JOB DESCRIPTION

Title of Position: Director, Product Delivery 

FLSA Status:   Exempt

Position reports to: Chief Product and Technology Officer

Reporting to this Position: Product Owners, Agile Delivery Lead/Expert

 Overall Responsibility: Rise is seeking an experienced and visionary Director of Product Delivery. In this role, you will be responsible for leading the tactical execution and delivery excellence for our organization's product portfolio. This role bridges product strategy and engineering implementation, ensuring effective translation of product vision into deliverable increments through disciplined SAFe Agile practices and empowered Product Owner teams.

Essential Functions:

• Lead and develop the Product Delivery team, including Product Owners and Agile delivery experts. 
• Provide coaching, mentorship, and career development for direct reports. 
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, transparency, and delivery excellence. 
• Build strong cross-functional relationships with Product Strategy and Engineering Delivery teams. 
• Collaborate with Engineering Delivery to ensure technical feasibility and manage dependencies. 
• Align business outcomes with delivery capacity and priorities. 
• Enable clear communication between strategic vision and tactical execution. 
• Manage stakeholder expectations regarding timelines, trade-offs, and delivery commitments. 
• Establish and maintain standards for backlog management, story writing, and acceptance criteria. 
• Implement tools and processes that improve transparency, visibility, and delivery analytics for data-driven decisions. 
• Ensure compliance with organizational governance and delivery frameworks while refining best practices. 
• Continuously evolve the Product Owner operating model and other delivery practices as needed.
• Other Duties as assigned. 

 KNOWLEDGE SKILLS & ABILITIES 

Position Requirements:

Minimum Education/Experience: Bachelor’s degree (BA or BS) from an accredited college or university. Minimum of seven (7) years of experience in software engineering, with a minimum of three (3) years managing successful product development OR a high school diploma with a minimum of twelve (12) years of experience in software engineering, and a minimum of three (3) years of management experience. 

Company / Industry Knowledge: Prior experience in banking, credit unions or financial services industries is strongly preferred.

Required Qualifications:

• 7 years in product delivery and agile program management.
•  3 years leading cross-functional teams.
• Expertise in implementing and scaling SAFe Agile practices; SAFe certification preferred (SA, POPM, RTE).
• Proven ability to manage Product Owners and align product management with engineering.
• Strong understanding of SDLC, lean-agile principles, and continuous delivery.
• Skilled in modern delivery tools (Jira, Azure DevOps) and technical dependency awareness.
• Servant leader with a history of developing people and fostering collaboration.
• Excellent facilitation for PI Planning, retrospectives, and stakeholder alignment.
• Strategic analytical thinker with tactical execution; data-driven decision-making and metrics-based management.
• Exceptional communication, conflict resolution, and impediment removal skills
• Travel up to 10%

Other Skills & Abilities:

• SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) or Release Train Engineer (RTE) certified.
• Experienced in organizations with distinct Product Manager and Product Owner roles.
• Skilled in Agile coaching and driving enterprise transformation.
• Familiar with DevOps practices, delivery automation, and flow efficiency improvements
• Direct background experience as a Product Owner or Scrum Master
• Proven success in delivery predictability, PI objectives, and continuous improvement
• Strong focus on metrics: velocity trends, cycle time reduction, stakeholder satisfaction, and team engagement
• Adept at fostering transparency, communication, and adaptability in a fast-paced, demanding environments.