Product Operations Lead (f/m/d)

Purpose of Position

The Product Operations Lead owns the product and portfolio operating model: the frameworks, cadences and standards that connect strategy, product planning, prioritisation and portfolio governance. The role leads a team of Product Operations Managers and is accountable for the quality, consistency and transparency of how work flows into and out of Product & Technology. 

Product Operations is one of three functions in P&T Operations, each owning a distinct part of how the organisation works: 

• Product Operations owns the systems that connect strategy, product planning and portfolio governance.
• Delivery Operations owns the Engineering delivery system and team effectiveness.
• Technical Program Management owns the coordination of qualifying complex cross-team programmes. 

What you'll be responsible for:

• Own the product and portfolio operating model. Set the direction for how Product & Technology plans, prioritises and reviews: strategy and planning cadences, prioritisation and portfolio governance, decision rights, portfolio-level dependency visibility, and the quality standards the model runs on. Build it so teams can run it without Product Operations in the room, because a system can look healthy while quietly depending on the people who built it. Steward the model as a whole and set priorities across the team.
• Safeguard the quality of work entering delivery. Define what a ready opportunity looks like and hold that standard: the problem is well understood, the evidence supports the opportunity, success measures are defined, and dependencies and ownership are clear. The measure of this is what happens downstream, with work entering delivery arriving better shaped and less of it returning as rework. Improve the quality of decisions before work reaches delivery, without taking the prioritisation call away from the people who own it. 
• Lead and develop the team. Give the Product Operations Managers a clear remit and the space to own it. Coach them in the craft of their discipline, help them see the system they work inside, and build their careers deliberately. 
• Deliver improvements directly. This is a hands-on role. Alongside setting direction, design and land changes personally: intake routes, planning cadences that fit how teams work, tooling standards in the Atlassian suite, portfolio views that leadership trusts.
• Contribute to P&T Operations as a leadership team. Partner with the leads of Delivery Operations and Technical Program Management so the three systems reinforce each other, holding the boundaries between them and applying the principle that systems are improved before coordination is added.
• Make value visible. Ensure delivered outcomes are measured consistently, communicated clearly across the business, and fed back into the next planning cycle.

Your skills:

• A background in product operations, technology operations or a closely related discipline, including designing and running planning and portfolio models at organisational scale.
• Fluent English, written and spoken. 
• A track record of building planning, governance or prioritisation systems that outlasted their own involvement in them.
• A history of leading and developing a small team, including coaching people in a discipline they have practised directly.
• Time spent in product development in a SaaS environment, working alongside product, design and engineering.
• Confidence using data to describe the health of an operating system and to make the case for change.
• Systems thinking paired with the ability to work in the detail. Able to see where the operating model is straining before anyone raises it, and equally able to sit with one team, one broken handover or one badly shaped ticket and fix it.
• A strong sense of craft and quality. Not only designing how work flows, but raising the quality of what flows through it, and able to articulate what good looks like without turning it into a compliance exercise.
• Hands-on leadership. Gives direction, coaches people through their own decisions rather than making decisions for them, and still picks up the work when it needs picking up. 
• Influence without authority. Earns the right to shape how planning and prioritisation work by being useful and clear, and frames change around value rather than process. 
• Pragmatism about method, and clear communication in writing and in a room, including making complex topics simple enough for stakeholders outside Product & Technology to act on.
• Atlassian suite: Jira, Jira Product Discovery, Jira Goals and Confluence.
• Comfort with reporting and analytics tooling to support operating measures.

Our Offer

• Flexi-Week: We prioritise your mental health and wellbeing by offering you a four-day Flexi-Week (with one lighter or completely disconnected day per week) at full pay, with no reduction to your annual holiday allowance.
• Flexi-office: We offer an international culture and flexibility through our hybrid/remote working scheme which is designed to foster a culture of mutual trust and working flexibility.
• Work Expense Contribution & Remote Working Furniture: You will receive a monthly allowance to cover part of your running costs, as well as a furniture package to support you in setting up a comfortable workspace when working from home.
• Health and Wellbeing: With our support and access to various initiatives and sports offers, you can focus on your mental and physical wellbeing.
• Development: We’ve built our extensive training suite, Awin Academy, to cover a wide range of skills that support your professional and personal growth, with trainings conveniently packaged to help your overall development.
• Appreciation: Thank and reward colleagues by sending them a voucher through our peer-to-peer recognition programme.

Established in 2000, Awin is proud of our dynamic, social and inclusive culture.

Like all businesses, we’ve had to adapt and nurture our culture in a virtual environment. Our virtual ‘Life @ Awin’ hub brings our colleagues from across the globe together for various social activities.

Diversity & Inclusion are paramount to us, and we proudly pursue and hire diverse team members. We champion uniqueness and authenticity; this is who we are at our core. Our network of affiliate partnerships are diverse and transparent, as are the employees powering our vision to build the world’s leading open partner ecosystem. We welcome all backgrounds, identities, and experiences. If you need support at any point in the application or interview process, please let us know.

Awin is part of the Axel Springer group. Learn more at axelspringer.com/en/, and explore the Axel Springer Essentials here: axelspringer.com/en/inside/the-essentials-what-we-have-adapted-and-why  

Apply now to begin the next stage of your career at a progressive company that supports both your professional and personal development.