Senior Director of Product Management (Platform)
About Toptal
Toptal is a global network of top freelance talent in business, design, and technology that enables companies to scale their teams, on-demand. With $200+ million in annual revenue and over 40% year-over-year growth, Toptal is the world’s largest fully remote company.
We take the best elements of virtual teams and combine them with a support structure that encourages innovation, social interaction, and fun. We see no borders, move at a fast pace, and are never afraid to break the mold.
Position Description
The Platform squad supports cross-domain business needs and processes through common platform infrastructure. The Toptal platform is the “hidden force” behind Toptal’s tremendous success: Our innovative technology enables us to deliver on-demand talent, without losing a human touch. The Toptal platform is a technical area with lots of business and scalability challenges that are key to Toptal’s continuous success.
Are you a customer-centric Product Leader with a proven track record of taking ownership and delivering results in a fast-paced, dynamic environment? We’re looking for a Senior Director of Product Management to join our rapidly growing internal Product team to lead and scale the side of our product and platform. We need someone to guide a team of Product Managers on building and improving internal tools and products that will support our business as we continue to scale at a rapid pace.
You’ll also join the Product Management leadership team as a key decision-maker in the creation and execution of the product strategy while reporting to the SVP of Product Management. You will work with the Engineering team and other Product Managers, as well as business and operations stakeholders to support the organization’s hyper-growth.
Here is a great insight into how we run Product at Toptal.
This is a remote position that can be done from anywhere. Due to the remote nature of this role, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship. Resumes and communication must be submitted in English.
Responsibilities:
- Own the overall strategy and roadmap for our technology products, enabling our Engineering teams to deliver effective solutions faster, and to improve the stability and performance of our systems.
- Drive the product strategy and roadmap for selected internal business products.
- Provide thought leadership, strategic insight, and clear communication (written and verbal) to your team and the rest of the organization on your product’s strategy and roadmap.
- Track progress, assess risks, coordinate delivery, and actively communicate contingency and mitigation plans for the team.
- Guide the prioritization of initiatives as the team scales.
- Lead and grow a team of amazing Product Managers, helping them do the best work of their careers.
- Help drive the Product Management practice and culture, both in how we work and the design of the organization.
- Work cross-functionally with other teams such as Executives, Operations, and Legal to make sure their objectives are met, opinions are considered, and plans communicated.
- Collect and analyze feedback from users, stakeholders, and other teams to shape requirements, features, and end products.
In the first week, expect to:
- Work to get up to speed with how the organization runs, including how our OKRs, RACIs, and other operational frameworks work.
- Onboard and integrate into Toptal while independently starting to study and learn the technology product suite.
In the first month, expect to:
- Become acquainted with your product area, the product goals, and those you will partner with.
- Work cross-functionally and with Product Managers to refine your product’s strategy, organize and prioritize your high-level roadmap and backlog.
- Start collaborating closely with your Product teams.
In the first three months, expect to:
- Have a very strong understanding of how the Product Management function and all related external functions are working together.
- Take full ownership of the technology products domain, its strategy, and roadmap.
- Garner the trust of your peers and the individuals that you’re most closely working with.
In the first six months, expect to:
- Have built your team of world-class Product Managers.
- Exemplify the ability to inspire and mentor the teams you’re working with.
- Uplevel the team’s ability to brainstorm, collaborate and execute materially.
- Have chartered a clear path for scaling the team, as well as the work output that technical Product Management is able to produce.
In the first year, expect to:
- Ensure your Product teams have delivered great results and business impact.
- Continue to bring best practices and learnings to the entire Product Management function.
- Predict future needs and plan resources well ahead of time.
Requirements:
- At least 10 years of proven Product Management experience in technical domains.
- At least 5 years of proven experience leading technical Product Management teams.
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or Business Administration.
- Proven ability to build, launch and scale software products.
- Ability to handle many concurrent projects and proactively reprioritize to meet business and product priorities without needing guidance.
- Toptal is in the hyper-growth/scale stage and you need to be comfortable with the level of ambiguity and workload that entails.
- Experience working with Engineering teams as a Product Manager and have demonstrable experience leading cross-functional teams to define, execute and iterate on large multi-team, multi-quarter projects.
- Comfortable working with SQL or spreadsheets to analyze data, as well as conducting research with internal and external users.
- You must have excellent verbal and written communication skills and can lead teams through difficult decisions.
- Be humble, willing to learn, and do whatever is needed to help us accomplish our goals.
- You must have a strong bias for action and the ability to foster a competitive, results-driven mentality in your team.
- You must be extremely persistent by nature and unwilling to let your team lose or leave problems unsolved.
- You must be a world-class individual contributor to thrive at Toptal. You will not be here just to tell other people what to do.
