Associate Director, Digital Product Management

Job Title: Associate Director, Digital Product Management 

Team: Systems

Location: Hybrid in Chicago (IL), New York (NYC), or Newark (NJ). 

Employment Type: Full-time

FLSA Classification: Exempt 

Start Date: ASAP

About Braven

Braven is a national nonprofit that prepares promising college students to secure a strong first opportunity after college graduation through a career-accelerating program.

We work with higher education and employer partners to offer a life-changing experience that begins with a semester-long course for college students, followed by support that lasts through graduation.

Together, our ambition is to help rebuild the middle class and revitalize the American Dream.

To learn more, take a look at Braven’s Jobs.

About the Role

In order to achieve its ambition of serving 80,000-100,000 Fellows over the next decade, Braven is hiring an Associate Director, Digital Product Management who will support the strategy, design, and continuous improvement of our digital products and workflows.

This is a domain-owning, senior individual contributor role at the intersection of Braven's programs, product strategy, and process automation. As a member of the Systems team, you will be responsible for owning recommendations that support the organization’s prioritization process on behalf of the Digital Product Management Office (DPMO). You’ll use product analytics to shape the roadmap for your area and represent the product team with program leaders and partners across Braven. Digital Product Managers partner closely with Salesforce and software engineers, and data teams to mitigate manual work, improve the staff and stakeholder experience, and build systems that scale. You'll bring both strategic perspective and hands-on execution that helps drive planning and deliver on the product roadmap. 

This role sits on the Systems team and reports to the Sr. Director, Digital Product Management.

What You’ll Do

Product Strategy & Management (50%)

• Own a digital product point of view that evolves the product strategy and roadmap for a domain, balancing near-term program needs against longer-term platform investment across our digital product ecosystem and integrated tooling.
• Serve as the primary representative of your product domain to program leadership, cross-departmental stakeholders, and the broader Systems team
• Lead the end-to-end product lifecycle for digital tools and automations supporting your domain, from discovery and user story writing through technical scoping, backlog grooming, release management, and post-launch iteration.
• Partner closely with program leadership, e.g. the Head of Volunteer Programs, to deeply understand relevant user journeys, staff workflows, and pain points, translating ambiguous or competing needs into clear product requirements and priorities
• Lead stakeholder meetings, document requirements, and assess technical feasibility in collaboration with engineering and Salesforce partners
• Present strategic recommendations, roadmap updates, and product concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, including senior leadership, with clarity and confidence
• Guide sprint planning and scrum operations for your domain's product work alongside the Technical Project Manager by bringing prioritized recommendations into the planning process

Automation & Workflow Strategy (35%)

• Help to identify and prioritize the highest-impact automation opportunities using tools like Atlassian Jira and Confluence, Canvas, and Salesforce, including onboarding, workflows, milestone tracking, communications, and reporting
• Direct the documentation of current-state processes and design of future-state processes that meaningfully reduce manual effort for program staff
• Champion reusable automation components, integration patterns, and documentation standards for your domain
• Partner with engineering to monitor system performance and data integrity, identify failure points and technical debt, and drive continuous improvement
• Define and track clear metrics to evaluate the impact of automation on program efficiency and stakeholder experience, and use them to inform investment decisions

Communication & Collaboration (15%)

• Contribute to shaping the broader Digital Product Roadmap by surfacing domain-specific needs, recommending automation investments, and reporting on outcomes to leadership
• Support improvements to intake, planning, and delivery processes that make product and automation work more mature, scalable, and sustainable across the Systems team
• Stay current on trends in relevant program technology and automation tooling, including low-code/no-code platforms, workflow automation, and Salesforce ecosystem developments, bringing relevant insights and recommendations back to the team
• Balance innovative, forward-thinking about what's possible with pragmatic, real-world solutioning, and know when to lead with each
• Champion a culture of agile, user-centered product development within the Systems team and across Accelerator stakeholders

