Director of Product Strategy & Policy Alignment for CalSAWS

Director Of Product Strategy & Policy Alignment

Are you a strategic product leader who thrives at the intersection of policy, operations, customer experience, and enterprise technology delivery? Do you have the ability to align county priorities, policy intent, operational realities, and technology capabilities into cohesive product direction for large-scale public service systems? Are you ready to help shape the future of integrated service delivery across CalSAWS and BenefitsCal?

If so, CalSAWS invites you to apply today to join our team as the next Director of Product Strategy & Policy Alignment!

The Director of Product Strategy & Policy Alignment is a strategic leadership role responsible for helping shape enterprise product direction across the CalSAWS ecosystem by aligning county priorities, policy intent, operational realities, customer experience considerations, and technology capabilities into cohesive and actionable direction.

This role serves as a critical bridge between policy, operations, customer experience, BenefitsCal, counties, and technology delivery teams to help ensure initiatives are clearly defined, strategically aligned, operationally informed, and positioned for successful execution.

The Director leads enterprise product strategy upstream of delivery by helping define the right problems to solve, improving enterprise alignment, and supporting a more integrated and coordinated approach to service delivery across CalSAWS and BenefitsCal.

Key areas of responsibility include:

• Leading enterprise product strategy efforts across complex, multi-stakeholder service delivery environments
• Helping shape enterprise product direction by balancing county priorities, policy intent, operational realities, workforce needs, customer experience considerations, and technology capabilities
• Driving alignment around desired business, operational, and customer outcomes — not just requirements intake
• Supporting prioritization discussions through strategic tradeoff analysis and enterprise impact assessment
• Promoting a more holistic and integrated approach to product and service experience across CalSAWS and BenefitsCal
• Leading enterprise-level strategic intake activities for proposed initiatives, enhancements, and emerging priorities
• Partnering with counties, operational leaders, BenefitsCal leadership, policy stakeholders, and community representatives to clarify business needs and desired outcomes
• Ensuring initiatives are strategically aligned, operationally informed, and sufficiently defined before entering delivery processes
• Facilitating cross-functional alignment discussions to identify dependencies, risks, impacts, and implementation considerations early in the lifecycle
• Translating complex policy direction into operationally informed product considerations and implementation pathways
• Supporting enterprise roadmap development by synthesizing strategic priorities into actionable direction
• Building strong collaborative relationships across counties, state partners, advocates, vendors, community-based organizations, and internal leadership teams
• Supporting strategic planning efforts related to modernization, customer experience, automation, workforce efficiency, operational transformation, and digital service delivery initiatives
• Promoting operational readiness and implementation awareness early in initiative planning

The Ideal Candidate Will:

• Bring senior leadership experience in enterprise product strategy, digital transformation, customer experience, public sector technology, or similarly complex operational environments
• Have strong understanding of policy-to-operations translation within highly regulated environments
• Demonstrate the ability to synthesize customer, operational, policy, and technology considerations into cohesive product direction
• Be experienced facilitating alignment across business, policy, operational, customer experience, and technology stakeholders
• Excel in executive communication, stakeholder engagement, facilitation, and strategic presentation
• Be highly collaborative and effective leading through influence within matrixed organizations
• Preferably have experience working with counties, government agencies, community organizations, or large governance environments
• Be familiar with human-centered design, customer experience frameworks, enterprise service delivery models, or product strategy practices
• Be motivated by improving statewide service delivery and customer outcomes for millions of Californians

All positions may be subject to some short-term travel in order to conduct project business with the State and counties. The CalSAWS project office is currently located in Gold River, California.

The California Statewide Automated Welfare System (CalSAWS) is the largest county-based human services system in the nation. In June 2019, all 58 California counties formed the CalSAWS Consortium as a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) to govern system operations and represent the collective interests of every county.

As of October 2023, CalSAWS successfully unified all counties into a single statewide system. CalSAWS is now in its Maintenance and Operations (M&O) phase, ensuring reliable, secure, and efficient system functionality for millions of Californians.

This role represents a critical opportunity to improve enterprise alignment upstream of delivery, helping CalSAWS reduce downstream friction, improve coordination, and support more cohesive customer and workforce experiences statewide.