Role Snapshot
Senior Product Operations Manager at OCLC responsible for optimizing product delivery and operational efficiency across product teams. This role serves as a strategic bridge between product, engineering, and business functions to drive process improvements and scalability.
Job Description
Together we make breakthroughs possible. At OCLC, we build technology with a purpose: to connect libraries and make knowledge accessible worldwide, because we believe that what is known must be shared. Our teams work with complex global datasets, AI and machine learning, hybrid cloud solutions, and other technologies that connect people and organizations to the information they need. We value the power of unique perspectives and experiences to unlock innovation. At OCLC, your ideas matter, whether you have two years of experience or 20. You’ll learn, create, and problem-solve with technologists, product developers, librarians, researchers, marketing pros, and support teams around the world. Why join OCLC? OCLC is consistently recognized as a best place to work by several independent programs. We recognize and reward people and results with a comprehensive Total Rewards package. This means competitive compensation that reflects your unique contributions—performance, experience, and skills—along with exceptional benefits, including best-in-class health coverage, retirement plans with generous company contributions, and a commitment to your overall well-being. We know the best ideas don’t always happen at a desk. Take a walking meeting around our 100-acre campus or enjoy lunch on the patio. We’re committed to your success—both personally and professionally.
Hybrid work environment: For many roles, three days a week on-site, with occasional additional days based on business needs. Free use of our on-site fitness center, gym sports, group exercise classes, and game room Onsite catering and cafeteria subsidized by OCLC Health and wellness events Work environments with individual and team spaces and the latest technology tools Paid parental leave and adoption assistance Tuition reimbursement and Public Service Loan Forgiveness eligibility Company-subsidized pricing on local tickets and memberships Join us in transforming how people everywhere access information and be part of a mission-driven team that makes a global impact.
The job details are as follows: The Senior Product Operations Manager serves as a strategic leader responsible for product portfolio prioritization and planning, project investment analysis and management, delivery governance, operational excellence, and AI-enabled modernization across the Global Product Management organization. This role ensures alignment between product strategy, engineering execution, organizational capacity, and business objectives while driving continuous improvement in the practices, processes, and metrics used to deliver customer value. The role partners closely with Engineering Delivery Management and Technology leadership to modernize product development workflows, identify opportunities for AI-enabled productivity and decision support, establish organizational standards, and build the capabilities needed to operate efficiently. Responsibliities Lead Product Portfolio Strategy & Investment Planning Facilitate annual and quarterly portfolio planning across product lines, platform capabilities, technical modernization, customer commitments, and strategic initiatives. Support Product leadership in evaluating investment tradeoffs, prioritization decisions, roadmap sequencing, and portfolio-level resource allocation. Develop and maintain portfolio visibility across product roadmaps, business objectives, dependencies, risks, and expected outcomes. Partner with Finance and Product leadership on budgets, forecasts, business cases, and investment recommendations. Help leadership balance innovation, operational impact, modernization, and organizational capacity. Establish Product Portfolio Governance & Delivery Visibility Partner closely with Engineering Delivery Management to provide integrated product portfolio leadership across planning, prioritization, execution visibility, resource constraints, dependencies, and risk escalation. Maintain portfolio-level insight into commitments, milestones, risks, constraints, blockers, decisions, and delivery health. Facilitate portfolio reviews, executive reporting, and decision forums that create clarity and shared understanding of status. Ensure roadmap commitments are realistic, visible, and aligned with available capacity and priorities. Drive Product Operations & Cross-Functional Coordination Coordinate and lead streamlined product management operations across multiple divisions. Create consistent approaches for portfolio intake, prioritization, roadmap management, reporting, decision tracking, and success metrics. Develop portfolio dashboards, metrics, and executive-ready insights that support faster, better-informed decisions. Promote transparency, accountability, and disciplined follow-through across the full product development lifecycle. Transform the Product Development Lifecycle Review the end-to-end product development lifecycle, including customer engagement, requirements development, roadmap planning, prioritization, delivery coordination, launch readiness, adoption tracking, and post-release learning. Identify where AI tools, copilots, automation, and agent-based workflows can most intuitively streamline product work, improve decision quality, remove friction from delivery, and decrease time to market for valuable product updates. Develop and execute a practical AI adoption roadmap for Product Management practices, ensuring the Product organization evolves alongside AI-enabled improvements across the company. Evaluate emerging AI tools and agent frameworks and translate them into practical, responsible, repeatable product-management use cases. Establish standards, governance, guardrails, and best practices for the responsible application of AI tools and agents in product workflows. Qualifications Bachelor’s degree, with an advanced degree strongly desired 10+ years of experience in product management, product operations, program management, portfolio management, software delivery leadership, or a related function. Demonstrable understanding of tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, Aha!, Productboard, Planview, Clarity, Jira Align, Confluence, Power BI, Microsoft 365 Copilot, or similar platforms. Exceptional communication, facilitation, executive presentation, and stakeholder-management skills. Proven ability to influence without direct authority across senior leaders, peer teams, and cross-functional partners. Working knowledge of AI tools, copilots, intelligent agents, workflow automation, and practical use cases for applying AI within business or product workflows. Demonstrated ability to lead standardization, process improvement, organizational change, and adoption of new ways of working. Experience with budgeting, forecasting, business case development, investment planning, or portfolio-level financial analysis. Don't see a role that fits just yet? Send your resume to our Talent Acquisition Team for future opportunities!
Who we are: We are a non-profit global technology company that develops innovative services for libraries. Together with member libraries, we connect people to the resources they need to learn and grow, and ultimately, to transform the world. We connect libraries to other libraries, making their work more efficient and effective. Our large-scale, high-performance cloud computing services enable libraries to share data, work, and resources to save money and better serve their communities.
What we do: We are dedicated and passionate about libraries—and helping them change lives. Our goal is to provide innovative technologies for every library to help them meet the demands of a rapidly changing digital world. Our success depends on our ability to deliver new, high-quality features and stable, scalable solutions for libraries.
Live our values: New ideas. Open dialog. Hard work. Recognition. Purpose. We offer a dynamic, fulfilling work environment that is productive, collaborative, innovative—and fun. We are consistently rated among the top employers within Central Ohio and across the IT landscape. There is a strong, team-based culture where everyone is appreciated and focused on common goals. You will make a difference. OCLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status. If you are interested in applying for employment with OCLC and need special assistance or an accommodation to apply for a posted position, contact our Human Resources Department at +1-614-764-6000 or email at hr@oclc.org