Director of Product

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• Create and actively communicate a definitive, actionable vision for your group's focus area, ensuring it aligns with the strategic objectives and mission of Code for America.

• Convert organizational priorities and emerging opportunities into your group's product strategy, making informed decisions about where to allocate resources and where to decline.

• Collaborate with the VP of Product and cross-functional leaders to ensure that your group's strategy is in sync with the overall organizational strategy.

• Proactively identify, scope, and validate emerging opportunities across various areas, partnering with other Product Directors, disciplines, and teams (e.g., Philanthropy and Strategic Partnerships).

• Effectively communicate product roadmaps, priorities, future opportunities, impacts, and results across the organization, including to Philanthropy and Strategic Partnerships, ensuring these teams have adequate time to plan their activities based on these insights.

• Work with Strategic Partnerships on strategic pricing and revenue negotiations, aligning them with organizational sustainability and market dynamics, as well as Code for America’s value creation.

• Utilize AI and emerging technologies to enhance product discovery, prioritization, decision-making, and delivery within your group.

• Establish clear success metrics for your group's initiatives, setting goals appropriate to the nature of the work.

• Lead and develop a team of product managers, including managing those in leadership roles, providing guidance, mentorship, and constructive feedback to foster their growth.

• Empower product managers to take ownership of their responsibilities, including understanding and shaping product strategy, roadmaps, discovery, and key deliverables, while ensuring alignment with group and organizational objectives.

• Set explicit standards for product quality and delivery, holding your team accountable for achieving results.

• Cultivate a culture of curiosity, collaboration, and ongoing improvement within your team, identifying opportunities for knowledge sharing and learning across teams.

• Enhance your team's capabilities for the AI era, ensuring product managers are prepared to incorporate AI tools and insights into their work, and facilitating new working methods.

• Address conflicts or misalignments within and between teams directly, supporting teams and stakeholders in achieving shared understanding.

• Lead teams through transitions with intention—communicate the rationale behind directional shifts, address concerns promptly to prevent them from becoming obstacles, and maintain momentum without sacrificing stakeholder buy-in.

• Collaborate with engineering, experience, and program leadership to ensure product priorities are driven by user needs, policy opportunities, and technical feasibility.

• Partner with teams such as Strategic Partnerships and Philanthropy to guarantee that Code for America’s commitments are impactful, achievable, well-defined, and conducive to team success.

• Work with other Product Directors to synchronize shared priorities, coordinate handoffs, and ensure coherence throughout the product organization.

• Communicate product goals, priorities, and progress to stakeholders across the organization, simplifying complexity for diverse audiences.

• Build strong relationships with external partners, ensuring product initiatives align with partner requirements and Code for America's impact objectives.

• Directly lead new product initiatives as needed, particularly in early and ambiguous phases, and support product managers responsible for these initiatives as they progress through scoping, validation, launch, finding product-market fit, and initial scaling.

• Define the product vision for initiatives that are not yet realized, assessing and shaping new product investments across and beyond Code for America's core delivery areas.

• Design and oversee time-boxed pilots with clear hypotheses, milestones, and decision points, and create business plans that evaluate whether new products can be sustained—validating both the problem-solving capacity of product ideas and their long-term viability.

• Make strategic stop/pivot decisions on early-stage efforts, utilizing evidence, strategic alignment, and resource considerations to determine whether to continue, redirect, or halt investment.

• Establish and mentor new product teams, defining roles and operational processes in highly ambiguous settings where roadmaps, users, and success metrics are being simultaneously defined.

• Collaborate with other Product Directors to inform shared platform capabilities with insights gained from new product initiatives, transitioning products from early-stage development to market delivery or growth/scaling.

• Engage in external discussions related to new exploratory areas, contributing to thoughtful agendas, representing and promoting Code for America’s capabilities, engaging dynamically with partners in real time, and aiding in relationship strategy.

⛳️ Requirements

• Over 10 years of product management experience or equivalent, with a minimum of 3 years in a leadership role overseeing direct reports.

• Possess curiosity, humility, and a learning mindset that embraces iterative processes and feedback.

• Familiarity with AI and emerging technologies, including a pragmatic understanding of their responsible application in product development.

• Exceptional communication skills, capable of articulating product strategy, trade-offs, and decisions to both technical and non-technical audiences across various levels, including executive leadership.

• Strong leadership capabilities with an emphasis on mentorship, team development, and nurturing a collaborative team culture.

• Proficient in building trust with new partners and stakeholders in situations with complex stakeholder dynamics or where relationships are still evolving.

• Experience with agile methodologies and product delivery in dynamic, complex, high-priority settings, alongside strong analytical skills and the ability to utilize data for informed product decisions and performance evaluation.

• Competence in managing competing priorities, balancing immediate goals with long-term strategic impact, and effectively communicating with teams to clarify priorities.

• Comfortable with ambiguity and preferring to learn through action rather than waiting for perfect plans, demonstrating the ability to progress when the path forward is unclear.

• A proven history of driving product strategy and execution within cross-functional teams, delivering results that satisfy user needs and meet organizational objectives.

• Deep commitment to Code for America's mission of ensuring government services effectively serve those who need them the most.

• Proven experience in developing new products from conception to launch, including leading discovery, validation, and go-to-market efforts in ambiguous settings.

• Experience conducting structured experiments or time-boxed pilots to validate product concepts prior to committing to full investment.

• History of collaborating with business development or partnerships teams to shape and define new product initiatives.

🏝️ Benefits

• Laptop provided.

• A one-time payment of $700 for remote setup; $200 stipend (included in the first paycheck) and up to $500 reimbursement, per our equipment policy.

• Monthly reimbursement of $50 for cell phone and/or internet.

• $500 annual stipend (per calendar year) for professional development, prorated at hire time.

• Up to $500 of professional development funds can be carried over each year, with a maximum of $1000.

• Training and guidance for staff required to use AI in their roles, as well as opportunities for employees to acquire AI-related skills for career advancement.

• Employees benefit from a 100% employer match on the first 3% of contributions.

• Employees with over 3 years of service receive an additional 50% match on contributions between 3% and 5%, allowing for a maximum employer contribution of 5%.

• At least one no-cost health insurance option available for full-time employees for employee-only coverage.

• A minimum of 80% coverage for dependents.

• Code for America employees can work remotely from anywhere in the US.

• Open personal time off (subject to manager approval), a minimum of 14 paid holidays, and an organization-wide closure from Christmas Day through New Year's Day.

• Paid sick leave; up to 96 hours annually.

• 17 weeks of paid parental and family leave.

• 3 weeks of paid sabbatical after 5 years of service.