Product Manager OR Senior Product Manager, Events & Platform Operations

Company Description

ABOUT TED 

TED is on a mission to discover and spread ideas that spark imagination, embrace possibility and catalyze impact. Our organization is devoted to curiosity, reason, wonder and the pursuit of knowledge — without an agenda. We welcome people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world and connection with others, and we invite everyone to engage with ideas and activate them in your community.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We’re seeking a Senior Product Manager to join TED’s Technology team and drive the strategy, execution, and operations of products that support both our global events and internal platform operations. This role is pivotal in driving the success of TED Conferences, while empowering internal teams with effective tools and workflows to innovate and operate more efficiently.

TED Conferences are global events that showcase research and ideas from all disciplines. Conference programs are designed for attendees and speakers from vastly different fields to connect and draw inspiration from unlikely places. You’ll lead a cross-functional product technology team to deliver exceptional tools and experiences that bring TED’s events and media to life. From event preparation to ongoing platform enhancements, you’ll play a key role in advancing TED’s mission of spreading ideas globally.

Job Description

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead cross-functional team: Collaborate with product designers, engineers, and other functions to ideate, design, build, launch, and grow external and internal user-facing products

• Drive strategy: Partner with Business and Technology leadership to define the vision, strategy, and roadmap for event products and internal platforms, ensuring alignment with organizational goals

• Outcome-driven execution: Manage day-to-day delivery, translating high-level ideas into detailed feature specifications, user stories, and epics that drive results

• Event operations: Oversee event preparation, operations, and post-event processes to ensure seamless execution across TED’s global events; support live TED events operations as necessary

• Internal tools enablement: Lead training, enablement, and coordination for internal teams using key SaaS tools such as Sailthru and Webflow, among others

• Platform maintenance: Support ongoing maintenance, upgrades, and production issue management to keep critical systems reliable and user-friendly

• Stakeholder alignment & executive communication: Collaborate closely with people across the organization to create tools that deliver exceptional user and business value; present roadmap and progress to stakeholders and TED leadership with clarity and transparency

• Performance measurement: Define and measure KPIs to evaluate the success of products and their impact on organizational and user outcomes

Qualifications

ABOUT YOU

• Product experience: 3-5+ years of product management experience with a history of delivering impactful products that delight users and meet business goals; events experience is a plus

• Operational expertise: Familiarity with SaaS tools like Sailthru, Webflow, or similar

• User-focused: Empathetic, creative, and detail-oriented, with a strong sense of what makes for great user experiences and a collaborative approach with design partners

• Technologically proficient: Quick to learn new technologies and adept at navigating tradeoffs with engineering peers; proficient in all phases of the product development lifecycle, including discovery, user research, prioritization, feature specification, usability testing, and analytics

• Hands-on problem-solver: Willing to roll up your sleeves to tackle operational, production, or other tasks needed to produce a great event and drive success more generally; point-person/air traffic control on all events-related issues (need to physically attend 2-3 events per year)

• Lead through ambiguity: Remains focused and composed in stressful or uncertain situations, guiding teams toward clarity and actionable outcomes.

• Collaborative & strategic thinker: Outcome-driven, with the ability to define, measure, and communicate success metrics and prioritize efforts with organizational priorities in mind

• Clear communicator: Skilled at distilling complex ideas into persuasive, audience-tailored narratives to influence str