Director, Product Management POST NUMBER: 477772

Director of Product Management

We are seeking a Director of Product Management to lead the day-to-day operations, execution, and people leadership of the Product Management function. This role is responsible for translating product vision and strategic priorities into clear operating rhythms, disciplined execution, and measurable business impact.

This is a direct hire role with an anticipated 25% annual travel requirement. If the candidate is not located in the Columbus, OH area, there is a strong preference for candidates based in FL, NC, GA, SC, PA, WI, TX, or MI.

Role Summary

The Director of Product Management will serve as the operational leader for the product organization, ensuring product initiatives are delivered with clarity, consistency, and accountability. This leader will balance hands-on coaching with cross-functional leadership, helping Product Managers strengthen practices, improve execution, and deliver high-quality outcomes.

As the organization expands AI-enabled capabilities, this role will help operationalize how AI is embedded into products and product practices in ways that are practical, trustworthy, explainable, and aligned with customer needs.

Position Responsibilities

Product Strategy and Portfolio Leadership

• Reinforce the strategic direction, portfolio roadmap, and investment priorities across the product ecosystem, ensuring alignment with company goals, customer outcomes, and long-term growth.

• Define and communicate a clear product vision across the organization, balancing near-term delivery with long-term platform evolution.

• Translate customer, market, competitive, and business insights into prioritization, sequencing, and investment decisions.

• Partner with Commercial and Executive Leadership on product positioning, packaging, pricing, partnerships, and market expansion opportunities.

• Guide product strategy related to emerging technologies, including AI, automation, and workflow intelligence.

Team Leadership and Coaching

• Coach and develop Product Managers and Product Owners, creating clear ownership, accountability, and growth opportunities across the team.

• Establish role clarity, performance expectations, and development plans for product team members.

• Provide ongoing coaching through working sessions, roadmap reviews, requirement reviews, and strategic planning.

• Build a strong product culture grounded in ownership, curiosity, customer empathy, accountability, and continuous improvement.

• Promote and actively foster an inclusive, collaborative, and mission-driven culture.

Product Operating Model and Delivery Excellence

• Establish and continuously improve the product operating model, including discovery practices, prioritization frameworks, roadmap planning, and execution standards.

• Ensure product requirements, acceptance criteria, and product artifacts are clear, testable, and implementation-ready before development begins.

• Partner closely with Engineering and QA to improve delivery predictability, release confidence, and first-pass quality.

• Drive alignment between strategic priorities, sprint execution, and measurable business outcomes.

• Reduce avoidable rework by improving upstream clarity, decision-making, and cross-functional alignment.

Customer and Market Leadership

• Serve as a customer-facing product leader with deep understanding of user workflows, pain points, regulatory environments, and market opportunities.

• Lead discovery through customer interviews, field observations, feedback loops, and market research.

• Ensure customer insights directly inform roadmap priorities, product design, and investment decisions.

• Represent Product in executive customer conversations, strategic partnerships, and industry engagements as needed.

Cross-Functional Partnership

This role will work closely with Engineering, Design, Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, Delivery, and Executive Leadership to ensure products remain differentiated, scalable, and aligned with long-term business objectives. The Director of Product Management will also support communication across teams so product decisions are understood, implemented effectively, and tied to business value.

Qualifications

• 8 years of product management experience, including experience leading product teams.

• Proven success translating strategy into roadmaps, requirements, and execution plans.

• Strong leadership, coaching, and stakeholder management skills.

• Experience partnering with engineering, design, sales, marketing, and customer-facing teams.

• Strong analytical skills with the ability to make prioritization decisions based on customer, market, and business data.

• Experience with AI-enabled products, automation, or workflow intelligence preferred.

• Ability to operate in a fast-paced, collaborative environment with a strong sense of ownership.

Travel and Location

This role requires approximately 25% annual travel. Candidates located in the Columbus, OH area are strongly preferred. For candidates outside Columbus, preference will be given to those located in FL, NC, GA, SC, PA, WI, TX, or MI.

Leadership Profile

The ideal candidate is a hands-on product leader who can move comfortably between strategic planning and day-to-day execution. They are an experienced coach, a strong communicator, and a trusted partner who can bring structure, alignment, and momentum to a growing product organization.

Vaco by Highspring values a diverse workplace and strongly encourages women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, foreign-born residents, and veterans to apply.

EEO Notice

Vaco by Highspring is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race (including but not limited to traits historically associated with race such as hair texture and hair style), color, sex (includes pregnancy or related conditions), religion or creed, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, status as a veteran, union membership, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, political affiliation, or any other protected characteristics as required by federal, state or local law.

Vaco by Highspring and its parents, affiliates, and subsidiaries are committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Vaco by Highspring and its parents, affiliates, and subsidiaries will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact HR@vaco.com .

Vaco by Highspring also wants all applicants to know their rights that workplace discrimination is illegal.

By submitting to this position, you agree that you will be giving Vaco by Highspring the exclusive right to present your as a candidate for the foregoing employment opportunity. You further agree that you have represented information about yourself accurately and have not affirmatively misrepresented your qualifications. You also agree to maintain as confidential, to the fullest extent permitted by law, any information you learn from Vaco by Highspring about the position and you will limit disclosure of information about the position only to the extent necessary to perform any obligations in furtherance of your application. In exchange, Vaco by Highspring agrees to exercise reasonable efforts to represent you through all solicitation, job screening and resume dispersal.

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Vaco by Highspring and its parents, affiliates, and subsidiaries (“we,” “our,” or “Vaco by Highspring”) respects your privacy and are committed to providing transparent notice of our policies.

• California residents may access Vaco by Highspring HR Notice at Collection for California Applicants and Employees here.
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• Residents of all other states may access our policies here.
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Pay Transparency Notice

Determining compensation for this role (and others) at Vaco by Highspring depends upon a wide array of factors including but not limited to:

• the individual’s skill sets, experience and training;
• licensure and certification requirements;
• office location and other geographic considerations;
• other business and organizational needs.

With that said, as required by local law, Vaco by Highspring believes that the following salary range referenced above reasonably estimates the base compensation for an individual hired into this position in geographies that require salary range disclosure. The individual may also be eligible for discretionary bonuses.