Product Manager (Temporary; Four Years)

Department: Digital

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

Reporting To: Robert Collins

Compensation: $120,000 - $125,000 / year

Description

This is not a remote role. This is a hybrid role; 3 days in office in NYC; 2 days remote. This role is grant funded and TEMPORARY for four years.
Overview
The New York Public Library has been an essential provider of free books, information, ideas, and education for all New Yorkers for over 125 years. Founded in 1895, NYPL is the nation's largest neighborhood public library system and the most used research library in the world. NYPL provides a fundamental resource to millions of readers, learners and scholars. The digital portfolio of products and platforms is the core lynchpin in how our patrons near and far can access information to create new content, support their personal learning and build stronger communities. 
Reporting to the Director of Product, Scholarly eBooks, the Product Manager will support the NYPL’s institutional goal to increase the availability of digital content. The Scholarly eBooks initiative seeks to develop more equitable service to those researchers who may not be able to come in person to our reading rooms in New York City. We aim to enable researchers globally to discover and use digital content to create the next great works of scholarship and learning. The role will focus on identifying clearance opportunities and fostering strategic collaborations to make additional digital content discoverable and available. The ideal candidate will be an accomplished product manager with substantial mission-driven business acumen and sense of entrepreneurship.  

This is a four-year, grant-funded temporary position.
Responsibilities:

• Contribute to the vision and strategy for NYPL’s Scholarly eBooks initiative, which seeks to expand the corpus of digital books available and discoverable to researchers
• Research, identify and help plan and implement opportunities to source, clear and make digital content available and discoverable 
• Qualify collections prospects in a risk-appropriate manner, balancing opportunities for volume with the requirements of the Library’s mission and risk tolerance
• Collaborate closely with thought leaders and staff from across the NYPL, as well as from partner institutions, publishers, authors, and presses 
• Identify and track key metrics and user data to assess performance and identify potential areas for learning and improvement. 
• Collaborate with Product Design/UX, Engineering, and Project Management to drive completion of user research and drive technology & product outcomes in support of the Scholarly eBooks initiative and its supporting experiences and tools
• Perform other related duties as necessary

We are looking for someone we can count on to: Own:

• The research and discovery of new collections to bring into the corpus of content available in our Scholarly eBooks products
• The translation of broad business and user needs into non-ambiguous requirements and product user stories for our development teams
• The development of the roadmap for expanding the corpus of books  
• The development of measures of success and KPIs for the products and initiatives
• The user research and UX testing for scholarly eBooks products
• The communication strategy with stakeholders inside and outside the library

Teach:

• Best practices of product development, business analysis and data analysis to the broader Scholarly eBooks team
• Facilitating conversations with stakeholders to keep them informed on product progress, or define new business needs

Learn:

• Researcher and institutional needs and constraints to properly represent them in key decision making moments
• The latest market, technology and legal trends to keep the Scholarly eBooks team on the bleeding edge of knowledge sharing and research

Improve:

• The volume, discoverability and availability of the NYPL and partners’ digital content
• The speed of bringing new content online
• The velocity of the Scholarly eBooks team

Some expectations for this role are that within: 1 month, this person will:

• Understand the functional structure and core mission of NYPL & Digital
• Understand the product vision and strategy for the Scholarly eBooks initiative
• Establish contacts in all functional areas of the Digital Team including: Content Strategy, Developme