Product Operations Director

Applied Systems, Inc.•,

1d•$160,000 - $200,000•Remote

About The Position

The Product Operations Director leads how Applied’s product organization applies AI to its work, owns the tooling and infrastructure used by product teams, and stewards the operating system connecting customer insight to delivered outcomes. The role makes product operations mechanisms, standards, and measurement repeatable, measurable, and adopted. The director sets strategy, standards, and governance for AI use across Product and Engineering, including shared automations, tools, access and data guardrails, training, and adoption and impact measurement. They are accountable for product operations infrastructure and the product tooling portfolio, including integrations, data flows, dashboards, reliability, architecture, adoption, ROI, vendors, and contracts. The role also governs tenant configuration and access, including subscription architecture, instrumentation, privacy, provisioning, and usage forecasting. The director maintains and versions the product operating system with Product and Engineering leadership; leads adoption, working groups, and change management; and owns operating mechanisms such as the central calendar, meeting standards, and cross-functional customer feedback process. They standardize lifecycle practices through templates, launch-readiness scorecards, and telemetry standards, and build the measurement infrastructure for operating-level and how-we-work metrics. Applied describes itself as a connective intelligence company transforming how insurance works through platforms, data, and intelligent systems connecting agencies and carriers across the insurance lifecycle. The role is remote. The anticipated base salary range is $160,000–$200,000 USD.

Requirements

12+ years of professional experience, including 10+ years in product operations, product management, program management, and/or project management.
Experience enabling teams with AI tools and workflows such as agents, skills, connectors, and automations; governing their use; and demonstrating measurable efficiency or quality impact.
Experience owning tools end to end, including strategy, implementation, adoption, ROI, vendor negotiation, and contracts.
Ability to design and run integrated tooling infrastructure, including data flows, dashboards, and system integrations.
Experience building operating models and repeatable processes where none existed, and leading change management to achieve adoption.
Ability to lead through influence without positional authority and establish credibility with engineers, product leaders, and C-suite executives.
Strong written and data communication skills, with the ability to retrieve and analyze data independently when a ready-made report is unavailable.
Ability to facilitate high-stakes cross-functional discussions and drive them to a decision.
Genuine curiosity about insurance technology.

Nice To Haves

Ability to stand up AI enablement for product teams, including launching a skill registry and connector standards, defining access and data governance, and setting adoption and impact measures.
Ability to define a tooling and infrastructure roadmap, including multi-subscription Pendo architecture, a 2027 budget, product-stack integrations, and vendor strategy.
Ability to take the operating system from draft to version one by running working groups, publishing minimum-spec and launch-readiness templates, and supporting initial team adoption in Q1 2027.
Ability to establish a standing cross-functional customer feedback mechanism that informs annual allocation and planning, with clear drivers, inputs, and outcomes.

Responsibilities

Lead AI enablement for Product and Engineering by setting strategy, standards, and governance; owning the skill registry, connectors, and shared automations; selecting tools; establishing access and data guardrails; measuring adoption and impact; and delivering training.
Own the product operations infrastructure, including integrations between analytics, roadmap, customer-feedback, and capability-mapping systems, along with associated data flows, dashboards, and automations.
Set architecture, ownership, documentation, reliability, and AI-readiness standards for the product operations infrastructure.
Own the product tooling portfolio’s strategy, adoption, ROI, and outcomes, including product analytics and user behavior tools, roadmap and discovery tools, customer-ideas tools, and other product tools; determine what to build, buy, consolidate, or retire.
Govern tenant-level configuration and access, including subscription architecture, instrumentation and tagging standards, privacy and unmasking governance, access and provisioning, and usage and overage forecasting.
Manage vendors and contracts with Procurement, including renewals, expansions, new-tool evaluations, vendor governance, quarterly business reviews, and evidence-based outcomes.
Maintain and version the operating system with Product and Engineering leadership; lead working groups, adoption, and change management for the transition to 2027.
Own the central calendar, agenda and pre-read standards, and sunset criteria for ad hoc meetings; measure meeting load and retire meetings that do not justify their place.
Own the mechanism for sourcing cross-functional customer feedback from Sales, Support, CX, and Adoption into annual allocation and planning decisions.
Standardize lifecycle processes through minimum-spec templates, launch-readiness scorecards, and telemetry and instrumentation standards; hold teams to the standards and train product roles on the operating system, templates, and tools.
Build data and dashboard infrastructure for metrics defined with the Portfolio Strategy Director, and own operating-level and how-we-work metrics such as meeting load, template adoption, and telemetry coverage.