The Team:
Product Operations is a team in our Product & Engineering organization reporting into our Product Chief Operating Officer. The main objective of Product Operations is to help our product management function scale well. We do so by establishing consistent cross-functional practices and frameworks (e.g. for roadmap planning, product launches, feature requests, ..), executing programs & projects to enable product managers to manage their tasks with low friction, as well as facilitating and aggregating business, customer, and market data & insights.
The Role:
The Product Operations Manager acts as trusted advisor and business partner to Product Management while working cross-functionally with engineering operations, go-to-market and many more departments in the rest of the company (Marketing and Communications, Legal, InfoSec, Data Protection, Enablement, Partner Management, Customer Value Org, Finance, ..).
The Product Operations role consists of two major parts:
- 50% of the role consists of direct collaboration with a dedicated product focus area. The Product Operations manager works with the product team of the respective area and they define a joint agenda of how the Product Operations manager can create the highest impact for the team and its goals, e.g. by means of managing their product launches, facilitating their customer engagements, ..
- 50% of the role consists of building, maintaining, and running tools and processes in the product organization and its interfaces. This directly impacts the way we work in Celonis product management and has a scalable impact on all product teams (and beyond).
The work you’ll do:
- Interview product managers & adjacent departments (engineering, technical writing, marketing, enablement, customer experience, ..) and create surveys to discover and prioritize new improvement opportunities
- Analyze internal processes to identify gaps (time-consuming tasks, inefficiencies, manual work, broken processes and interfaces) and propose scalable solutions
- Drive change management initiatives to convince stakeholders to get their buy-in and fund your initiatives
- Scope improvement projects, including concise problem statement, success criteria, solution sketches, and workback plan; come up with scalable solutions while also being pragmatic with a bias for action and realization of quick wins
- Work with cross-functional teams to deliver the projects
- Identify, implement and track success measures for your area of responsibility
- Own frameworks and processes in the Product Operations teams as well as the orchestration of these processes (e.g. for strategic product launches, orchestrate the execution of the product launch management process across the involved stakeholders)
- Continuously collect feedback, adapt and improve the frameworks and processes you own
The qualifications you need:
- 4+ years of experience in working in a global team (virtual and multi-location)
- 4+ years of domain experience in working within or with product management
- 4+ years of program or project management experience
- 4+ years of experience in running complex projects with multiple stakeholders, aggressive schedules, and scarce resources (preferably in a software company)
- Operational rigor and track record of cross-functional stakeholder project management and execution
- Domain experience in roadmap planning & tracking process, ideally has implemented & led the roadmap & strategy planning process in a comparable software company before
- Understanding of the interdependencies between the internal and external processes in a software company.
- Ability to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical individuals
- Strong verbal and written communication skills (including fluent English)
Soft skills we’re looking for:
As a Product Operations Manager, you impact the way how the Product Management operates internally as well as with external stakeholders. To make this happen, we need change makers in our team. Succeeding in this role requires some key competencies:
- Ownership: You are a changemaker and have a very high level of ownership. If you don’t fix a problem, no one will. You are a strong driver of your projects, very proactive, and make things happen.
- People: You have a very high level of empathy. You convince others along the way. You get along well with people, lead without authority, and engage a cross-functional group of people to work towards a joint goal.
- Product mindset: You are the product manager for product managers and have a strong product mindset. You discover and prioritize new initiatives based on our customers’ needs and come up with scalable solutions. At the same time, you don’t create processes for the sake of process, but for the sake of creating value for your internal customers. You break down bigger problems into feasible solutions and milestones. You think strategically and act long-term (= what are the next big things we need to improve in the org) while being pragmatic, hands-on, and delivering quick wins on the way.
- Project management: Excellent project management skills are the baseline. Most of the processes we implement are cross-departmental (e.g. the product launch management process runs across 40 departments). You cut through complexity and structure a complex project into its major building blocks. You create the best project setup and governance to achieve success.
- Domain knowledge (not a knock-out criterion, but a plus): You have a proven track record in Product Operations and have successfully established some of the most fundamental processes (e.g. processes for roadmapping, product discovery, early customer adoption, customer co-innovation etc.).
