Product Strategy & Ops Director — Lead High-Impact Growth

ESPN; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 231,000 - 309,000; Full time

Job summary

ESPN in San Francisco seeks a Product Strategy and Operations Director to build and lead the analytics backbone for Product & Technology. You will shape long-term product strategies, set OKRs, and drive execution across teams, balancing data-driven rigor with pragmatic leadership.

You will partner with CPTO and senior leaders to align initiatives, improve velocity, and surface insights that guide decision-making in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in ProdOps, Strategy, or Analytics roles within top-tier Technology Companies, Start Ups, Management Consulting, and/or Professional Services firms.
• BS/BA in Business, Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field; MBA or comparable advanced degree preferred.
• Strong analytical and structured problem-solving skills; expertise in organizing complex data to create clear, concise narratives. Strong spreadsheet (Excel, Google Sheets) and SQL skills. Proficiency with Tableau, Looker, or similar BI tools is highly preferred.
• Experience defining and measuring OKRs, KPIs, or other comparable success metrics.
• Proactive “self-starter” with a passion for driving outcomes and a bias for action. Proven ability to manage multiple workstreams simultaneously with high attention to detail, while also knowing when to zoom out and have executive-level discussions.

Responsibilities

• Team Building: Build out a high-performing Strategy & Operations team with leads aligned to specific product areas (comparable to “ProdOps” functions at leading tech companies). Be a versatile “player / coach” that is equally capable of defining a vision, and applying analytical horsepower towards complex problems.
• Organizational Goals: Drive the goal-setting process for OKRs across the entire Product and Technology organization. This includes partnering with team leads to set objectives, using informed analysis to define measurable targets, and managing recurring leadership reviews to assess performance.
• Performance Measurement: Be the analytical backbone for our key metrics. Understand the data sets, identify trends, surface insights, and work with Product, Engineering, and Data Science to optimize performance.
• Operational Excellence: Support CPTO-level review forums including Product Reviews, Weekly Metric Reviews, OKR Reviews, and more. Proactively identify opportunities to improve velocity and impact through operational rigor.
• Cultural Transformation: Partner with Corporate Communications, Creative Storytelling, and/or Workplace Experience to plan town halls, offsites/summits, and other large scale events where Product and Technology is represented.

Skills

ProdOps experience

Strategy & analytics

SQL

Excel/Sheets

Tableau/Looker

OKRs/KPIs

Executive communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

BS/BA in Business, CS, Data Science

MBA preferred

Tools

Tableau

Looker

SQL

Job description

ESPN in San Francisco seeks a Product Strategy and Operations Director to build and lead the analytics backbone for Product & Technology. You will shape long-term product strategies, set OKRs, and drive execution across teams, balancing data-driven rigor with pragmatic leadership.

You will partner with CPTO and senior leaders to align initiatives, improve velocity, and surface insights that guide decision-making in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.