Product Manager

About the Team 

STR’s Analytics Division develops novel solutions to the most challenging national security problems through advanced analytics. Our teams consist of motivated individuals with degrees in engineering, computer science, mathematics, physics, and data science. We have experienced managers who have led large, complex teams in delivering solutions to some of the Defense Department’s greatest challenges and have extensive knowledge of the various combat domains. We use our expertise and creativity to take innovative ideas from conception to everyday use by our customers.? 

The Mission Applications (MA) Group in the Analytics Division develops and deploys software-intensive mission capabilities to defense and intelligence customers, leveraging technologies from STR research and development (R&D) groups, while matrixing in significant numbers of engineering staff from those groups. Staff within the MA group have a deep understanding of missions and technology needs for national security with skills targeting transition of technology to operational use, including program management, product management, integration engineering, DevSecOps, and business development.?

The Role: 

As a Product Manager in the Analytics MA Group, we are looking for a leader who is passionate about collaborating with high-performance teams to solve unique national security challenges with novel technologies. The Product Manager is accountable for the ultimate success of the product and is responsible for ensuring that what is developed and delivered to customers is operationally valuable. In the Mission Applications group, the product manager is also the product owner, the member of the Agile team responsible for the product backlog. The key capabilities of the Product Manager are: 1) expertise on the customer’s challenges, desires, workflows, and acquisition processes, 2) expertise on the product and the leveraged technologies, 3) understanding of STR’s business and the role the product plays, and 4) deep knowledge of the market and industry, including trends, customer expectations and competition. The Product Management role requires creativity and strong intellectual curiosity in applying new technologies to solve customer problems. Because the technologies we bring to market often represent the state of the art and may involve process changes, additional key skills for the Product Manager include persistence and strong communication to drive cross-functional collaboration. Finally, as the Product Manager is a key role within the MA group, they will play an important part in a variety of additional functions including business strategy, business development, and growing the team. 

What You Will Do: 

• Engage directly with end users, build strong customer relationships, and constantly seek to apply new technology to solve real customer problems
• Empower the designers, engineers, and scientists to act with a meaningful degree of autonomy by developing and clearly communicating a unifying product vision and strategy
• Understand all stakeholders, the constraints in which those stakeholders operate, and create customer solutions that work within the constraints of the business
• Foster team collaboration to embrace the give and take between software functionality, user experience, and enabling technology
• Continuously improve the product discovery process to establish compelling value and identify key risks
• Hold high-integrity commitments to deliver viable solutions that work for the customer and business
• Work in a fast-paced environment to enable successful contract execution

This role will take advantage of STR’s flexible, hybrid environment – when the work does not require use of STR’s facilities, you are welcome to work remotely.? Travel is required, as needed, up to 25% of the time.

Who You Are: 

• US Defense or Intelligence Community expert with operational knowledge
• Experience in guiding technical projects to translate mission needs into production software while identifying and tracking product risk
• Aptitude for collaborating with stakeholders across a wide range of technical comfort levels
• Proven ability to motivate cross functional teams to perform at their best
• Comfortable working with data and complex analysis
• Demonstrated success decomposing a problem into addressable component parts
• Entrepreneurial spirit and eager to engage in technical marketing and business development
• This position requires a Secret or Top Secret clearance, for which U.S. citizenship is needed by U.S. Government.

Even Better: 

• Master’s degree in a technical field or MBA
• Prior military experience with emphasis on large force dynamic planning and execution
• 2+ years experience in product management / product ownership for an operational production software implementation
• Deep enough understanding of full-stack software technologies to consider capabilities and limitations
• Interest in working with visual design tools to communicate ideas
• Knowledge of software development best practices and tools
• Active TS/SCI security clearance
• Experience writing technical proposals, or leading proposal efforts
• Working knowledge of DoD or IC mission and acquisition processes