Director, Product Ownership

Default Brand; Duquesne (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Targeted bonus potential

Job summary

Default Brand is seeking a Product Ownership Director to act as the strategic liaison between business, technology, and vendors for a portfolio of critical technology products. You will translate business priorities into technology initiatives, govern roadmaps, and drive measurable business value.

You will lead Product Owners, align teams with enterprise objectives, and influence investment decisions to support growth, mitigate risk, and maintain competitive advantage.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Information Technology, MIS or related field.
• 7+ years of progressive experience in product ownership, product management, business technology, information technology, or related functional experience.
• 9+ years of progressive experience in one or more functional areas and three or more core technologies preferred, including demonstrated experience leading product roadmaps, enterprise initiatives, vendors, cross-functional teams, or technology portfolios.

Responsibilities

• Leads strategic discussions with business and technology leaders to understand business problems and workable solutions.
• Obtains executive and stakeholder buy-in for product roadmaps, project plans, and strategic initiatives.
• Provides leadership and development opportunities to Product Owners and cross-functional teams.

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Information Technology, Management Information Systems or related field

Job description

The Product Ownership Director serves as the strategic liaison between the business, technology, and technical vendors for a portfolio of business-critical technology products and capabilities. This role partners with senior leaders to understand ATC’s needs and identify opportunities to improve efficiency, support growth, mitigate risk, and drive competitive advantage. The Director owns and governs product roadmaps, translates business priorities into technology initiatives, influences investment decisions, and ensures measurable business value is delivered. The Director also leads and develops Product Owners by setting priorities, coaching performance, and aligning team resources with business and technology objectives.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Leads strategic discussions with business and technology leaders to understand business problems, enterprise priorities, and workable solutions.
• Creates a collaborative environment that encourages team member participation and open discussion of risks, tradeoffs, and opportunities.
• Integrates multiple perspectives into technically sound, scalable solutions that align with enterprise strategy.
• Obtains executive and stakeholder buy-in for product roadmaps, project plans, and strategic initiatives.
• Provides leadership, guidance, and development opportunities to Product Owners, supporting their continued growth and success.

Change Management

• Fosters continuous improvement across assigned business areas and capabilities.
• Works with leaders to ease concerns, build buy-in, and support adoption of organizational and technology changes.
• Connects ATC’s mission and business drivers to technology strategy, data, and roadmaps.
• Leads change initiatives by communicating impacts, addressing concerns, and driving sustained adoption.
• Drives major implementations, removes barriers, and ensures business readiness.

Functional Analysis

• Provides leadership and review for product owner, analyst, and cross-functional team work to ensure requirements, recommendations, and solution designs meet business, technical, and strategic expectations.
• Directs the translation of ambiguous business requirements into clear strategies, technical requirements, epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, and measurable outcomes.
• Uses deep functional knowledge of assigned business verticals to influence strategy, prioritization, and scalable solution design.
• Oversees prioritization of business tickets, corrections, enhancements, and capability gaps to ensure alignment with roadmap, risk, and business value.
• Conducts product reviews, build/buy/remediate analysis, ROI analysis, business cases, and recommendations for budgeting and steering committee review.

Project Management

• Directs work breakdown, resource planning, team assignments, and use of project management tools to ensure visibility and accountability.
• Keeps project teams, business sponsors, and executive stakeholders aligned on deliverables, dependencies, risks, and decisions.
• Communicates executive-level status, risks, financial impacts, tradeoffs, and recommendations.
• Recommends adjustments to scope, timeline, budget, and sequencing to maintain delivery of the highest business value.
• Develops and governs multi-year roadmaps aligned to IT strategy, business strategy, budget priorities, and enterprise architecture.
• Establishes team goals, monitors progress, removes barriers, and holds team members accountable for execution and business value delivery.

Agile Development

• Establishes solution management and agile delivery practices that support strategic business outcomes.
• Collaborates with stakeholders, architects, and delivery teams to prioritize initiatives and align delivery with roadmap objectives.
• Ensures quality, release readiness, and operational preparedness for deployments.
• Oversees review of completed work and incorporates stakeholder feedback into future roadmap planning.
• Leads strategic technical vendor relationships to ensure products, services, and roadmaps deliver business value.
• Reviews vendor contracts and partners with Procurement, Legal, Finance, and IT leadership to align service expectations, risk considerations, and business outcomes.
• Provides direction to internal team members supporting vendor engagements to manage roles, accountabilities, issues, and deliverables.
• Manages vendor engagements to ensure project success, vendor accountability, and alignment to product roadmap and budget objectives.
• Ensures vendor deliverables meet agreed quality, adoption, and operational readiness expectations.

Data & Technology

• Stays current on emerging technologies, products, and data capabilities that may add value to the organization.
• Applies knowledge of digital-first companies to help ATC remain competitive, scalable, secure, and efficient.
• Identifies, proposes, and sponsors technology or data opportunities that differentiate ATC or accelerate growth, market share, and/or margins.

ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Information Technology, Management Information Systems or related field.
• Minimum of 7+ years of progressive experience in product ownership, product management, business technology, information technology, or related functional experience.
• Certificates in project management, change management, agile product ownership, six sigma, or related discipline a plus.
• 9+ years of progressive experience in one or more functional areas and three or more core technologies preferred, including demonstrated experience leading product roadmaps, enterprise initiatives, vendors, cross-functional teams, or technology portfolios:
• Manufacturing / WHMS / Forecast / Planning ERP
• Finance System / Procurement
• RPA (UI Path preferred)
• BPA (MS PowerApps preferred)
• Cloud data warehousing and analytics (Azure / Synapse preferred)
• CRM (SF.com preferred)
• PLM (Centric preferred)
• HRMS
• CLM
• Demonstrated experience influencing senior leaders, facilitating governance decisions, and translating business strategy into technology roadmaps and measurable outcomes.
• Experience leading, coaching, developing, and managing technical or product management professionals.
• Experience with budget planning, ROI analysis, vendor management, contract review, prioritization frameworks, and enterprise delivery practices preferred.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

• Ability to withstand prolonged periods sitting at a desk.
• Frequent use of upper extremities to perform keyboard functions and work on a computer.
• Ability to occasionally stand/walk.

Equal Opportunity Employer
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