Director, Data Products

Director, Data Products

Since 1906, New Balance has empowered people through sport and craftsmanship to create positive change in communities around the world. We innovate fearlessly, guided by our core values and driven by the belief that conventions were meant to be challenged. We foster a culture in which every associate feels welcomed and respected, where leaders and creatives are inspired to shape the world of tomorrow by taking bold action today.

The Director, Data Products is responsible for building and leading New Balance's enterprise data product capabilities – ensuring that every digital product is underpinned by accurate, well-governed, and business-ready data. Reporting to the VP, Data & AI, this leader owns the strategy, team, and operating model that delivers data as a managed product with clear ownership, measurable quality, and defined consumers.

The Director will lead a team of Data Product Owners, aligned to New Balance's key data domains, and Data Leads aligned to our Digital Product teams. They will set a vision for the data product, set OKR's, develop roadmaps and ensure stakeholder alignment for each enterprise data domain. The Data Leads will be embedded with digital product teams where they partner directly with the Digital Product Managers to ensure product-level data accuracy, quality, and business readiness.

Major Responsibilities Include:

• Define and Drive the Data Products Strategy & Operating Model
• Establish the vision, principles and operating model for managing data as a product across New Balance.
• Define the portfolio of enterprise data products and ensure each has clear ownership, quality standards, service level expectations, and engaged consumers and stakeholders.
• Partner with consumers, digital product teams, and engineering to continuously evolve and embed the operating model.
• Lead Data Product Owners for Enterprise Data Domains
• Develop and maintain a clear data product vision and corresponding OKRs that align desired outcome across stakeholder groups.
• Partner with business owners and Digital Product Managers to understand priorities and uncover opportunities to build capabilities that increase adoption and deliver value.
• Build, prioritize, communicate, and champion data product roadmaps across Business Transformation, Engineering, and business stakeholder groups.
• Build a High Performing Team of Data Leads Supporting our Digital Products
• Manage the team of Data Leads supporting each Digital Product to embed data quality standards in products based on the framework established by the Enterprise Data Governance team.
• Build and embed the operating model for Data Leads to work with Digital Product Teams, Engineering, Data Product teams, Enterprise Data Governance, and Business Transformation programs.
• Champion data standards in agile quarterly planning, sprint planning, and retrospectives.
• Partner with Enterprise Data Governance, Platform, and Architecture teams to operationalize monitoring, alerting, and remediation workflows for data quality.
• Champion the use of AI to ensure data quality standards are met for Data & Digital Products.
• Measure and communicate data quality improvements to business stakeholders and executives to build trust in data.

Requirements for Success:

• Strategic leadership: Demonstrated ability to translate enterprise strategy into an executable roadmap, define success measures, and drive sustained outcomes in a complex, cross-functional environment with decisions that meaningfully impact business performance.
• Retail and/or e-commerce domain fluency: Experience delivering data capabilities that support consumer journeys and merchandising/commercial processes (e.g., product, customer, inventory, pricing, promotions, fulfillment) and partnering with digital product teams.
• AI enablement mindset: Working knowledge of AI/ML and GenAI concepts, including what is required to scale AI responsibly (data readiness, evaluation/measurement, risk controls, human-in-the-loop, monitoring) and ability to translate business problems into data/AI solution approaches.
• Data integrity and governance capability: Experience partnering with governance, architecture, and engineering teams on data quality management, master/reference data concepts, metadata/catalog, lineage, privacy, and controls; able to balance enablement with risk management.
• Strong decision-making and execution: Ability to synthesize complex and sometimes contradictory information, make timely recommendations, and drive execution through others; comfortable facilitating trade-offs and navigating ambiguity and legacy constraints.
• Exceptional communication and influence: Executive-ready storytelling and facilitation skills; able to run business and technical briefings, align diverse stakeholders, and create a transparent flow of information across levels and functions.
• Collaboration and inclusion.: Track record of building partnerships across organizational boundaries, creating an environment where diverse perspectives are sought and valued, and removing barriers that prevent teams from working toward shared objectives.
• Talent and capability development: People leadership experience and/or demonstrated ability to lead through influence—coaching teams, enabling adoption, and building a culture of continuous learning and data literacy.
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Systems, Computer Science, Data/Analytics, Engineering, or a related field required; Master's degree (MBA, MS) preferred.
• Preferred technical toolkit. Familiarity with modern data platforms (cloud data warehouse/lakehouse), data modeling, data integration patterns, BI/semantic layers, experimentation/measurement, and governance tooling (catalog/lineage); comfort working with Agile/iterative delivery approaches

Boston, MA Headquarters - (NB) Only Pay Range: $198,900.00 - $258,300.00 - $317,750.00 Annual (actual base pay varying based upon, but not limited to, relevant experience, time in role, internal equity, geographic location, and more.)

Regular Associate Benefits

Our products are only as good as the people we hire, so we make sure to hire the best and treat them accordingly. New Balance offers a comprehensive traditional benefits package including three options for medical insurance as well as dental, vision, life insurance and 401K. We also proudly offer a slate of more nontraditional perks – opportunities like online learning and development courses, tuition reimbursement, $100 monthly student loan support and various mentorship programs – that encourage our associates to grow personally as they develop professionally. You'll also enjoy a yearly $1,000 lifestyle reimbursement, 4 weeks of vacations, 12 holidays and generous parental leave, because work-life balance is more than just a buzzword – it's part of our culture.

Temporary associates are provided three options for medical insurance as well as dental and vision insurance and an associate discount.

Part time associates are provided 401k, short term disability, a yearly $300 lifestyle reimbursement and an associate discount.

Flexible Work Schedule

For decades we have fostered a unique culture founded on our values with a particular focus on in-person teamwork and collaboration. Our North American hybrid model encourages rich in-person experiences, showcasing our commitment to teamwork and connection, while maintaining flexibility for associates. New Balance Associates currently work in office three days per week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday). Our offices are fully open, and amenities are available across our North American office locations. To continue our focus on hybrid work we have introduced "Work from Anywhere" (WFA) for four weeks per calendar year. This model will help us enhance our culture while continuing to maintain elements of flexibility.

Equal Opportunity Employer

New Balance provides equal opportunities for all current and prospective associates to ensure that employment, training, compensation, transfer, promotion and other terms, conditions and privileges of employment are provided without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, handicap, genetic information and/or status as an Armed Forces service medal veteran, recently separated veteran, qualified disabled veteran or other protected veteran, or any other protected status.