The Director of Product Planning is a product and operational leader with experience designing, building, and scaling a function focused on empowering product and technology teams to do the best work of their lives and sustainably deliver world-class products. Reporting to the VP of Product Operations, this director will enable D2L’s efficient, effective, and agile product development lifecycle with a deep focus on light-weight process design and implementation, communication and training, and organizational acceleration. Specifically, the person will lead a team that is responsible for:

• Roadmap, Product Development, and GTM Practices and Processes
• Release Management & Product Enablement
• Product Performance and Insights
• Tools Management
• Business Process Optimization
• Other Operational Responsibilities to Drive Success

The Director of Product Planning is a key member of the President’s extended leadership team. They will work closely with colleagues across Product, Technology, and Services – as well as partnering with Sales, Marketing, and Finance.

Major Responsibilities (How Will I Make an Impact?):

• Partner closely with product and technology leaders to deliver on business goals
• Oversee roadmap planning and management to sustainably deliver product and optimize time to value
• Document and evangelize D2L’s shared product and software development lifecycles
• Define shared, agile practices and processes – ensuring efficient, effective, predictable, and reliable product and software development
• Facilitate the creation and implementation of a companywide GTM process – iterating over time for optimization
• Oversee product insights and performance analyses to ensure traceability from market-need through design, development, delivery, and utilization of thematic features
• Facilitate release management and related processes – iterating over time for optimization
• Build product enablement capability aligned with release management and other functions
• Manage the product management tech stack – enabling outputs aligned to processes, minimizing costs, and ensuring consistent adoption; document best practices
• Use systems thinking to facilitate process design and optimization across D2L as needed
• Communicate broadly across teams, senior leadership, and C-level staff – championing transparency
• Build and lead a best-in-class product planning team supporting responsibilities

People Leadership and Performance

• Passionate about people leadership and leading effective teams
• Manage a team of D2Lers and champion a high performing culture
• Connect your team’s day to day accountabilities to D2L’s mission by setting clear objectives and performance expectations with your team members
• Coach, provide regular feedback, provide career path and development or growth opportunities, and create a collaborative and open environment
• Collaborate through cross-functional teams to accomplish established corporate and team goals and effectively manage relationships with other D2L teams
• Responsible for supporting vision, planning, and defining team objectives, and leading execution of objectives
• Work with peers and leaders to drive productivity, efficiency, and hold team accountable for high quality outcomes
• Play key role with interviewing, hiring, and onboarding new team members. Provide expertise and coaching/mentorship to the team members
• Produce and actively participate in knowledge sharing as well as professional development initiatives

Competencies (What you’ll bring to the role):

• 10+ years of directly related work experience in a fast-paced, global, high-growth technology markets; education technology experience strongly preferred
• 5+ years of successful track record of leading product management operations within product operations, product management, or other operational functions working closely with product and engineering teams
• Demonstrated ability to independently translate strategy, solution complex issues, and drive for results through personal and team accountability, while building strong organizational bridges
• Proven experience defining, implementing, and iterating agile development practices and processes within a fast-growing technology company
• Player-coach mentality
• Passionate about building a data-driven organizations and leveraging product insights to drive decisions
• Demonstrated success in managing companywide GTM, pricing, and/or packaging initiatives
• Proficient in common product and work management tools
• Outstanding communications skills with great reputation for communicating highly complex ideas and concepts with simplicity, power, and emotional impac
• Strong business acumen and thrive in an organization that is simultaneously mission, growth, and business driven
• Demonstrated success in building and leading high-performance team
• A strong spirit of collaboration and joy

D2L Leadership Competencies (What you’ll demonstrate):

• Leads by Example with personal and professional integrity, high accountability and say/do ratio
• Boundaryless collaboration and influence skills both within team, peer group and broader organization. Effective communicator with a proven track record of
• Delivers Awesome Outcomes: Strategic mindset and business acumen, with strong prioritization skills and a focus on organizational outcomes vs. team tasks. Effective problem solver, able to achieve results individually and through others, in fast paced, deadline-driven environments.
• Talent Magnet: Talent-focused leader, with demonstrated ability to coach, build and lead a high performing, diverse team.
• Better, Smarter, Faster: An agile learner, with a growth mindset, attention to detail and organizational skills. An operationally minded leader, with a focus on continuous improvement and innovation.
• Wins Hearts and Minds: An effective communicator, with the ability to connect the why and the what. A change agent, with proven delegation, motivation, and team building skills.

Education Recommendations:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Business Administration or related
• Product Management certification a strong plus
• Agile, Project Management, and/or Change Management certification(s) a strong plus (i.e., PMP, Six Sigma CSM, SAFe, Prosci)