Product Operations Lead (f/m/d)

Awin Benelux; Amsterdam; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexi-Week

Flexi-office

Work Expense Contribution & Remoteing

Health and Wellbeing

Development (Awin Academy)

Appreciation programme

Job summary

Awin Benelux is hiring a Product Operations Lead to own the product and portfolio operating model across planning cadences, governance, and delivery standards. You will lead a team of Product Operations Managers, coach them, and drive hands-on improvements in intake, planning, and tooling while collaborating with Delivery Operations and Technical Program Management.

This role emphasizes data-driven decisions, systems thinking, and clear communication to align strategy with execution.

Qualifications

• Background in product or technology operations within SaaS.
• Track record of building planning, governance or prioritisation systems.
• Confidence using data to describe operating health and justify changes.
• Systems thinking with attention to detail across teams.
• Strong craft and quality mindset in process design.

Responsibilities

• Own the product and portfolio operating model, including planning cadences and governance.
• Define readiness standards for opportunities, ensuring clear ownership and dependencies.
• Lead and develop the Product Operations Managers and coach their careers.
• Deliver hands-on improvements: intake routes, planning cadences, tooling standards.
• Contribute to P&T Operations as a leadership team with other senior leads.
• Make value visible by measuring outcomes and feeding back to planning cycles.

Skills

Product ops

SaaS operations

Data-driven decision making

Systems thinking

Team leadership

Clear communication

Hands-on delivery

Job description

Purpose of Position

The Product Operations Lead (f/m/d) owns the product and portfolio operating model: the frameworks, cadences and standards that connect strategy, product planning, prioritisation and portfolio governance. The role leads a team of Product Operations Managers and is accountable for the quality, consistency and transparency of how work flows into and out of Product & Technology.

• Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands; Berlin, Berlin, Germany; London, England, United Kingdom

What you'll be responsible for:

• Own the product and portfolio operating model. Set the direction for how Product & Technology plans, prioritises and reviews: strategy and planning cadences, prioritisation and portfolio governance, decision rights, portfolio-level dependency visibility, and the quality standards the model runs on.
• Safeguard the quality of work entering delivery. Define what a ready opportunity looks like and hold that standard: the problem is well understood, the evidence supports the opportunity, success measures are defined, and dependencies and ownership are clear.
• Lead and develop the team. Give the Product Operations Managers a clear remit and the space to own it. Coach them in the craft of their discipline, help them see the system they work inside, and build their careers deliberately.
• Deliver improvements directly. This is a hands-on role. Alongside setting direction, design and land changes personally: intake routes, planning cadences that fit how teams work, tooling standards in the Atlassian suite, portfolio views that leadership trusts.
• Contribute to P&T Operations as a leadership team. Partner with the leads of Delivery Operations and Technical Program Management so the three systems reinforce each other, holding the boundaries between them and applying the principle that systems are improved before coordination is added.
• Make value visible. Ensure delivered outcomes are measured consistently, communicated clearly across the business, and fed back into the next planning cycle.

Your skills

• A background in product or technology operations within SaaS, including designing and running planning and portfolio models at organisational scale.
• A track record of building planning, governance or prioritisation systems that outlasted their own involvement in them.
• Confidence using data to describe the health of an operating system and to make the case for change.
• Systems thinking paired with the ability to work in the detail. Able to see where the operating model is straining before anyone raises it, and equally able to sit with one team, one broken handover or one badly shaped ticket and fix it.
• A strong sense of craft and quality. Not only designing how work flows, but raising the quality of what flows through it, and able to articulate what good looks like without turning it into a compliance exercise.
• Hands-on leadership. Gives direction, coaches people through their own decisions rather than making decisions for them, and still picks up the work when it needs picking up.
• Pragmatism about method, and clear communication in writing and in a room, including making complex topics simple enough for stakeholders outside Product & Technology to act on.

Our Offer

• Flexi-Week: We prioritise your mental health and wellbeing by offering you a four-day Flexi-Week (with one lighter or completely disconnected day per week) at full pay, with no reduction to your annual holiday allowance.
• Flexi-office: We offer an international culture and flexibility through our hybrid/remote working scheme which is designed to foster a culture of mutual trust and working flexibility.
• Work Expense Contribution & Remote Working Furniture: You will receive a monthly allowance to cover part of your running costs, as well as a furniture package to support you in setting up a comfortable workspace when working from home.
• Health and Wellbeing: With our support and access to various initiatives and sports offers, you can focus on your mental and physical wellbeing.
• Development: We’ve built our extensive training suite, Awin Academy, to cover a wide range of skills that support your professional and personal growth, with trainings conveniently packaged to help your overall development.
• Appreciation: Thank and reward colleagues by sending them a voucher through our peer-to-peer recognition programme.

We are hiring in multiple countries for this role. Additional benefits, including health and wellbeing offerings, will be discussed during the initial interview.

Like all businesses, we’ve had to adapt and nurture our culture in a virtual environment. Our virtual ‘Life @ Awin’ hub brings our colleagues from across the globe together for various social activities.

Awin is part of the Axel Springer group.