Senior Director of Product and Innovation
Washington D.C. Metro Area
Other Teams – Product Management /
Full Time /
Remote
Location:
This role will be able to work remotely with occasional time spent working onsite in Washington, D.C. area. You must be legally authorized to work in the US. Bixal does not provide visa sponsorship.
What will you do?
As a Senior Director of Product & Innovation, you will drive the innovation strategy and foster a culture of creativity and experimentation within the organization. Additionally, you will help instill a product thinking mindset, ensuring that Bixal products and services address users’ priority needs and fulfill strategic business objectives. This role requires a blend of strategic thinking, business acumen, and creative problem-solving to identify growth opportunities and develop innovative solutions to help achieve our mission. The ideal candidate is a proactive problem solver and an inspirational leader, adept at conceptualizing innovative product solutions with empathy and a focus on lasting positive impact through effective consulting and collaboration.
Responsibilities:
Leadership
- Drive overall vision for Bixal’s product management discipline, pursuing greater adoption of “product thinking” throughout all levels of the organization.
- Drive organizational growth and competitive advantage through continuous innovation and adaptation to changing market dynamics.
- Own the “productization” of Bixal strategic investments in AI, CX, and Cybersecurity – ensuring alignment with business strategy and market demand.
- Provide technical strategy and leadership for high-visibility client deliverables, ensuring teams are maintaining and prioritizing a product backlog that maximizes business value and delivers the most functionality to all customers.
- Align with other Bixal practice leaders to create value through collaboration and be responsive to business development opportunities, integrating with other disciplines, multidisciplinary teams to drive holistic product excellence.
- Serve as a highly-visible Bixal representative via thought leadership activities - articulately presenting at conferences, and webinars, writing white papers and publishing blogs.
- Be accountable for the effective utilization of product management team while leading, mentoring, and coaching senior product managers.
Product Design and Development
- Serve as the advocate and champion for the product, ensuring its alignment with overarching objectives, creating product roadmaps.
- Foster collaboration among team members and stakeholders through the application of "design thinking," actively driving discussions towards identifying and implementing beneficial product directions.
- Cultivate a deep understanding of customer use cases and pain points - assigning accountability for product initiatives to continuously measure and elevate customer satisfaction levels.
- Ensure teams are crafting the overarching vision, strategy, and model for the ongoing improvement of products while fostering a collective sense of purpose and outcomes-oriented mindset with a steadfast commitment to a people-first approach.
- Proactively advocate for customer needs and product concepts internally and externally, garnering support and fostering adoption across all relevant stakeholders.
- Effectively translate overarching goals and objectives into tangible outputs or user stories, ensuring clarity and alignment for the Bixal project team's implementation efforts.
Innovation Strategy Development
- Develop and articulate a clear innovation strategy aligned with the organization's overall goals and objectives.
- Identify emerging trends, technologies, and market opportunities to drive innovation initiatives and accelerators.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define innovation priorities and roadmap.
- Establish processes for evaluating and prioritizing ideas based on strategic fit, feasibility, and potential impact.
- Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success and impact of innovation initiatives.
- Establish regular reporting mechanisms to track progress against KPIs and communicate results to key stakeholders.
- Use data and analytics to identify opportunities for optimization and course correction as needed.
Consulting
- Combine analytical tools of systems thinking with the innovative approaches of human-centered design to effectively address challenges and deliver added value to our clients.
- Actively engage with current and prospective customers to gain deep insights into their critical requirements, collaborating to refine and validate solutions, and offering strategic guidance to shape acquisitions that yield desired outcomes.
- Cultivate a profound sense of empathy for our clients and their customers, understanding their unique challenges and leveraging modern digital and data solutions to provide impactful resolutions.
Solutioning
- Play a central role in proactively driving business development initiatives aimed at expanding Bixal's presence and impact across key areas such as technology, data, human-experience design, digital communications, and organizational development and learning.
- Bridge the gap between people and technology by adeptly translating and writing complex technical concepts into easily understandable language tailored for non-technical audiences in proposals and elsewhere.
- Identify and select the most effective technical solutions and approaches to meet anticipated or actual acquisition requirements alongside technology leaders.
- Play a pivotal role in shaping Bixal's win strategies by leading the development of compelling technical win themes and solution readiness plans, ensuring our proposals stand out for their excellence.
- Provide comprehensive support across all stages of opportunity pursuit, from qualification to capture strategy, fostering customer relationships, managing competitor dynamics, and providing effective team leadership throughout.
- Participate in client events and forums to positively represent the organization and develop and maintain relationships with the industry.
- Perform other duties or special projects as assigned.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree required; master's degree preferred.
- Ability to undergo and obtain a Public Trust security clearance.
- 15+ years of total professional experience.
- 3+ years supporting federal government product initiatives, including familiarity with federal IT standards, software development processes and contract requirements.
- 10+ years of experience managing cross-functional product teams in positions of increasing complexity and responsibility.
- Strong technical background in artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, or related fields.
- Proven experience in a leadership role driving innovation within a corporate or startup environment.
- Strong command of design thinking, product management principles, and agile development practices.
- Proven experience in a leadership role driving innovation within a corporate or startup environment, with a focus on AI and emerging technologies.
- Experience in leveraging AI technologies to drive innovation and solve complex business problems.
- Understanding of AI ethics, privacy, and regulatory considerations.
- Strategic thinker with the ability to translate vision into actionable plans.
- Track record of successfully bringing innovative products or services to market.
- Experience managing cross-functional teams and collaborating with diverse stakeholders.
- Demonstrated ability to navigate uncertainty and define product expectations in an environment where product concepts are not well understood.
- Ability to understand technical challenges and make educated trade-offs with the team and stakeholders.
- Excellent soft skills: good communicator, emotionally intelligent, empathetic, good follow-up, polite, positive attitude.
- Impeccable oral and written communications skills.
Nice-to-Haves
- Functional experience architecting digital solutions, covering all layers of the technology stack, from presentation through cybersecurity and accessibility aspects.
- Understanding of event driven, reactive, and micro service architectures and best practices for delivering highly resilient solutions.
- Experience in data architecture, integration, design and delivery.
Perks & Benefits:
Competitive base salary
Flex hours
Work from home flexibility
401K with matching incentive
Parental Leave
Medical/dental/vision benefits
Flex Spending Account
Company provided short-term disability
Company provided life insurance
Commuter benefits
Generous PTO
11 Paid holidays
Professional development opportunities
New Business Incentive Bonus
Please note that candidates selected may undergo a background investigation and, if applicable, meet eligibility requirements for suitability.
Bixal is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. It ensures equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, national origin, marital or domestic/civil partnership status, genetic information, citizenship status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We are dedicated to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion within our organization and beyond.