Other duties, as assigned

Requirements

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree
• 5–7 years of experience in product management, business systems, program operations, product operations, or a related role, including experience supporting cross-functional teams in an agile environment

Preferred Qualifications 

• Demonstrated experience owning a product roadmap and driving automated workflows or digital products from ideation through launch
• Proven ability to translate ambiguous program or operational needs into clear product strategy, requirements, and user stories
• Strong presentation skills, with experience communicating technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, including leadership
• Excellent analytical, creative problem-solving, and critical thinking skills
• Experience working in or alongside ed tech, a technology startup, or in a technical function at a nonprofit.
• Experience working with engineers
• Experience in a professional services, agency, or consulting environment
• Hands-on experience with automation platforms and capable of AI-assisted workflows or no-code/low-code tools used to build multi-step workflows
• Familiarity with Agile or Scrum methodologies
• Familiarity with UX design process and principles
• Experience with Salesforce or similar CRM/program management platforms
• Experience mentoring or informally leading other product, systems, or program staff
• Demonstrated commitment to building strong and welcoming cultures that help to develop others.
• Exemplification of Braven’s core values.
• Experience that has informed your belief in Braven’s mission and has prepared you to work with, or for, Braven’s student Fellow population.

Please know that no one ever meets 100% of the preferred qualifications. If much of this describes you, we encourage you to apply.

Work Demands

• Ability to work in person in Chicago (IL), New York City (NYC), or Newark (NJ) 3 days per week
• Travel 2-3 times/year 
• Access to internet 

Additional Requirements

• Authorized to work in the U.S.
• Braven doesn’t offer employment visa sponsorship

Application & Interview Process

While the interview process may vary slightly, the general process will be:

• Phone screen with Talent Team member
• Performance Task
• Interview with Hiring Manager
• Panel Interview with Key Partners
• Reference Checks

Benefits

Total Rewards

Braven provides competitive, comprehensive benefits, recognition, and career development. While Braven reserves the right to change benefits at any time, current benefits include: 

• Discretionary time off in addition to org-wide holidays and 2 week-long shutdowns in July and December (this is a minimum of 20 days per year)
• Braven supports your path to parenthood and beyond with $25,000 in lifetime Carrot benefits for fertility, family-building, and hormonal health
• Match of your 401K contribution up to 5% of your base annual salary, starting your first full month
• Coverage of 85% of health insurance premium for employee and dependents
• 12 weeks of paid parental leave
• A one-month paid sabbatical after 4 years on staff
• Monthly $75 reimbursement for cell phone or internet
• Access to funding for continued career development 

Compensation

Braven offers opportunities for salary growth over time. We believe in compensating staff members fairly relative to one another, their qualifications, and their impact on the organization, and we take internal and external equity seriously. Given our commitment to equity, Braven does not negotiate salary offers; instead, each offer is carefully determined using external and internal benchmarks.

The hiring range is determined by role scope, qualifications, and internal equity, with annual growth based on performance. Braven does not base compensation on individual candidate salary expectations and is committed to maintaining internal equity. The hiring ranges for this role by geographic market are set forth as $95,900-$103,000 in Atlanta, $101,200-$108,700 in Chicago, and $111,300-$119,600 in Newark and New York City. This is based on a 50-hour workweek. This is a full-time, regular, exempt, and benefits-eligible position where you will be working at 100% capacity.

Please note that Braven is firm in its compensation philosophy; therefore, only candidates who believe our total rewards package aligns with what they are looking for in their next opportunity are encouraged to apply.

Location

We gather in the office 3 days a week (Tuesday through Thursday) and work remotely 2 days a week (Monday and Friday). Therefore, this role requires teammates to live within commuting distance of one of our hubs: Chicago, New York City, or Newark. We believe in the magic, connection, and collaboration that happens when people work together face-to-face, and we believe in giving people flexibility to focus, balance personal priorities, and save themselves two commutes per week.

Braven is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected factor. We encourage talented individuals of all backgrounds to apply.