Manager, Product - Decorator Production Platform

Varsity Spirit; Farmers Branch (TX); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Varsity Spirit is seeking a Manager of Product Management for the Decorator Production Platform. You will own the product experience, prioritize needs, and drive improvements across the platform that personalizes apparel for teams and fans.

This role partners with stakeholders, executives, vendors, production staff, and customers to translate objectives into coordinated initiatives. As the primary product advocate, you will guide discovery through launch, maintain a continuous backlog, and

Job description

JOIN THE BEST TEAM IN SPORT & SPIRIT

At Varsity Brands, we believe every student deserves the opportunity to succeed and every educator wants to make a difference. It takes a team to make a real impact, and through our two divisions - BSN SPORTS and Varsity Spirit - and our network of 6,000+ employees and independent representatives, we are proud to partner with a wide range of educational institutions and club and professional sports to transform the student journey in SPORT and SPIRIT.

Location: Hybrid - Farmers Branch, TX

HOW YOU WILL MAKE AN IMPACT:

The Manager, Product Management - Decorator Production Platform will own the functional experience, product needs, and continuous improvement priorities for one of Varsity Brands' primary proprietary applications: Decorator Production Platform application. The Decorator Production Platform application is at the core of the Varsity Brands sporting apparel business strategy that enables apparel and equipment products to be personalized for sports teams, players, and fans.

This role serves as the primary product representative for apparel production application functionality, performance, and processes. This role will partner with business stakeholders, executive leadership, vendor partners, production facility employees, frontline employees, customers, and application-aligned Portfolio Product Owners. The position will identify opportunities, understand business needs, negotiate priorities, and translate objectives into coordinated product initiatives across Varsity Brands.

Portfolio Product Owners are aligned to applications and platforms across Varsity Brands. The Manager, Product Management will partner with the appropriate Portfolio Product Owners so needs are understood, prioritized, and delivered through the relevant application roadmaps. Unresolved conflicts will be elevated to the executive steering committee for final direction.

The Manager, Product Management will guide initiatives from discovery through launch and adoption. This role will remain closely engaged in discovery, requirements, prioritization, testing, release readiness, and post-launch adoption, while maintaining lighter involvement during active software development.

In addition to major initiatives, the role will maintain and prioritize a continuous backlog of smaller enhancements, customer pain points, defects, technical improvements, technical debt reduction, and operational-efficiency opportunities.

Commercial teams retain accountability for revenue and business results. The Manager, Product Management focuses on customer experience, product outcomes, adoption, usability, operational effectiveness, and translating needs into technology-enabled solutions. This role is expected to deliver measurable business outcomes such as efficiency gains, cost reduction, error reduction, and adoption.

WHAT YOU WILL DO:

Team Leadership

• Lead and manage a team of Product Owners and/or Business Analysts responsible for the Decorator Production Platform backlog and delivery
• Translate platform priorities into actionable team objectives and measurable outcomes
• Establish clear team expectations that promote accountability, ownership, collaboration, and product excellence
• Foster an inclusive, high-performing product culture focused on continuous learning and improvement
• Evaluate team capacity, identify resourcing needs, and proactively address delivery risks and impediments
• Coach team members through regular feedback, mentoring, and career development conversations

Experience and Strategy

• Develop and maintain a comprehensive understanding of the Decorator Production Platform process, including vendors, customers, users, business processes, operational needs, pain points, and strategic priorities
• Serve as the primary product representative and advocate for the overall experience and functionality of the Decorator Production Platform Application
• Partner with business stakeholders and executive management to define priorities and obtain final approval for major roadmap decisions
• Translate strategies, customer needs, and operational challenges into clear product opportunities and prioritized initiatives
• Evaluate opportunities based on customer impact, strategic alignment, adoption potential, operational value, effort, risk, dependencies, and expected outcomes
• Maintain a roadmap identifying major initiatives, experience improvements, capability gaps, and cross-application dependencies
• Ensure the production experience remains cohesive when customer journeys span multiple applications, systems, and operational teams

Stakeholder Engagement and Prioritization

• Build strong working relationships with leadership, Operations, Sales, Supply Chain, Customer Service, Marketing, Finance, Technology, and other business functions
• Facilitate discussions to understand competing needs, clarify tradeoffs, and negotiate priorities
• Present recommendations, options, dependencies, risks, and tradeoffs to executive manageme