work approach, allowing you to choose to work in the nearest office, from your home, or a hybrid of both (subject to location restrictions and roles that are required to be in the office- see the full list of eligible US locations HERE). We will continue to hire and promote beyond the boundaries of our office locations, to enable broadened possibilities for employee diversity. Together, we work every day to foster a work environment that's inclusive as well as diverse, and where our people can be themselves. Every idea and perspective is valued so that our products and services reflect the global and diverse clients we serve. Ancestry encourages applications from minorities, women, the disabled, protected veterans and all other qualified applicants. Passionate about dedicating your work to enriching people’s lives? Join the curious. As Principal Product Manager for Storytelling, you will own the end-to-end product vision and strategy for storytelling at Ancestry. You will operate across Family History, DNA, and Preservation surfaces to create cohesive, story-first experiences that help customers connect insights over time and across artifacts. You will work closely with senior partners in Design, Engineering, Data Science, and Content, and influence multiple teams without direct authority. Your work will establish durable product foundations and guide teams toward a shared north star for storytelling over the next several years. Helping people discover their story is at the heart of ours. Ancestry is the largest provider of family history and personal DNA testing, harnessing a powerful combination of information, science and technology to help people discover their family history and stories that were never possible before. Ancestry’s suite of products includes: AncestryDNA, AncestryProGenealogists, Fold3, Newspapers.com, Find a Grave, Archives.com, and Rootsweb. We offer excellent benefits and a competitive compensation package. For additional information, regarding our benefits and career information, please visit our website at http://ancestry.com/careers As a signatory of the ParityPledge in Support of Women and the ParityPledge in Support of People of Color, Ancestry values pay transparency and pay equity. We are pleased to share the base salary range for this position: $160,110 - $266,880 with eligibility for bonus, equity and comprehensive benefits including health, dental and vision. The actual salary will vary by geographic region and job experience. We will share detailed compensation data for a specific location during the recruiting process. Read more about our benefits HERE. Note: Disclosure as required by sb19-085(8-5-20) and sb1162(1-1-23) Additional Information: Ancestry is an Equal Opportunity Employer that makes employment decisions without regard to race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, mental or physical disability, medical condition, military or veteran status, citizenship, marital status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. In addition, Ancestry will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. All job offers are contingent on a background check screen that complies with applicable law. For candidates who live in San Francisco, CA, pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, Ancestry will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Ancestry is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at Ancestry via-email, the Internet or in any form and/or method without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of Ancestry. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by Ancestry as a result of the referral or through other means. Let’s write the next chapter of history together. Our employees are fueled by our inquisitive nature and united by our shared commitment to help people discover, craft, and connect their family history. Whether you’re a natural problem solver, a strategic builder, an inspired creative, or something in between—we invite you to share your story and join us in making history.

Requirements

10+ years of product management experience, with demonstrated success operating as a senior IC on complex, cross-cutting initiatives.
Proven ability to set product direction and drive outcomes across multiple teams without direct authority.
Exceptional product judgment — able to zoom from abstract vision to concrete execution details.
Deeply focused on customers, using both qualitative insight and quantitative signals to guide decisions.
Strong communicator and storyteller who can bring clarity to ambiguity and align diverse stakeholders.
Comfortable being accountable for outcomes that unfold over multiple quarters or years.

Responsibilities

Partner with cross-functional teams, including Design, Engineering, Data Science, and Content, to set and execute the multi-year vision for storytelling at Ancestry.
Translate the product vision into a clear strategy and sequenced roadmap that balances near-term wins with long-term platform investments.
Define what “great storytelling” means in product terms and tackle highly ambiguous customer problems by reframing challenges and proposing innovative solutions.
Identify gaps or breakdowns in existing product constructs (trees, records, memories) and propose new models to better serve storytelling needs.
Make principled tradeoffs when data is incomplete, priorities compete, or cross-org dependencies arise.
Partner with Data Science and Engineering to shape AI-assisted storytelling experiences that are transparent, evidence-based, and customer-trust focused.
Influence multiple product teams and senior stakeholders to align around shared storytelling outcomes.
Partner with Design and Research to ensure experiences are intuitive, emotional, and grounded in real customer needs.
Define, track, and communicate success metrics tied to customer value.