sr. technical product manager

Job Summary and Mission

At Starbucks, our mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit - one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time. Starbucks Technologists work to achieve this mission through the use of cutting-edge technology delivered to our partners, customers, stores, roasters, and global communities.

This senior technical product manager will help shape and deliver technology that supports the operation and evolution of our coffeehouses. The role partners across business and technology teams to simplify complex workflows, modernize platforms, connect data and systems, and create intuitive experiences for partners and the teams that support our stores.

The successful candidate combines strong technical product management, platform and integration experience, and practical delivery leadership. Experience with coffeehouse or retail facilities, repair and maintenance, field service, supplier ecosystems, or other operational technology domains is a plus, but the role requires the versatility to work across a broader portfolio. The candidate should also bring experience with AI-assisted development and know how to translate emerging capabilities into secure, scalable, measurable products.

Summary of Key Responsibilities

• Own product strategy, roadmap, priorities, and measurable outcomes for a portfolio of technology supporting coffeehouse operations and enabling capabilities.
• Lead product planning and day-to-day decision making with business stakeholders, architects, engineering, UX, data, security, QA, operations, and other partner teams.
• Translate complex operational workflows and user needs into clear product requirements and scalable technical solutions.
• Lead product definition and delivery for custom enterprise applications and modernization initiatives, balancing business continuity, technical evolution, user experience, and adoption.
• Identify opportunities to apply AI and automation to simplify work, improve decision making, and create better partner and operational experiences.
• Apply AI-assisted and specification-driven development practices to improve requirement quality, accelerate delivery, strengthen traceability, and maintain alignment from business intent through implementation and validation.
• Create and maintain product specifications, process and data flows, functional and technical requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, nonfunctional requirements, and release readiness criteria.
• Partner with engineering and architecture on end-to-end system design, APIs, cloud services, identity and access, integrations, data models, observability, security, and technical dependencies.
• Drive technical solutions for large or complex features independently; identify feasibility, constraints, tradeoffs, dependencies, and risks.
• Ensure engineering and QA have the context needed to estimate, build, test, release, and support features, including expected behaviors, edge cases, interfaces, and success measures.
• Prioritize the backlog and roadmap using customer and partner value, business outcomes, operational risk, data, architecture needs, and delivery capacity.
• Coordinate modernization, migration, integration transition, cutover, and change-management activities when evolving critical operational capabilities.
• Define product performance, adoption, reliability, and effectiveness measures and use insights to drive continuous improvement.
• Identify and resolve delivery blockers, elevate risks early, and coordinate mitigation across business and technology teams.
• Build strong relationships and communicate clearly with senior business and technology stakeholders and external partners.
• Coach and mentor team members on technical product management, product discovery, specification quality, delivery practices and outcome-based planning.
• Stay current on AI, cloud technology, operational platforms, product delivery practices and emerging capabilities; recommend innovations that are practical, secure, and aligned to business goals.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in a related field.
• 7+ years of industry experience in a technology environment with a record of successfully delivering complex products.
• 5+ years of hands-on product management experience developing roadmaps, priorities, product specifications, features, user stories, acceptance criteria, and refined backlogs in a fast-paced environment with varied stakeholders.
• 5+ years of experience partnering with design, architecture, engineering, and QA to deliver user-facing or enterprise workflow capabilities.
• Demonstrated technical acumen across end-to-end application architecture, APIs, integrations, cloud platforms, data flows, security, testing, and production operations.
• Demonstrated ability to use analytics, operational insights, and product measures to inform prioritization and product decisions.
• Experience leading cross-functional delivery, managing technical dependencies, resolving ambiguity, and influencing outcomes without direct authority.
• Experience with agile product development practices and modern product discovery, delivery, and lifecycle-management tools.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with technology supporting coffeehouse, retail, restaurant or other distributed physical operations.
• Experience with facilities, repair and maintenance, field service, work order management, asset management, supplier/service-provider workflows, or adjacent operational domains.
• Experience delivering custom cloud applications and API-based integrations; Microsoft Azure experience is a plus.
• Experience modernizing or replacing critical enterprise platforms, including discovery, process redesign, data migration, integration transition, change management, cutover, and adoption.
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted software development and specification-driven development, including translating product intent into structured specifications that support engineering, testing, and traceability.
• Experience defining AI-enabled product capabilities, including appropriate human review, privacy, security, data quality, evaluation, monitoring, and measurable business value.
• Ability to read and understand code, API contracts, technical designs, data models, and engineering specifications; prior software development experience is a plus.
• Ability to understand complex business and technical issues, make clear tradeoffs, and communicate decisions to technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, sound judgment, attention to detail, and the ability to manage competing priorities.
• Experience collaborating with external vendors or suppliers while maintaining clear product ownership and accountability.

As a Starbucks partner, you (and your family) will have access to medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, and other voluntary insurance benefits. Partners have access to short-term and long-term disability, paid parental leave, family expansion reimbursement, paid vacation from date of hire*, sick time (accrued at 1 hour for every 25 hours worked), eight paid holidays, and two personal days per year. Starbucks also offers eligible partners participation in a 401(k) retirement plan with employer match, a discounted company stock program (S.I.P.), Starbucks equity program (Bean Stock), incentivized emergency savings, and financial well-being tools. Additionally, Starbucks offers 100% upfront tuition coverage for a first-time bachelor’s degree through Arizona State University’s online program via the Starbucks College Achievement Plan, student loan management resources, and access to other educational opportunities. You will also have access to backup care and DACA reimbursement. Starbucks will comply with any applicable state and local laws regarding employee leave benefits, including, but not limited to providing time off pursuant to the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, and in accordance with its plans and policies. This list is subject to change depending on collective bargaining in locations where partners have a certified bargaining representative. For additional information regarding partner perks and more detailed information about benefits, go to starbucksbenefits.com.

*If you are working in CA, CO, IL, LA, ME, MA, NE, ND or RI, you will accrue vacation up to a maximum of 120 hours (190 in CA) for roles below director and 200 hours (316 in CA) for roles at director or above. For roles in other states, you will be granted vacation time starting at 120 hours annually for roles below director and 200 hours annually for roles director and above.

The actual base pay offered to the successful candidate will be based on multiple factors, including but not limited to job-related knowledge/skills, experience, geographical location, and internal equity. At Starbucks, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at the high end of the range for their role, and compensation decisions are dependent upon the facts and circumstances of each position and candidate.

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Starbucks Coffee Company is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with all federal, state and local ordinances. Starbucks Coffee Company is committed to offering reasonable accommodations to job applicants with disabilities. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please contact us at View email address on click.appcast.io or View phone number on click.appcast.io.