Executive Director, Product & Analytics

Society of Defense Financial Management; Washington, Northern (District of Columbia, KY); Hybrid; USD 155,000 - 185,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

HSA savings

Paid time off & holidays

Life insurance & short-term disability

Job summary

AL-MONITOR in Washington, DC, is hiring an Executive Director, Product & Analytics to own the digital product and the data driving it. You will lead the full product and analytics team, set the roadmap, and collaborate with editorial, marketing, and leadership to keep our website and mobile apps fast, stable, and growing.

You’ll manage sprint planning in Jira, ensure Pantheon hosting performance, and drive stability, optimization, and innovation across the tech stack including HubSpot,

Qualifications

• 10+ years in product, engineering, or technology leadership.
• Owns a digital product roadmap end-to-end and ships against it.
• Hands-on agile delivery and sprint management in Jira.

Responsibilities

• Own AL-MONITOR’s digital product across website and mobile apps and its analytics.
• Represent development priorities in business meetings to align stakeholders.
• Lead and develop the product and analytics team across disciplines.
• Own sprint planning, backlog, and blockers to ensure on-time delivery.
• Drive optimization of subscriber journeys, including sign-up, checkout, and account management.

Skills

Leadership

Roadmap ownership

Agile delivery

Technical fluency

Analytics

UX/UI awareness

Tools

Pantheon

HubSpot

ChargeBee

Jira

GA4

Job description

About the Job

Location: Washington, DC (On-Site)

Reports To: Head of Business & Growth

Manages: A seven-person product and analytics team across engineering, design, QA, and analytics

Employment Type: Full-Time

Compensation: $155,000–$185,000

Work Authorization: Must be authorized to work in the U.S.

About AL-MONITOR

AL-MONITOR (AL-MONITOR.com) is an award-winning media service founded in 2012 by entrepreneur and philanthropist Jamal Daniel. Its mission is to foster a deeper understanding of the Middle East through world-class reporting and analysis from and about the region. In just its second year, AL-MONITOR received the prestigious International Press Institute’s Free Media Pioneer Award, becoming the only American media outlet exclusively covering the Middle East to earn this distinction.

AL-MONITOR is widely read by U.S., international, and Middle East decision-makers at the highest levels, as well as by media, thought leaders, experts, and students. Its audience includes institutions such as the White House, Harvard University, NATO, the World Bank, and foreign and defense ministries around the world. With a multilingual platform that includes Mandarin Chinese, AL-MONITOR reaches a global audience seeking trusted, in-depth coverage of the region.

The Role

The Executive Director, Product & Analytics owns AL-MONITOR's digital product and the data behind it. You lead the full product and analytics team, set and drive the roadmap, and are accountable for keeping our website and mobile apps fast, stable, and growing, with the full subscriber journey working end to end across our connected HubSpot, Pantheon, and ChargeBee stack. You are the voice of the development team across the business, the main point of contact for editorial, marketing, business, and leadership, so your engineers can stay focused on building. Organized around three priorities, stability, optimization, and innovation, you run delivery day to day, owning sprints and the backlog in Jira, holding the team accountable, and translating technical work for stakeholders through clear roadmaps and updates. Because AL-MONITOR is built on Pantheon, deep familiarity with that platform is essential.

