Sr Lead Product Development Manager

About Lumen

Lumen connects the world. We are igniting business growth by connecting people, data and applications – quickly, securely, and effortlessly. Together, we are building a culture and company from the people up – committed to teamwork, trust and transparency. People power progress.

We’re looking for top-tier talent and offer the flexibility you need to thrive and deliver lasting impact. Join us as we digitally connect the world and shape the future.

The Role

This role is responsible for serving as a critical business leader for a comprehensive portfolio of products.  The selected candidate will establish relationships with key leaders from across the business and with external partners critical to the success of programs, including but not limited to direct interaction with individual contributors, manager, director, and vice president leadership.

As a Sr. Lead, the position requires acting as a team lead for one or more Product Development Manager resources, driving prioritization across the portfolios and managing VP and above level escalations. Additionally, this role serves as the main content authority and lead in Product Development efforts through design and development within Architecture, Engineering, Strategic Planning & Information Technology.   They must ensure on-scope, on-time, and on-budget delivery of the product portfolio objectives, including business requirements definition and prioritization, driving cohesive end-to-end solutions, representation of Product within SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) Program Planning sessions, and full testing of strategic initiatives. 

The Main Responsibilities

• Stakeholder Leadership: Exerts a level of influence in stakeholder relations through their immediate core team, defining optimal delivery timelines, directing the core team’s activities, tracking performance and maintaining the team’s alignment with other relevant programs and product portfolio goals.  Serve as primary communicator across the core team, consistently reporting status, risks, and issues.  Displays the ability to resolve conflict and enforce roles and standards across the various core team members.    Communicates status, escalates issues and assists with solution definition at a senior leadership level.
• Thought Leadership: Provides leadership for short-to-mid-range product development planning. Serves as both a business and technical product expert in the product development area supported. Utilizes critical thinking and experience to vet through requirements and defines optimal development approach for the specific initiative. Identifies product improvement opportunities, working collaboratively with stakeholders to define enhancements to improve quality, gain efficiency and reduce the cost of existing products. Acts proactively in solving challenges impacting the progress or success of a product development initiative. Leads efforts to prioritize and accelerate time to market. Relies on experience, judgment, and high-level business relationships to plan and accomplish goals. A wide degree of creativity and latitude is expected.
• Communication: Demonstrates superior verbal and written communication skills and drafts communication plan specific for each product development initiative. Applies discipline in communicating program status proactively and frequently based on criticality of each project. Runs timely and structured meetings that include agendas, meeting notes, and action items. Exhibits solid presentation skills, utilizing appropriate tools to help get the message across. Program Management: Program management is the essence of their job responsibilities.  Define and actively drive that project per agreed-upon development and release plan. Administer product development process from Concept through Launch and Warranty. Conduct project scoping and impact assessment. Lead day-to- day project delivery activities. Responsible for managing accurate and complete project deliverables.

What We Look For in a Candidate

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent education and related experience:
• 5+ years related experience successfully demonstrating:
• Program Management
• Team and Stakeholder Leadership
• Status Reporting
• Risk Management
• Public knowledge of Lumen services
• Demonstratable knowledge of Cloud Services and AI

 Preferred:

• Master’s degree
• 3+ years related experience
• Cloud Certification