Operations Director, Product
Wolters Kluwer
- Saint Cloud, MN
- Permanent
- Full-time
- Product Planning: Facilitate planning activities across the product lifecycle, including long-range planning, roadmap planning, and portfolio planning
- Collaborate closely with other Product Leaders and with BU colleagues to establish & maintain key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics that monitor performance of products & services across revenue, cost, operational and customer experience considerations
- Establish calendars, roadmaps and other planning tools that align cross-functional efforts and provide organization-wide insight about the status of plans
- Reinforce a culture of continuous improvement by identifying areas for attention and implementing changes
- Engage with internal and external stakeholders—including senior management, employees and customers—to understand their needs and incorporate feedback into planning
- Identify tools and methods that will improve processes and drive cross-functional collaboration
- Strategic and Operational Initiatives: Lead and contribute to critical CT initiatives, which will require collaboration and coordination with CT Executive Team members as well as other CT employees; others within Wolters Kluwer, but outside of CT; and potentially, external stakeholders.
- Lead successful execution of identified key programs and initiatives
- Manage plans to enhance operational performance, streamline processes, reduce costs, and improve quality across various functions and departments within the organization
- Contribute to initiatives that serve revenue growth, drive innovation, generate ideas and gain customer & employee insights
- Demonstrate expertise rolling-out large-scale initiatives, including: communications, testing and training
- Gain buy-in from stakeholders and drive adoption of new processes and practices
- Contribute to employee engagement, inclusion & belonging by building relationships across the organization, acting as a ‘listening ear’, identifying actionable insights, and elevating issues that may impact success
- Decision Support: Develop work plans, form hypotheses, design and perform critical analysis and research to support CT’s strategic and operational decision making for its products & services
- Analyze product & services performance with a combination of analytical skills and process understanding
- Leverage large quantities of information/data to bring out operational insights like quality, cycle time, cost, variations, bottlenecks, risks, cost-revenue connections and cause-effect correlations
- Collaborate closely with Product team and with BU colleagues at multiple levels to gather and validate data required to support these analytical efforts
- Develop business cases to support prioritized opportunities, as needed
- Synthesize conclusions and develop actionable recommendations to drive tangible business value
- Communicate findings and recommendations with clarity
- Required: Bachelors degree or equivalent
- Preferred: MBA
- 10+ years of experience in operations, program management, product management, management consulting or equivalent corporate roles
- Operates with a high degree of urgency and ownership to drive issues and tasks to completion
- Highly adept at successfully navigating and managing change; communicates change effectively and completely, role models effective behaviors, builds commitment and overcomes resistance, and monitors transition and results.
- Strategic capability to sift through complex information and focus the organization on the critical few priorities
- Strong business acumen who can understand the “big picture”, operationalize concepts/ideas, anticipate risks & issues and gain stakeholder alignment
- Ability to prioritize and manage action plans to deliver successful outcomes in a fast-paced environment
- Ability to work collaboratively and navigate a matrixed organization
- Excellent communication & presentation skills and ability to influence senior executive audiences
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)
- Strong financial management of resources, budget and outputs
- Strong analytical, organizational, planning, prioritization and time management
- Goal-oriented with high degree of initiative, accountability, and integrity
- Collaborative skills and ability to perform as a team member
- Domestic travel 10-15%