Senior Product Manager

Job Category

M&P - AAPS

Job Title

Senior Product Manager

Department

UBC IT | Digital Enablement

Posting End Date

December 15, 2023

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the Posting End Date above.

Job End Date

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career. 

Job Summary

The Senior Product Manager at the University of British Columbia (UBC) plays a pivotal and strategic role as the driving force behind the M365 initiative and related services. This role is focused on shaping the broader strategic direction and delivery of a cloud platform that is one of the institution’s core enterprise technologies. As the M365 product owner, the Senior Product Manager collaborates closely with academic and administrative units to deeply understand their unique needs, aligning M365 capabilities with the institution's overarching goals.
 

In this leadership role, the Senior Product Manager oversees project and sustainment teams to ensure alignment with UBC’s strategic vision. While Project Managers are responsible for executing specific projects, the Senior Product Manager sets the course, ensuring each initiative contributes to the forward-looking roadmap.
 

The Senior Product Manager also leads operational and ongoing sustainment efforts for the services in their purview, managing the support teams and strategically nurturing M365 adoption. Exceptional stakeholder relationship-building skills are vital to swiftly establish trust and gain profound insights into diverse community needs. This role excels in presentations and interpersonal interactions, adeptly engaging with executive leadership and technical units.

The Senior Product Manager is responsible for optimizing the university's investment in M365, strategically positioning the platform to enhance teaching, learning, research, and workplace productivity. This overarching vision and strategic approach define the core focus of the role.

Organizational Status

The Senior Product Manager reports to the Director of Digital Enablement and works closely with the rest of the UBC IT leadership team, campus stakeholders, vendors and external institutions. The incumbent supervises a team of professionals including managers, systems analysts, programmer analysts, technical analysts, application architects and quality assurance analysts.

Work Performed

Leadership and Vision: Spearhead the M365 initiative at UBC as its chief advocate and champion.Stakeholder Engagement: Collaborate with academic and administrative units to understand their needs and align M365 capabilities.University Investment Optimization: Strategically leverage the university's M365 investment for workplace productivity as well as teaching, learning, research purposes.M365 Roadmap Ownership: Lead the planning and implementation of the M365 roadmap at UBC.Compliance and Security: Ensure data protection, privacy and security compliance are prioritized and managed effectively.Governance and Policy Development: Manage governance policies and practices within M365, including data retention, access control, and information management policies, In collaboration with Enterprise Data Governance and Legal Counsel.Platform Adoption and Cost-Effective Management: Focus on strategic platform adoption and cost-effective management.End-User Training and Adoption: Drive end-user training and adoption initiatives to ensure effective utilization of M365 capabilities.Performance Metrics and Reporting: Track and report on key performance metrics related to M365 adoption, usage, and ROI, and how these metrics inform strategic decisions.Integration and Collaboration: Ensure optimal integration of M365 with enterprise systems and other collaboration tools.Presentation and Interpersonal Skills: Effectively communicate M365 benefits to engage with stakeholders.Project and Financial Oversight: Collaborate with Project Managers and manage financial responsibilities.Vendor Management: Oversee vendor relationships, aligning with the strategic vision of the M365 initiative.
 

Core Duties

Project and Team Leadership: Lead project teams and ongoing sustainment teams, with a focus on people management responsibilities.Program Delivery: Take ownership of delivering the M365 program, with an emphasis on program management responsibilities.Ongoing Sustainment: Manage the support team and strategically expand M365 adoption, addressing operational aspects.Stakeholder Relationship Building: Cultivate excellent stakeholder relationships to gain trust and understanding of unit needs.Operational Implementation: Ensure optimal utilization of the university's M365 investment for various purposes through operational execution.Core Financial Responsibility: Manage financial aspects related to project/operational budgets and vendor expenditures.Effective Team Collaboration: Collaborate effectively with Project Managers, SMEs, technical experts, and vendor teams to ensure tactical project and program success.Perform other related duties as required.
 

Consequence of Error/Judgement

In the Senior Product Manager role at UBC, errors or lapses in judgment can significantly hinder the delivery of communication and collaboration services. Misalignment with academic and administrative units or ineffective leadership of project and sustainment teams may impede the university's strategic goals. Inadequate stakeholder relationships could disrupt collaboration and priority setting, potentially limiting the platform's effectiveness. Failures in managing M365 adoption might affect its long-term utility.

Failure to meet service level obligations for performance and availability of services could adversely impact the University community, including the large majority of students, faculty and staff, and could cost millions of dollars in lost productivity, funding and revenue. It also risks damaging the reputation of UBC and UBC IT.

Supervision Received

In the Senior Product Manager role at the University of British Columbia (UBC), direct supervision is provided by the Director of Digital Enablement. Additionally, Program guidance and strategic direction are received from the M365 initiative sponsors and the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of UBCIT. The incumbent must be able to work independently and assume full responsibility for their decisions.

Furthermore, the Senior Product Manager collaborates closely with the Director of Enterprise Architecture and the Director of Program Delivery, working in partnership to ensure the successful development, implementation, and sustainment of the M365 initiative. These collaborative efforts help in shaping the strategic direction of the M365 program, ensuring its alignment with the broader goals and objectives of the university.

