Position Description
Title: Director, Technical Product Owner
Department: Technology
Reports To: Vice President, Product
Supervisory Role: Yes
FLSA Status: Exempt
Location: Washington, DC or East Coast
Company
SoundExchange is the premier music tech organization on a mission to power the future of music. It was independently formed in 2003 to build a fairer, simpler, and more efficient music industry through technology, data, and advocacy. The only organization designated by the U.S. government to administer the Section 114 sound recording license, SoundExchange collects and distributes digital performance royalties on behalf of 600,000 music creators and growing. Through proprietary music tech solutions that turn data into accurate revenue, SoundExchange has paid more than $9 billion in distributions to date.
Position Summary
At SoundExchange, we have re-architected and rebuilt our core enterprise software platform to support our rapidly growing and evolving business. Our new software platform is a set of cloud-native, federated systems that are highly scalable, accurate, and modular, leveraging both custom-built, and 3rd party components. We are seeking an individual to become a member of our growing Technology team and lead our product Owner efforts. This person will be an experienced leader that excels in a dynamic, fast-moving, agile environment, and is passionate about developing high quality, scalable software.
The Director of Technical Product Owner (TPO) is a critical and new role responsible for the organization’s Technical Product Owner team. The Director will balance strategic SoundExchange priorities with tactical, technical priorities for a suite of products, and will oversee the SoundExchange portfolio of products. As a member of the Technology Department, this role will work closely with Engineering, Business Stakeholders, and our internal Business Development team. The success of this role depends on strong leadership skills, high levels of collaboration, and constant communication with stakeholders.
Reporting to the VP of Product, the ideal candidate for this role will have a deep understanding of product ownership, business needs, technical experience, and a proven track record of leadership and strategy in product development workflows. Experience in establishing product ownership and delivery best practices and a strategy for project to product transition is ideal.
Essential Functions
- Develop and implement a product ownership strategy, playbook, best practices, and processes. Be a champion for the strategy across the organization.
- Build and develop a team of Technical Product Owners. Define career paths and training needs for this team.
- Lead a team of Technical Product Owners to adhere and adopt best practices and processes. Ensure completeness for both product strategy/requirements and technology.
- Understand, distill, and represent the organizations strategic goals and business needs to the team of Technical Product Owners and technical stakeholders.
- Ensure cross-collaboration across product, technical, and business team members for product delivery. Manage cross-product risks and interdependencies.
- Establish frameworks for metrics to measure and report on product roadmap and delivery. Establish product analytics.
- Develop and maintain the necessary relationships across SoundExchange.
- Articulate how technical solutions and development approaches align with and contribute to business outcomes.
- Facilitate and/or contribute to technical discussions and solutions with engineering leadership.
- In close partnership with engineering leadership, define, and follow product development and delivery processes, and practices to ensure smooth releases of product features.
- Lead by example in developing and maintaining strong relationships with key stakeholders in other functional areas; build and support a culture of collaboration and teamwork.
Required Knowledge, Skills, Abilities (KSAs)
- In-depth knowledge of Scrum and Agile software development in a product environment
- Able to use SQL
- Excellent oral and written communication
- Knowledge of modern best practices in software development and product delivery.
Required Education, Certifications/ Licenses, Related Experience
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
- 8 – 10 years of experience leading or part of a product technical team. Hands-on experience leading the design, development, deployment, and iteration of internal or B2C products.
- Has been a Project Manager, Product Owner, Product Manager, and/or Technical Lead for a Product, and has experience supervising other product owners
- Experience in the music and/or fintech industry is a huge plus.
ADA Specifications
- This position requires the ability to spend majority the time viewing computer monitors
Travel Requirements
- This position requires overnight domestic travel less than 25% of the time
- Anticipated travel will be by car, air, and/or train
DEI Statement
At SoundExchange, we empower creators and help share the future of music. One way we do this is by respecting diverse voices, varied perspectives, and distinct backgrounds of all of our team members. We are intentional in creating an inclusive culture where we recognize that equity is greater than equality and all employees have the opportunities and support needed to thrive. We strive to create teams that reflect the music community we serve – every individual’s unique attributes and abilities are valued, and are part of how we innovate, create, and deliver experiences to the creators we champion.
COVID-19 Policy
Applicants who receive a conditional offer of employment will be required to disclose their COVID-19 vaccination status prior to beginning employment. Employees who are not fully vaccinated will not be permitted to access SoundExchange offices until they are fully vaccinated. As a condition of employment, all SoundExchange employees will be required to be fully vaccinated. SoundExchange will provide reasonable accommodations for employees who cannot be vaccinated because of a disability or sincerely held religious belief. Accommodation requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Contact
To apply, please send a cover letter and résumé to [email protected].
Note: The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by the individual(s) assigned to this position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, and skills required. Management reserves the right to modify, add, or remove duties and to assign other duties as necessary.