Product Development Manager

Product Development Manager

Position summary

The Product Development Manager takes the roadmap set by the VP of Technical Operations and breaks it down into clear, executable technical work. They work closely with engineering across multiple teams to sequence priorities, surface dependencies, and identify where existing architecture, services, or components can be reused rather than rebuilt. They also help manage and coordinate the backlog and technical implementation steps day to day, in partnership with Scrum Masters and delivery leads.

This is a technically grounded role. The person should have real development experience and be comfortable following architecture and design discussions in detail, not to dictate solutions to engineering, but to ask informed questions, spot patterns and overlap across teams, and make sure the roadmap is broken down in a way that respects how the systems actually work. They also translate technical trade-offs into terms the business can act on, and help represent technical progress to executive and board audiences alongside the VP of Technical Operations.

The role reports to the VP of Technical Operations and works closely with engineering leads, delivery teams, and QA to move roadmap priorities from plan to shipped work.

Key responsibilities

Technical breakdown and execution

• Take roadmap priorities set by the VP of Technical Operations and break them into epics, technical workstreams, and sequenced tasks that engineering can execute against
• Gather requirements from business stakeholders and translate them into user stories, acceptance criteria, and technical requirements engineering can build against
• Identify technical dependencies and risks early, and adjust sequencing to reduce cross-team blockers
• Help manage and coordinate the backlog and technical implementation steps, in partnership with Scrum Masters and delivery leads

Cross-team architecture awareness

• Maintain a working understanding of the architecture and systems in place across teams, and flag opportunities to reuse existing components, services, or patterns instead of building new ones
• Participate in architecture and design discussions to understand proposed approaches, ask informed questions, and surface overlap or risk with other teams' work
• Identify cross-team technical challenges and dependencies, and help coordinate with the relevant engineering leads to resolve them before they become delivery blockers
• Partner with engineering leads to keep a shared, up-to-date picture of what already exists across the platform, so teams are not solving the same problem twice

Delivery coordination

• Track delivery against roadmap commitments and communicate status, risk, and technical trade-offs to stakeholders and leadership
• Support QA and engineering in triaging and prioritizing defects and technical issues post-release
• Maintain specs and technical documentation to a standard that keeps requirements and decisions traceable as work moves across teams

Communication

• Act as a technical bridge between the VP of Technical Operations, engineering teams, and business stakeholders
• Present technical breakdowns, cross-team dependencies, and trade-offs clearly to audiences ranging from developers to executive leadership
• Document decisions and rationale so technical direction remains traceable as the roadmap evolves

Key skills, knowledge, and education

• Prior hands-on development experience (as a developer, technical analyst, or similar), sufficient to read code, understand system design, and hold a technical conversation without a translator
• Demonstrated ability to follow and discuss architecture and sequence diagrams, data models, and API contracts with engineering, and to spot where existing components can be reused across teams
• Experience breaking down a roadmap or set of priorities into technical workstreams and sequenced, executable tasks
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English, with the ability to adjust technical depth for the audience, from engineers to executives and the board
• Experience writing user stories, acceptance criteria, and technical specifications
• Working knowledge of the software development life cycle, Agile/Scrum practices, and tools such as JIRA or Confluence, including backlog management
• Understanding of APIs, integrations, and at a minimum, the basics of cloud architecture and databases
• Comfortable identifying cross-team technical dependencies and risk, and coordinating with multiple engineering leads to resolve them
• Experience working with remote or distributed engineering teams
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience; a Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) or similar certification is a plus
• Experience with authentication systems, content harvesting, or email/notification platforms is a strong plus