Product Development Manager
Position summary
The Product Development Manager takes the roadmap set by the VP of Technical Operations and breaks it down into clear, executable technical work. They work closely with engineering across multiple teams to sequence priorities, surface dependencies, and identify where existing architecture, services, or components can be reused rather than rebuilt. They also help manage and coordinate the backlog and technical implementation steps day to day, in partnership with Scrum Masters and delivery leads.
This is a technically grounded role. The person should have real development experience and be comfortable following architecture and design discussions in detail, not to dictate solutions to engineering, but to ask informed questions, spot patterns and overlap across teams, and make sure the roadmap is broken down in a way that respects how the systems actually work. They also translate technical trade-offs into terms the business can act on, and help represent technical progress to executive and board audiences alongside the VP of Technical Operations.
The role reports to the VP of Technical Operations and works closely with engineering leads, delivery teams, and QA to move roadmap priorities from plan to shipped work.
Key responsibilities
Technical breakdown and execution
Take roadmap priorities set by the VP of Technical Operations and break them into epics, technical workstreams, and sequenced tasks that engineering can execute against
Gather requirements from business stakeholders and translate them into user stories, acceptance criteria, and technical requirements engineering can build against
Identify technical dependencies and risks early, and adjust sequencing to reduce cross-team blockers
Help manage and coordinate the backlog and technical implementation steps, in partnership with Scrum Masters and delivery leads
Cross-team architecture awareness
Maintain a working understanding of the architecture and systems in place across teams, and flag opportunities to reuse existing components, services, or patterns instead of building new ones
Participate in architecture and design discussions to understand proposed approaches, ask informed questions, and surface overlap or risk with other teams' work
Identify cross-team technical challenges and dependencies, and help coordinate with the relevant engineering leads to resolve them before they become delivery blockers
Partner with engineering leads to keep a shared, up-to-date picture of what already exists across the platform, so teams are not solving the same problem twice
Delivery coordination
Track delivery against roadmap commitments and communicate status, risk, and technical trade-offs to stakeholders and leadership
Support QA and engineering in triaging and prioritizing defects and technical issues post-release
Maintain specs and technical documentation to a standard that keeps requirements and decisions traceable as work moves across teams
Communication
Act as a technical bridge between the VP of Technical Operations, engineering teams, and business stakeholders
Present technical breakdowns, cross-team dependencies, and trade-offs clearly to audiences ranging from developers to executive leadership
Document decisions and rationale so technical direction remains traceable as the roadmap evolves
Key skills, knowledge, and education
Prior hands-on development experience (as a developer, technical analyst, or similar), sufficient to read code, understand system design, and hold a technical conversation without a translator
Demonstrated ability to follow and discuss architecture and sequence diagrams, data models, and API contracts with engineering, and to spot where existing components can be reused across teams
Experience breaking down a roadmap or set of priorities into technical workstreams and sequenced, executable tasks
Strong written and verbal communication skills in English, with the ability to adjust technical depth for the…