VP, Product Business Applications - Santa Monica, 90404

VP, Product Business Applications - Santa Monica, 90404, United States of America

How we LEAD

Universal Music Group is seeking a Vice President of Product to lead our Business Applications product organization.

Reporting to the Chief Data Officer, you will lead a portfolio of strategic business applications that transform trusted enterprise data into intuitive, AI-enabled software experiences. You will oversee Product Leaders responsible for multiple application domains, establish a modern product operating model, and ensure investments across the por tfolio are aligned to the company's highest priorities.

This is a player-coach leadership role. While your long-term responsibility is building a high-performing product organization, your immediate priority will be leading the successful development and launch of an artist application that puts data and audience development tools into the hands of UMG s artists .

This role requires equal comfort discussing product strategy with executives, organizational capability with product leaders, software architect ure with engineering, AI-native product development practices with technical teams, and business workflows with stakeholders across UMG.

We believe AI is fundamentally changing both what software can do and how software is built. We're looking for a product executive who can help transform not only our application portfolio, but the way our product teams discover, design, build, and continuously improve software.

How you'll CREATE

Lead the Product Organization

• Build and lead a high-performing organization of Product Managers and Product Leaders responsible for UMG's business application portfolio.

• Coach Product Leaders to strengthen product strategy, customer discovery, prioritization, execution, and product quality.

• Establish consistent product operating principles, governance, planning processes, and success metrics across the organization.

• Recruit, develop, and retain exceptional product talent while fostering a culture of ownership, learning, experimentation, and continuous improvement.

• Partner closely with UMGs label leadership and data teams, Finance, Partnerships, Engineering, UX, Applied AI, Data Platform Products, and business stakeholders to deliver exceptional software.

Define Portfolio Strategy and Investment

• Own the long-term strategy and roadmap for UMG's portfolio of internal business applications.

• Continuously evaluate where to invest, accelerate, expand, consolidate , or retire applications based on business value and strategic priorities.

• Allocate product resources across multiple teams, m aking thoughtful tradeoffs between near-term business needs and long-term platform investments.

• Maintain a multi-year portfolio roadmap that balances innovation, modernization, operational efficiency, and user experience.

• Guide build -versus-buy decisions and vendor strategy across the application portfolio.

Lead UMGs Artist-facing data and CRM solutions

• Personally lead the strategy and execution of Halo, UMG's flagship application for artist teams.

• Partner closely with labels, territories, engineering, d esign, and business stakeholders to ensure Halo becomes the trusted daily workspace for artist teams worldwide.

• Drive successful delivery, adoption, and measurable business impact while establishing a scalable product foundation for future capabilities.

• Transition from direct involvement over time as the product organization matures and additional Product Leaders assume greater ownership.

Build an AI-Native Product Organization

• Help redefine how products are built at UMG by embedding AI throughout the pro duct development lifecycle.

• Establish modern product management practices that leverage AI across customer discovery, prioritization, prototyping, requirements generation, engineering collaboration, testing, documentation, and release planning.

• Coach Product Leaders to effectively use AI as part of their everyday work, improving both product quality and delivery velocity.

• Partner with Engineering leadership to continuously evolve AI-assisted software development practices, evaluating emerging capabilities s uch as agentic workflows, AI coding assistants, rapid prototyping tools, and intelligent product operations.

• Champion a culture of experimentation that enables teams to move faster while maintaining governance, quality, and security.

Drive Business Outcomes

• Define success metrics across the application portfolio, measuring business impact, adoption, operational efficiency, and customer satisfaction.

• Ensure product teams remain focused on delivering measurable business outcomes rather than technical output s.

• Build trusted partnerships with executive stakeholders across Finance, Commercial, Artist Services, Labels, Technology, and Corporate Functions.

• Communicate product strategy, investment decisions, and portfolio performance to senior leadership.

Bring your VIBE

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of product management experience leading complex software products or enterprise applications.

• Experience leading multiple product teams or Product Leaders within a portfolio environment.

• Demonstrated success bui lding high-performing product organizations and coaching Product Managers into stronger product leaders.

• Experience developing enterprise business applications, workflow platforms, or data-intensive software products.

• Strong understanding of software development lifecycles and modern product management practices.

• Demonstrated experience leveraging AI to improve product management, software development, and organizational effectivenessnot simply delivering AI features.

• Experience leading cross-functional or ganizations spanning Product, Engineering, Design, Data, and AI.

• Exceptional stakeholder management, executive communication, and organizational leadership skills.

• Experience operating successfully within large, highly matrixed organizations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience within media, entertainment, technology, or digital platforms.

• Experience leading portfolios of enterprise software products.

• Experience supporting Finance, forecasting, CRM, marketing technology, or internal workflow applications.

• Experience establishing AI-native product organizations and introducing AI-assisted software development practices.

• Hands-on familiarity with AI product development tools including Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Windsurf, Codex, or similar platforms.

• Curiosity about agentic software development, AI-enabled product organizations, and emerging engineering practices.

Success in the First 12 Months

• Successfully launch Halo as UMG's flagship artist application.

• Establish a high-performing product organi zation with clear operating principles, governance, and product management standards.

• Coach Product Leaders to improve product quality, execution, and customer outcomes across the portfolio.

• Implement AI-native product development practices that materially improve experimentation speed, engineering collaboration, prototyping, and delivery velocity.

• Establish a clear multi-year application portfolio strategy and investment roadmap.

• Strengthen partnerships across Engineering, Design, Data Products, Applied AI , and business leadership.

• Deliver measurable improvements in adoption, productivity, and business value across UMG's application portfolio.