Technology Director of Product
Job Description
Chalkbeat, the nonprofit news organization covering educational change efforts in the communities where improvement matters most, is seeking a director of product to lead our product and UX team.
Who are you?
You thrive in smaller organizations where you can make a huge impact, and you can draw clear lines from broad organizational goals to products that delight users and drive results. You translate strategy into execution and enjoy doing the work, not just calling the shots. You might be a news nerd or someone who loves reading policy papers, but you’re definitely inspired by our daily journalism and our mission of educational equity. You excel at communication and recognize the importance of conveying the why and how in addition to the what. You’re skilled at presenting data findings, knowing that product strategy is meaningless without the data to support it. You shine at problem-solving in highly collaborative environments and bring clarity to complex situations.
What background and skills do you have? (Not all are required, but we hope you’ll have several of these.)
- Significant product management experience, ideally at a news organization
- Background in UX and/or design and an innate sense for what looks good and works well
- Experience using data to influence product strategy and the ability to present data findings in an authoritative way
- Strong skills in data analysis and interpretation; experience with analytics platforms (e.g. Google Analytics) and A/B testing methodologies
- Strong technical background, including knowledge of frontend, backend, and infrastructure technologies, and experience managing developers
- Understanding of data visualization
- Proven record of successfully launching and scaling products while working with multiple inputs
- Outstanding communication: stellar listening skills, the ability to clearly capture other people’s viewpoints, and a knack for driving consensus and decision-making across the organization
- Past creator of roadmaps/project plans, style guides, user manuals, and other relevant process documentation
- Familiarity with best-in-class digital products across the journalism landscape and beyond, plus existing relationships with other news and/or product organizations
- Interest in education and passion for Chalkbeat’s equity mission
What will you do?
- Develop a product strategy that advances Chalkbeat’s mission, resonates with our audience, and drives toward our key performance indicators: readership, loyalty, and revenue
- Define and own the product roadmap and feature prioritization to build and improve the user experience and outcomes
- Establish ideal product development process and oversee product requirements and documentation
- Communicate evolving priorities across the company, respond to requests from the newsroom and business teams, and design effective tools to document processes and train people to follow them
- Use data to test assumptions, make recommendations, and drive actions
- Build use cases and user stories and communicate them effectively
- Serve as player-coach: You’re a manager, but you’re also a doer. You demonstrate capability to inspire a team while moving quickly to deliver on organizational objectives.
- Coach, mentor, and manage your direct reports, including a full-stack developer and digital producer, plus oversee relationships with outside web development and design consultants
This position is ideally based in New York City or one of Chalkbeat’s other locations: Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, or Memphis. We will also consider remote candidates. This position will report to Chalkbeat’s executive editor.
This is a full-time position with benefits. Chalkbeat offers a competitive salary, commensurate with experience, and a generous benefits package, including a paid winter recess from December 26-31.
About Chalkbeat:
Chalkbeat is the nonprofit news organization committed to covering one of America’s most important stories: the effort to improve schools for all children, especially those who have historically lacked access to a quality education. We are mission-driven journalists who believe that an independent local press is vital to ensuring that education improves. Currently in five locations and growing, we seek to provide deep local coverage of education policy and practice that informs decisions and actions, leading to better schools. Read more about our mission and values.
