Sr. Director, Product Operations

Cambium Learning Group

3d•Remote

About The Position

The Sr. Director, Product Operations is a strategic, detail oriented leader responsible for orchestrating how product strategy and roadmaps are successfully executed across the portfolio. This role oversees both the Project Management and a new Product Investment Analytics function, including project staffing and capacity/productivity reporting, timekeeping & budget analytics, project/program management, and strategic investment decision support. The ideal candidate will improve predictability and visibility in how product investments are allocated, establish alignment of investments with bookings-based returns, increase velocity in our development and release cadences, and demonstrate quantifiable value realization via transparent data analyses and exceptional cross-functional alignment. Core Competencies: Strategic Thinking & Systems Orientation: Connects portfolio strategy to execution; designs scalable operating models. Operational Excellence: Builds efficient, repeatable processes; drives the use of data and metrics to improve performance. Data-Driven Decision Making: Analyses and applies evidence to inform and shape priorities, trade-offs, and investments. Leadership & Influence: Leads through clarity and influence; coaches and grows people and teams. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Orchestrates alignment across diverse groups; thrives on team wins. Customer-Centricity: Elevates educator and learner insights to guide design and delivery quality.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Technology, or related field; MBA or equivalent experience preferred.
10+ years in product operations, program/project management, or related roles within SaaS or technology organizations.
5+ years leading Agile environments (Scrum/Kanban; SAFe experience a plus).
Proven experience managing Technical Product Managers and running large-scale product operations/PMO.
Demonstrated ability to translate customer feedback into roadmap actions that improve adoption and outcomes.
Skilled with Jira & Confluence (required); portfolio-level workflows and reporting.
Have worked with analytics/BI tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, Looker).
Experienced with planning/resource tools (e.g., Smartsheet, Airtable, or equivalent).

Responsibilities

Product Operations Leadership (Staffing, Timekeeping, Budget Analytics): Timekeeping & Effort Categorization: Implement and continually refine timekeeping compliance and reporting; ensure accurate project timekeeping and effort categorization for portfolio insights.
Budget Analytics: Forecast, track, and report portfolio budgets; lead variance analysis, scenario planning, and product margin reviews in partnership with Product Leadership and Finance.
Operational Performance: Establish operational KPIs, dashboards, and OKRs that illuminate throughput, quality, customer value, and financial performance.
Productivity Tracking: Articulate and document baseline levels of productivity across product organizations, support teams in implementing tools for scaling work efficiently, track and report productivity increases in alignment with industry standard expectations Staffing & Capacity: Own the product staffing model, capacity planning, and allocations across product lines; set utilization targets and coverage plans for critical initiatives.
Process Optimization & Continuous Improvement: Systematize & Automate: Optimize systems and processes that enhance efficiency, quality, and cycle time across product development; track and report on the implementation of AI-based tools for productivity enhancements across teams Portfolio Retrospectives: Establish a cadence for portfolio-level retrospectives with the goals of identifying churn, removing bottlenecks, and scaling repeatable patterns Delivery Practices: Refine and enforce best practices for project management, design, and development; ensuring consistent definitions of acceptance criteria and release cadences
Project Management (Operational & Agile): Project Management Ownership: Oversee the project and program management practices; standardize intake, planning, execution, and delivery across teams with clear stage gates and artifacts.
Agile Maturity: Drive Scaled Agile practices with pragmatic governance across the portfolio segments - implementing streamlined ceremonies, cadences, and metrics that balance flexibility with accountability.
Portfolio Visibility: Assist in implementing tooling and processes for transparent roadmaps, dependencies, risks, milestones, and cross-functional communication.
Delivery Assurance: Monitor progress and proactively address delivery risks, scope changes, and impediments; communicate status and recovery plans.
Team Leadership & Talent Development: Engineering Partnership: Ensure tight collaboration with Engineering, Architecture, Data/Infrastructure, and Security; champion feasibility, scalability, performance, and reliability.
Technical Standards: Establish consistent practices for technical documentation, integration specs, contract management; promote testability, observability, and operational readiness.
Decision Support & Insights: Evidence-Based Decisions: Provide data-driven insights that influence prioritization, trade-offs, and investment decisions; embed analytics into operating rhythms.
Dashboards & Reporting: Collaborate with Research & Analytics and the Business Data Analytics group to build dashboards (e.g., velocity, predictability, adoption, cost-to-serve, utilization) and performance reports.
Customer Voice: Create clear pathways to assist Product Managers in amplifying customer feedback from users, research, support, and sales into backlogs and multi-quarter plans.
Stakeholder Management & Cross-Functional Coordination: Central Orchestration: Serve as a central point of contact across Product, Product Marketing, Research, Sales, Support, and Finance for end-to-end delivery Prioritization Forums: Ensure structured feedback loops and prioritization forums; ensure transparency into decision rationale, dependencies, and resourcing constraints Executive Communication: Communicate plans, status, and outcomes effectively to executive stakeholders; align on operating rhythms and shared goals.
Strategic Planning & Roadmapping: Annual & Quarterly Planning: Partner with the SVP, Product and VP, Product Strategy & Management on annual planning, portfolio prioritization, and resource strategy aligned to company objectives.
Roadmap Stewardship: Assist in building and maintaining product roadmaps and multi-quarter plans; ensure operational execution matches strategic intent.
Innovation & Focus: Leverage insights to identify opportunities for innovation, simplification, and targeted offerings across the product portfolio.
Quality, Compliance & Risk: K–12 Compliance: Ensure operational compliance with K–12 data privacy regulations (e.g., FERPA, COPPA) and district security requirements within processes and tooling.
Risk Management: Partner with QA/Security to manage quality, security, and compliance scope; minimize escaped defects and technical risk through governance and measurement.

Benefits

Remote First Work Environment
Our Remote First approach gives employees the flexibility and trust they need to effectively balance work with life.
It creates a culture in which all employees are valued and where success is measured in results.
It allows us to work collaboratively, inclusively and for greater positive impact, regardless of our individual locations.
If you will be working remotely, either occasionally or on a permanent basis, you must have a reliable internet connection through a cable or fiber-optic broadband service with minimum speeds of 10 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload.
The successful candidate will be expected to actively participate in video-based interviews during the recruiting process and ongoing virtual meetings with their camera on, as part of their role.
To maintain confidentiality and ensure a fair evaluation process, the use of note-taking tools, reference materials, or AI-powered tools (including generative AI, language models, or similar technologies) during interviews or other selection activities is prohibited unless prior written approval has been obtained from the People Experience team.
If you require an exception for medical, accessibility, or other reasons, please contact your Talent Acquisition team member to discuss accommodations in advance.
As part of our Remote-First benefits, Cambium offers reimbursement to help cover the cost of setting up your home or remote office.
An Equal Opportunity Employer
We are dedicated to fostering a culture that celebrates unique backgrounds, ideas, and experiences.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender, gender identity/expression, or sexual orientation), national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or genetic information (including family medical history).
We will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities.
You may request an accommodation during the recruiting process with your Talent Acquisition team member.