Senior Director of Development
Oak Brook, IL
This position exists to oversee a global product development team in delivering products aligned with global market needs and competitive landscape in support of the LexisNexis Group total solutions strategy. This position provides strategic leadership, direction, thought leadership and vision to the development team which includes project managers, product designers, software engineers, quality assurance engineers and release management engineers. This position is also expected to maintain effective stakeholder relationship at the most senior levels of the organization.
Responsibilities
- Think and act strategically by understanding and communicating the LexisNexis and global business strategy within the development team framework.
- Make long and short-term decisions in relationship to product development strategies as they relate to the overall LexisNexis and global business strategy.
- Provide direction and input into business and product roadmap, release scope as well as product feature and technical framework requirements.
- Interface with senior LexisNexis executives to communicate product development imperatives relating to cost, delivery, scope and stakeholder satisfaction.
- Coordinate efforts among directors and managers of development and other departments such as product management, professional services, customer support, documentation and training.
- Define software development and release milestones. Coordinate the efforts of all project teams across all software development disciplines to successfully reach software release milestones.
- Facilitate and lead discussions with project teams, project managers, the entire development team, and/or other departments. Maintain detailed software release plans and communicate status to key stakeholders on a timely basis. Monitor status and address issues as appropriate.
- Ensure all internal documentation needs are met. Direct and support efforts related to internal documentation standards and methodologies.
- Coordinate the functional design of software components with product design and product management teams based on experience and product knowledge across projects for a release.
- Coordinate the technical design of software components with project managers and technical leads with emphasis on code reuse, reliability, quality, maintainability, performance and scalability. Direct the research, adoption, and implementation of new technologies within the department.
- Support and extend the various feedback mechanisms and forums. Ensure consistent and reliable processes across project teams. Support on-going improvements to internal operations, tools, processes and best practices to enable the entire department to maintain a preeminent level of operation.
- Develop and manage the budget to support the operations of the product development team.
- Prioritize and manage resource needs and allocation. Establish and monitor objectives for all employees by providing regular feedback, coaching, training and development.
- Responsible for the selection, performance management, salary administration and professional development of direct reports.
- Resolve all personnel issues and create an environment that fosters both personal and organizational growth as well as team work, knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.
Qualifications
- BS/BA in Computer Information Systems, Management Information Systems, Computer Science or equivalent experience. MA/MS/MBA preferred.
- 8+ years of proven successful people leadership and product development/project management leadership experience.
- 10+ years broad knowledge and experience in Product Development Life Cycles and Methodologies, Project Management Techniques, Database Design, and Quality Assurance Techniques and Systems.
- Experience working in a commercial software product environment or leading the development of enterprise-class software products preferred.
- Extensive knowledge and working experience with Agile software development methodologies with an emphasis on adapting the processes, techniques, tools and priorities to meet and exceed the expectations of all stakeholders.
- Experience developing and efficiently managing the financial plans and budgets to support the successful operations of a software development organization.
- Excellent organizational and project/time management skills with the demonstrated ability to set priorities and handle multiple initiatives simultaneously. Proven ability to manage, meet and exceed stakeholder expectations with accurate, timely and honest status communication and reporting.
- Ability to travel both domestically and internationally.
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