Supervision Given

The Senior Product Manager supervises staff directly and indirectly through subordinate leaders; oversees deliverables assigned to contractors other individuals on a project basis.

Indirect responsibility is exercised over project teams, which are assembled from a combination of PMO and operations team members to drive specific initiatives forward. This comprehensive supervisory approach ensures the successful execution and ongoing enhancement of the M365 initiative and related services.

Minimum Qualifications
Post-graduate degree. Minimum of ten years of related experience including at least four years of managerial experience plus three years of specialized experience in the design and implementation of major computer systems, or the equivalent combination of education and experience.

- Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own

- Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion

Preferred Qualifications

Education: An undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline is required. A postgraduate degree may be necessary for specialized positions.Certification: Having a Project Management Professional (PMP) designation is considered an asset.Technical Expertise: Proficiency in a M365 technical area is vital. This includes strong experience with Azure Environment, architectural design, workload migration from on-premises to the Cloud, and Cloud Migration Strategy.Procurement: Proficiency in preparing RFPs and managing RFIs/RFPs for the evaluation, selection, and procurement of products and services from vendors.Management Skills: Expertise in change management, budget development, financial management, and risk management.Technical Knowledge: A deep understanding and hands-on experience with various technologies, including M365 expertise in Exchange, OneDrive, Teams, Voice, Collaboration, Active Directory/Azure Active Directory, Intune MDM/MAM, Autopilot, SharePoint, Azure environment and architecture, security, governance, DR planning, and MS Azure Virtual Desktop.Supervisory Experience: Supervisory experience required.Higher-Education Experience: Experience in a higher-education environment, as well as knowledge of policy and regulatory compliance, is an asset.Leadership Mindset: A leadership mindset with a focus on mentoring and coaching team members.Independence: The ability to work independently and assume full responsibility for decisions.Project Management Skills: Demonstrated ability to conduct needs analyses, plan, organize, manage, monitor, complete, and evaluate projects within allocated time and resources. Effectively facilitate groups to achieve appropriate outcomes.Communication: The capability to develop and deliver effective presentations and workshops.Resource Management: The ability to identify, obtain, and effectively manage organizational resources (e.g., people, materials, assets, budgets).Multitasking: Proficiency in managing multiple tasks and priorities, working in a fast-paced environment, and meeting time-sensitive, critical deadlines.Development Knowledge: Intermediate knowledge of applications development methodologies, as well as development and implementation best practices, "rules of thumb," and benchmarks is an asset.Industry Awareness: An understanding of key trends and players in the IT industry.Leadership Skills: Effective leadership, consulting, consensus building, conflict resolution, negotiation, and team-building skills are assets.

Collaboration - Identifies and improves communication to bring conflict within the team into the open and facilitate resolution. Openly shares credit for team accomplishment. Monitors individual and team effectiveness and recommends improvement to facilitate collaboration. Considered a role model as a team player. Demonstrates high level of enthusiasm and commitment to team goals under difficult or adverse situations; encourages others to respond similarly. Strongly influences team strategy and processes.

Communication for Results - Converses with, writes strategic documents for, and creates/delivers presentations to internal business leaders as well as external groups. Leads discussions with senior leaders and external partners in ways that support strategic planning and decision-making. Seeks a consensus with business leaders. Debates opinions, tests understanding, and clarifies judgments. Identifies underlying differences and resolves conflict openly and empathetically. Explains the context of multiple, complex interrelated situations. Asks searching, probing questions, plays devil's advocate, and solicits authoritative perspectives and advice prior to approving plans and recommendations.

Problem Solving - Diagnoses problems using formal problem-solving tools and techniques from multiple angles and probes underlying issues to generate multiple potential solutions. Proactively anticipates and prevents problems. Devises, facilitates buy-in, makes recommendations, and guides implementation of corrective and/or preventive actions for complex issues that cross organizational boundaries and are unclear in nature. Identifies potential consequences and risk levels. Seeks support and buy-in for problem definition, methods of resolution, and accountability.

Accountability - Sets enhanced objectives for self and others. Monitors performance trends and identifies opportunities to improve standards. Provides regular feedback and suggests alternative approaches necessary to ensure that organizational objectives and superior standards are achieved. Delegates responsibility and reallocates resources as needed to ensure that priorities are met for initiatives within area of responsibility.

Analytical Thinking - Determines criteria for assessing issues and opportunities. Establishes clear goals and priorities needed to assess performance. Identifies relationships and linkages between different information sources. Anticipates issues that are not readily apparent on the surface. Identifies root causes and effects. Establishes clear goals and priorities. Anticipates potential problems and develops solutions needed to resolve them. Systemically analyzes relationships between apparently independent problems and issues. Reviews and cross-reviews reports. Identifies trends as well as isolated events. Translates analytical reports into management presentations, and provides guidance to resolve issues. Anticipates the possible outcome of potential solutions. Identifies areas of significant concern or opportunity. Probes and initiates research to identify critical problems.

Enterprise Knowledge - Directs and coordinates the development and implementation of process-based solutions that cross organizational lines. Creates business case for investment in process and technological enhancements. Sets clear explanations for the integration and alignment of technology and organization functions, focusing on the strategic value provided.

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