Director, Product Analytics & Insights

UNAVAILABLE; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 130,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage

Holiday and Vacation Time

Health & Wellness Days

Bonus Day for Your Birthday

Job summary

Applied is searching for a Director of Product Analytics and Insights in Chicago. This pivotal role involves leading product analytics, developing strategies, and utilizing data to influence product decisions. Ideal candidates will have extensive experience in product analytics, particularly with tools like Pendo, SQL, and BigQuery.

The position requires a team-oriented individual who can effectively analyze user behavior and growth opportunities while managing analytics initiatives across the organization. Applied offers a collaborative work environment where diverse experiences are valued and crucial to success.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in product analytics or business intelligence roles.
• Track record of building high-performing analytics teams.
• Deep expertise with Pendo for product insights.
• Strong knowledge of SQL and BigQuery.
• Experience in self-service analytics development.
• B2B SaaS experience preferred.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the product analytics function.
• Influence product roadmap using user behavior data.
• Manage product telemetry and deliver insights.
• Develop self-service analytics solutions for teams.
• Define analytics requirements for product development.
• Analyze performance to identify growth opportunities.
• Lead cross-functional analytics initiatives.

Skills

Product analytics

Leadership skills

SQL

Pendo

BigQuery

Tableau

AI-powered workflows

B2B SaaS experience

Job description

Canada Internal Job Ad

Amazing Career Moments Happen Here

Transforming the insurance industry is ambitious, we know. That’s why at Applied, we’re building a team that shows up every day ready to learn, willing to try new things, and driven to deliver innovative software and services that make us indispensable to our customers – all within a culture built on values that make us indispensable to each other too. With 40+ years of experience in the Insurtech game, we’re not just redefining what’s achievable; we’re creating a place where amazing career moments are made possible.

Position Overview

We’re searching for a Director, Product Analytics and Insights to join our Product Operations team; establishing and leading our product analytics function from the ground up and shaping how product investment decisions are made across the business. Reporting to the VP of Product Operations, you will define the KPI framework, analytics strategy, instrumentation approach, and self-service capabilities that enable product managers and leaders to make data-driven decisions. Leveraging Pendo as the core analytics platform, you'll uncover user behavior, identify friction points, and deliver actionable insights that influence roadmap priorities and product outcomes. Working at the intersection of Product, Engineering, Data, and Go-to-Market teams, you'll serve as the owner of the product signal, connecting product performance to broader business results.

This is a highly visible role with regular exposure to executive leadership and a unique opportunity to reimagine product analytics through the application of AI, helping transform not only what we build, but how we measure, learn, and innovate.

To keep us headed in the right direction, we’re looking for people who understand winning is a team sport, who value and seek to learn from our team’s diverse experiences and backgrounds, who welcome a challenge and take risks in the pursuit of creating better outcomes for our customers, and who can, at any given time, step back to laugh and have some fun.

What You’ll Do

• Build and lead the product analytics function, establishing the strategy, KPI framework, instrumentation standards, and self-service analytics capabilities that drive data‑informed product decisions.
• Partner with Product leadership to influence roadmap and investment priorities, translating user behavior, adoption trends, workflow analytics, and customer feedback into actionable recommendations.
• Own and optimize the product analytics ecosystem, leveraging Pendo and other analytics tools to design instrumentation, manage product telemetry, and deliver scalable insights across multiple products.
• Develop self‑service dashboards and reporting solutions that empower Product Managers and leaders to monitor adoption, measure outcomes, and make evidence‑based decisions independently.
• Embed measurement into the product development lifecycle, defining analytics and telemetry requirements for new features and releases to ensure success can be accurately tracked from launch.
• Analyze product performance and identify growth opportunities, proactively surfacing adoption challenges, user friction points, and emerging trends while measuring customer value, engagement, and business impact.
• Lead cross‑functional analytics initiatives and team development, partnering with Engineering, Data, Go‑to‑Market, and Executive leaders to connect product outcomes to business results, advance AI‑powered analytics capabilities, and build a high‑performing analytics team over time.

We’re Excited to Learn More About You

Your experience may include:

• 8+ years in product analytics (or 3+ years in product/product analytics and 5+ years in business intelligence or data science roles), with at least 5 years in a leadership capacity
• Track record building high‑performing product analytics teams with demonstrable impact on company strategy
• Deep, hands‑on expertise with Pendo. This is non‑negotiable. You should be able to design tagging strategies, build guides, configure funnels, and architect Pendo at scale across multiple products
• Strong working knowledge of SQL and BigQuery. Proficiency in Tableau for visualization and storytelling. Familiarity with data prep tools like Alteryx is a plus
• You don’t need to be a data engineer, but you need to speak the language well enough to write instrumentation specs, discuss event models and schemas, and partner with data platform teams on pipeline decisions
• Experience building self‑serve analytics capabilities for product teams, not just producing reports on request
• A genuine orientation toward product strategy. You see analytics as an input to what we build, not just a measure of what we built
• B2B SaaS experience, ideally in a complex, multi‑product environment
• You’ve built AI‑powered analytics workflows, agents, or projects that moved past experimentation into real use and impact, and you’re energized by the idea of pushing what’s possible

You may have other skills or credentials, including:

• Experience building a product analytics function from scratch rather than inheriting one
• Comfort working alongside commercial and engineering analytics teams and translating product metrics into language those audiences care about
• Experience in insurance, financial services, or other vertical software (not required, but you’ll ramp faster)
• Prior experience within a Product Operations function or embedded with a product organization

We know that talent comes from all backgrounds and experience levels. We encourage military members and their spouses as well as candidates without a degree or a background in tech to apply!

When You Join Team Applied, You Can Expect:

A culture that values who you are and recognizes that you aren’t just an employee; you are a teammate, and you matter. We thrive on the benefits of our different experiences and celebrate the uniqueness our teammates bring to work with them every day.

We flex our time together, collaborating remotely and in-person to empower our teams to work in the ways that work best for them.

A comprehensive benefits and compensation package that centers our teammates and helps them to bring their best to work every day:

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage
• Holiday and Vacation Time
• Health & Wellness Days
• A Bonus Day for Your Birthday

This position requires the employee to reside and work from one of the following provinces: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, PEI, Saskatchewan.

Your Security Matters

Our candidates’ personal information and online safety are top of mind for us. At Applied, we proactively protect your personal information and only communicate with candidates via a secure @appliedsystems.com email or through our official careers portal. Recruiters will never request payments, ask for financial account information or sensitive information like social security numbers.

AI Utilization

We leverage AI tools to streamline parts of our recruitment workflow (such as resume parsing and interview scheduling). However, candidate screening, interviews, and final decisions are conducted by real humans.

EEO Statement

Applied Systems is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. Diversity and Inclusion is a business imperative and is a part of building our brand and reputation. At Applied, we don’t discriminate, and we are committed to recruit, develop, retain, and promote regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age, veteran status, and other protected status as required by applicable law.