Technical Product Director, Foundations, News Product

The New York Times•New York, NY

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

The mission of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. That means independent journalism is at the heart of all we do as a company. It’s why we have a world-renowned newsroom that sends journalists to report on the ground from nearly 160 countries. It’s why we focus deeply on how our readers will experience our journalism, from print to audio to a world-class digital and app destination. And it’s why our business strategy centers on making journalism so good that it’s worth paying for. Mission Overview & Responsibilities: The New York Times is looking for a Technical Product Director to lead our Foundations team within the News Product Mission. Our goal is to be the entry point for news for tens of millions more people around the world by being their first read, watch or listen—every day. The Foundations team is dedicated to making our app and website as performant and intuitive as possible. We want to reduce friction so readers can access critical news seamlessly, ensuring our digital products reflect the same level of excellence as our journalism. Over the next few years, you will lead the charge in elevating the quality of our core web and mobile experiences to ensure they are among the fastest and most reliable in the industry. The Foundations team and the News Product mission work on editorially-grounded initiatives at the speed of the news cycle. We want a leader who is passionate about the news, technically fluent, and committed to building a digital experience where technical performance and intuitive design work together to empower our readers. You will report to the VP of News Product and will manage a small team of product managers. You will partner closely with engineering and product leaders, the Developer Platforms mission, and peer teams within the News Product mission to shape strategy and deliver high-quality web and app experiences.

Requirements

5+ years of technical product management experience, including ownership of product strategy and roadmap for high-traffic consumer web or mobile products.
People management experience leading and developing product managers.
Consumer app and web experience (iOS/Android/Web), including iterative shipping in a live product environment.
Experience leading complex, cross-functional work and align stakeholders across missions, including senior technical and newsroom leaders.
Analytical expertise and a data-informed approach to prioritization, balancing technical quality with immediate user needs.
Experience communicating complex technical concepts to a variety of audiences, with experience in clear decision-making in ambiguous spaces.

Nice To Haves

Experience managing frontend optimization, accessibility, and modern web architectures (e.g., SSR, edge rendering) for high-traffic sites using observability tools like DataDog RUM.
Experience defining technical roadmaps for foundational mobile app architecture, managing complex release cycles, and establishing incident response protocols.
Experience architecting and scaling web personalization or recommendation systems within a high-traffic environment.
Experience working in native app environments including specific features built using hybrid (web-in-native) technologies.
Demonstrated experience working in or closely with a newsroom, editors or content creators.

Responsibilities

Define and drive a multi-quarter roadmap to ensure our web and app experiences are as performant and intuitive as possible, focusing on speed, reliability and ease of use.
Collaborate with Engineering and Data to define performance expectations and track progress
Scale and evolve foundational backend services, such as personalization and sitemaps, so they can be expanded into new product contexts
Manage the mobile app release process in collaboration with Engineering, ensuring a stable but flexible delivery cadence for our readers
Partner closely with the Developer Platforms mission and peer teams within the News Product mission to align on standards and ensure foundational improvements benefit the entire organization
Identify and reduce reader friction, using qualitative and quantitative insights to prioritize improvements that make navigating our journalism effortless.
Lead, coach and develop a team of product managers, setting clear goals, operating rhythms and a high bar for product management and cross-functional collaboration.
Demonstrate support and understanding of our value of journalistic independence and a strong commitment to our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world.