TE52P4 Product Manager, Technical

Division and Unit Overview

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is the world's largest scientific membership association and one of the top ten peer-reviewed science publishers in the world. The Publications Division of ACS has all the characteristics of a medium-sized commercial STM publishing company: its primary competitors for authors, market-share, and talent are Elsevier, Wiley, and Springer/Nature. It is one of two ACS divisions charged with serving a dual function: generating substantial revenue - currently over $200M - to support the Society's programmatic activities and fulfilling a core mission of the Society by advancing knowledge in the field of chemistry and the chemical enterprise.

ACS Publications is passionate about supporting the mission of ACS through products and services that meet the most critical needs of researchers and the scientific enterprise. We are ambitious for our customers and believe transformative technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) will drive the transformation of our industry, accelerating the dissemination of the scientific discovery needed to address Earth's greatest challenges.

The Division has US-based facilities in Washington, D.C. and Columbus OH, as well as worldwide operations in a growing number of international locations under ACS International, Ltd. (ACSI) including but not limited to the UK, Singapore, China, and India.

Within the Publications Division, Global Technology Services (GTS) is tasked with providing all required technology support for the publishing activities of the ACS. The primary verticals in the GTS infrastructure include:

• Customer Engagement
• Innovation Enablement
• Business Operations and Administration
• Foundational & Technology Operations
• Strategy & Execution
• Publishing Operations & Business Systems
• Data Engineering

This position will reside within the Customer Engagement vertical and will report to the Director, Customer Engagement, whose team leads the implementation and delivery of customer interfacing platforms and applications, and the delivery and implementation of the future state delivery platform.

We are seeking a Technical Product Manager to partner closely with ACS Publications Delivery / Engagement Platform stakeholders and foster relationships with other ACS leaders to develop and manage customer-facing and internal products. This position is also responsible for the technical strategy and roadmap of delivery platforms for customers such as researchers. The Technical Product Manager ensures technical and product requirements, features, releases, support and performance are successfully delivered in commercialized environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Contribute and execute on the Delivery / Engagement Platform strategic visions and roadmaps for new and existing products and releases within ACS Publications.
• Maintain an understanding of relationships and interdependencies between all ACS products, sales and marketing, and branding initiatives to identify and evaluate risks, interdependencies, and any inhibiting obstacles regarding product development, integrations, release management, deployment, and support.
• Maintain a knowledgebase and decision log on the delivery platform.
• Develop and continuously strengthen excellent and collaborative relationships with technology leaders and colleagues across ACS as well as external vendors and service providers.
• Collaborate with marketing and the visual design team to ensure user interface and user experience support the brand vision.
• Assist Technology Operations and Support in customer service issues requiring in-depth analysis and facilitation with technical resources.
• Develop and maintain a current knowledge of ACS Publications' IT infrastructures, enabling technologies, data and content, and technology best practices that support and facilitate product development, product delivery, release management, and product operations/support.
• Contribute to the development and enhancement of high-quality, customer-resonating, scalable, and extensible solutions by studying and analyzing strategic product roadmaps, timelines, business requirements, customer journeys, UI designs, data and content flows, and product integration and operationalization requirements.
• Function within a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and employ relevant industry standards to facilitate effective requirements tracking, software development, testing, deployment, and delivery.
• Prioritize and maintain compliance and accessibility regarding web-based functionality.

ACS currently provides the following benefits for this position: paid vacation leave, paid sick leave, paid holidays, health insurance, flexible spending account or health care savings account, dental insurance, life insurance, vision insurance, retirement benefits, short- and long-term disability, and 4-week work from anywhere; each benefit is subject to the terms of the applicable program. Additional benefits may apply based on skills, experience, and location.

Any actual offer of employment, reflecting the total compensation package and benefits, will be made in the sole discretion of ACS. ACS reserves the right to amend or modify its employment benefits and compensation structure at any time.

Required Skills

• SaaS vendor management to coordinate product releases and ensure optimal product performance
• Project management and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) skills to plan, execute, and monitor technical projects
• Analytical and problem-solving abilities to diagnose technical issues and find solutions
• Strong technical knowledge in software development, Cloud infrastructure, DevOps, and release management
• Communication skills to effectively convey solutions to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Business acumen to understand how technology impacts business operations and strategic goals

Team Player - Works well as a member of a group
Functional Expert - Considered a thought leader on a subject

Bachelors of Information Technology (required)

Experience with Atypon Literatum, Sliverchair, or similar online scholarly / professional publishing platforms (preferred)
Experience in scholarly publishing (preferred)
Experience in Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) (required)
8 years: Subject Matter Expert in a product analyst or product support role (required)