Senior Director of Product Management

Employment Type: Full time

Position Overview

The MBTA’s Technology Innovation Department (TID) is seeking a Senior Director of Product Management to direct product development, planning, and tracking. This role is responsible for shaping how TID builds custom software, focusing on product operations, process, and mindset. The Senior Director will articulate a vision for product development practices within TID, establishing processes for each stage of the product development lifecycle. This includes coaching product managers to ensure clear goals, meaningful metrics, up-to-date roadmaps, and effective decision-making and prioritization frameworks. The Senior Director will ensure product managers adhere to Agile best practices, collaborate effectively within cross-functional teams, and communicate with the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) and other stakeholders to gain buy-in for the overall vision, ideas, frameworks, and processes.

Responsibilities

Departmental Product Management Leadership

• Collaborate across program teams:
  • Fares Technology: To collect rider fares across all modes.
  • Transit Technology: To communicate digital schedules, vehicle locations, and arrival predictions through service management tools.
  • Rider Tools: To provide Transit Technology information in real-time to riders across the system via screens, public address elements, the website, and the MBTA mobile application (MBTA Go).
• Collaborate with Senior Directors of functional areas to support teams in adhering to cross-functional standards for:
  • Project management
  • Product management
  • Design standard implementation in engineering
• Support UX Research and Design in advocating for human-centered design technological solutions, championing equitable and inclusive research and design practices, and fostering best practices in design, research, and content strategy.
• Support Software Engineering in establishing software engineering operations, processes, standards, and rituals for building and acquiring custom software.
• Work with Program Leads to establish cross-program objectives, including progress measurement, project prioritization criteria, and the grooming of new project ideas/proposals.
• Manage the backlog of new project and product ideas/proposals.

People and Product Management

• Uphold excellence in execution quality for TID and its product teams.
• Assist teams in troubleshooting project, personnel, or stakeholder issues, transforming challenges into opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Manage product managers by removing blockers, providing administrative and management support, and resolving questions related to the product discipline.
• Standardize specific product tasks (e.g., feature specifications, roadmaps, design exploration tickets) across product teams.
• Direct the hiring of TID product managers, serving as the hiring manager for all open roles and continuously improving outreach and interviewing processes.
• Align product staff with the appropriate skills, skill levels, and bandwidth to program areas to meet program visions, timelines, and budgets.

Push TID to be Better

• Act as a committed, vocal, and collaborative member of TID Leads, advocating for improvements across all dimensions of TID’s work.
• As a member of TID’s leadership team, lead, practice, and uphold TID’s working agreements.

Requirements

• (Specific requirements not detailed in the provided text)

Application Instructions

• (Specific application instructions not detailed in the provided text)

Company Information

• Organization: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA)
• Department: Technology Innovation Department (TID)