What You’ll Do

• Own AL-MONITOR’s digital product across the website and mobile apps, its analytics function, and the roadmap that drives them
• Be the voice of the development team across the business: represent development priorities in business meetings and serve as the main point of contact for editorial, marketing, business, and leadership, so engineers can stay focused on building
• Lead, manage, and develop the product and analytics team, including front-end, back-end, and app engineers, a UX/UI designer, QA and technical support, and the Senior Analytics Manager
• Own sprint planning and the backlog in Jira: create and prioritize tickets, run sprint ceremonies, keep the team updating status, hold them accountable for delivery and quality, and clear blockers so work ships
• Lead the team across three priorities, stability, optimization, and innovation, working with the Head of Business and leadership to keep the balance aligned with company goals and KPIs, and reporting progress back up
• Protect stability: keep the website (built on Pantheon) and our iOS and Android apps fast, reliable, and high-performing, safeguarding uptime and release quality
• Own the technical flow of the full subscriber journey across our connected stack, so acquisition, sign-up, payment, and account management work seamlessly end to end: email and CRM in HubSpot, the on-site experience on Pantheon, and subscription billing in ChargeBee, with data syncing cleanly between them to build each subscriber’s profile
• Own subscription and pricing changes in ChargeBee and the order page, launching new prices and offers and ensuring they flow correctly into HubSpot
• Drive optimization through competitive analysis and continuous improvement, including on-site user flow such as newsletter sign-up, subscription generation, the order-page experience, and how subscribers manage their accounts and newsletters, in service of conversion KPIs
• Champion innovation: generate new ideas, pilot them, and report direction and tradeoffs to the Head of Business and leadership
• Lead the adoption of AI tools and agentic automation, evaluating and integrating tools into workflows, building or overseeing automations, and teaching the team to use them well as the technology evolves
• Set and maintain the product roadmap, running regular look-backs and look-aheads across the year and aligning it with company KPIs and the goals of other teams
• Own the technical and back-end side of HubSpot as it becomes our primary CRM, supporting email build and coding, forms, reporting infrastructure, and integrations alongside the Senior Analytics Manager
• Own relationships with technical and contract vendors and staffing partners, meeting on a monthly and quarterly cadence to hold them accountable, and managing the contract developers who deliver through them
• Manage the Senior Analytics Manager to improve tracking and measurement, working closely with them to sharpen how we understand site, SEO, and audience performance
• Partner with the Director of Marketing and the UX/UI designer to deliver site and campaign needs smoothly
• Facilitate Editorial’s technical needs, responding quickly when something breaks or the newsroom needs support or new functionality on-site
• Guide front-end, back-end, app, and UX/UI decisions, setting technical and design standards even where the hands‑on build sits with the team
• Set up project management documentation, create decks that communicate the enhancements and changes shipped, and support monthly updates to the business and to leadership
• Coach the team toward self-sufficiency, building the processes and standards that let them deliver independently while you set direction

What You Need to Succeed

• 10+ years in product, engineering, or technology, including leading and managing multidisciplinary teams across engineering, design, QA, and analytics
• A track record of owning a digital product roadmap end to end and shipping against it
• Hands-on command of agile delivery and sprint management in Jira, including backlog ownership and running ceremonies
• Broad technical fluency across front-end, back-end, and app development, enough to weigh architectural decisions, review approaches, and speak credibly with your engineers
• Deep, hands-on experience with Pantheon, or comparable enterprise CMS and hosting platforms
• Experience owning or managing mobile app development and releases across iOS and Android, in addition to the web
• A strong grasp of systems integration and data flow across a connected stack, including a CMS such as Pantheon, a CRM such as HubSpot, and a subscription and billing platform such as ChargeBee
• Experience owning conversion and user-flow optimization, such as sign-up, subscription, and checkout or order flows
• Working knowledge of HubSpot on the technical side, including email build and coding, forms, and integrations, or the ability to ramp quickly as it becomes our primary CRM
• Working knowledge of analytics and measurement (GA4, Google Tag Manager, Looker Studio) sufficient to guide and manage the analytics function
• Experience with Claude or other AI platforms, and an eagerness to lead the adoption of AI and automation across the team
• Experience managing technical vendors, staffing partners, and contract developers
• A strong grasp of UX/UI best practices and the judgment to guide design decisions
• Excellent leadership and communication: you can be the voice of a technical team to business stakeholders, report to leadership, build clear decks, and align everyone around priorities
• A bias toward stability, optimization, and innovation, backed by competitive awareness and a steady flow of fresh ideas
• Authorization to work in the United States

Nice to Have

• Experience in media, publishing, or a subscription business and its billing and CRM stack
• Familiarity with SEO, AIO, and GEO and how they shape a content platform
• Familiarity with data warehousing (BigQuery) and modern analytics pipelines
• Interest in policy, foreign affairs, or journalism

How Success Is Measured

Success in this role is measured on four fronts. Stability: a website and apps that stay fast, reliable, and high-performing. Optimization: steady gains in user flow and conversion across the subscriber journey, backed by competitive insight. Innovation: new ideas and automation that move the business forward. Leadership and team: a product and analytics team that ships predictably against a roadmap aligned to company KPIs, that grows more capable and independent over time, and that is encouraged to think creatively and own its work while staying pointed in the same direction. As one of AL-MONITOR's three business leaders, you are also measured on how well you develop your people, set a high standard, and partner with the marketing and events leaders to move the whole company forward.

What We Can Offer You

Join AL-MONITOR for meaningful work on a respected, award-winning publication, based in our Washington, DC office. We offer competitive compensation and a benefits package designed to support you and your family. Enjoy comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage (dental and vision fully employer-paid), with HSA savings available. Prioritize your well-being with generous paid time off that grows with tenure, and 11 paid holidays. Build financial security with fully-paid life insurance and short-term disability.

Additional Information

AL-MONITOR is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, protected Veteran status, or other factors protected by law.