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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Word Program Director

💰 $ - $

Program ManagementDirectorOperationsProduct

🎯 Role Definition

The Word Program Director leads strategic planning, execution, and optimization of complex programs focused on the Word product line or “word”-centric initiatives. This role is responsible for defining program vision and roadmap, aligning cross-functional teams (product, engineering, UX, marketing, legal, sales), managing P&L and budget, and ensuring timely delivery of high-impact features and operational improvements. The Word Program Director combines deep program management expertise with product sensibility, stakeholder influence, and data-driven decision making to deliver measurable business outcomes and exceptional user experiences.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Program Manager, Product Program Manager, or Technical Program Manager
  • Senior Product Manager or Portfolio Manager with cross-functional delivery experience
  • Operations Director or Head of Cross-Functional Programs

Advancement To:

  • Senior Director of Program Management
  • VP of Product or VP of Program Management
  • Head of Product Operations or General Manager for product line

Lateral Moves:

  • Product Director
  • Director of Operations or Customer Experience
  • Director of Strategic Initiatives

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead end-to-end program management for the Word product portfolio: define program objectives, success metrics (OKRs/KPIs), timelines, resource plans, risks, and mitigation strategies to ensure on-time, on-budget delivery of major releases and continuous improvements.
  • Develop and maintain a clear multi-quarter roadmap for Word initiatives, collaborating with product leadership, engineering, UX, marketing, and support to prioritize features based on customer impact, revenue potential, and technical feasibility.
  • Own program P&L and budget planning: forecast costs, track spend, identify savings, and partner with finance to ensure program profitability and efficient resource allocation.
  • Serve as the primary cross-functional program lead for large-scale launches, coordinating release plans, go-to-market, documentation, localization, compliance, and post-launch measurement to maximize adoption and minimize customer friction.
  • Build and manage high-performing program teams and external vendor relationships, including hiring, mentoring, performance management, and vendor contract negotiation to scale program execution.
  • Drive rigorous program governance: stand-ups, weekly executive briefings, milestone gates, RACI matrices, and program dashboards to keep stakeholders informed and accountable.
  • Translate customer and market needs into executable program requirements; lead discovery and validation workstreams with product and research teams to reduce risk and inform prioritization.
  • Mitigate complex technical and organizational risks by identifying dependencies across teams, facilitating cross-team architectural decisions, and negotiating scope or schedule adjustments when necessary.
  • Partner with UX and accessibility teams to ensure Word features meet usability and accessibility standards, improving experience for diverse global audiences and reducing support burden.
  • Champion data-informed decisions by defining success metrics, setting up tracking instruments, analyzing telemetry and engagement data, and turning insights into prioritized product and operational improvements.
  • Manage regulatory, legal, and security requirements for Word initiatives by coordinating with compliance, legal, and security teams to maintain privacy, licensing, and industry-specific standards.
  • Lead stakeholder engagement across executives, product, engineering, sales, marketing, and customer success to secure alignment, clarify expectations, and drive consensus on trade-offs and program scope.
  • Establish scalable processes and playbooks for program intake, prioritization, release management, and post-launch retrospectives to increase velocity and repeatability across Word programs.
  • Ensure successful localization and internationalization of Word features by coordinating translation, cultural adaptation, and regional rollout plans with global teams.
  • Negotiate and manage third-party partnerships, integrations, and API initiatives that extend Word capabilities, ensuring contractual SLAs, roadmap alignment, and technical interoperability.
  • Drive continuous improvement in operational metrics (cycle time, defect rates, sprint predictability), using lean/agile practices and data to optimize delivery across distributed teams.
  • Lead change management and internal communications during major program transitions: prepare executive summaries, training plans, launch FAQs, and customer-facing communications to reduce adoption friction.
  • Oversee post-launch monitoring and incident response for Word releases: coordinate cross-functional bug triage, mitigation plans, and communication with customers and internal stakeholders.
  • Align product and engineering roadmaps with commercial strategy by partnering with GTM, sales, and customer success to prioritize revenue-driving and retention-focused features.
  • Evaluate and implement tooling improvements for program tracking (e.g., JIRA, Asana, Aha!, Confluence, analytics platforms) to improve transparency and reduce manual reporting.
  • Drive strategic initiatives such as platform modernization, performance optimization, and developer productivity improvements that have multi-release impact across the Word ecosystem.
  • Facilitate executive decision-making by providing clear trade-off analyses, milestone-driven forecasts, and scenario planning for resource, time, and scope constraints.
  • Mentor and develop program managers and cross-functional leads, building a culture of accountability, customer focus, data-driven delivery, and continuous learning.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Advanced program management and portfolio management experience for large, complex product lines (e.g., Word or productivity suites).
  • Strong experience with agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) and scaling practices (SAFe, LeSS) to manage cross-team delivery.
  • Roadmap planning and prioritization frameworks: OKRs, RICE, MoSCoW, value vs. effort trade-off analysis.
  • Financial acumen: budget ownership, forecasting, cost-benefit analysis, and P&L management.
  • Proficiency with program tooling: JIRA, Confluence, Aha!, Microsoft Office (including advanced Word), Excel/Sheets (pivot tables, modeling), and program dashboards.
  • Experience with analytics and measurement platforms (Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Looker, Power BI) and the ability to define and interpret product metrics.
  • Risk management and dependency mapping across distributed engineering and product teams.
  • Familiarity with software development lifecycle, CI/CD processes, release engineering, and basic technical concepts to facilitate technical conversations.
  • Vendor and contract management: RFP process, vendor selection, SLA definition, and negotiation.
  • Knowledge of localization/internationalization workflows and global product rollout practices.
  • Experience coordinating legal, security, and compliance requirements (GDPR, CCPA, accessibility standards WCAG).
  • Strong capability to create executive-level program briefs, roadmaps, and stakeholder alignment documents.

Soft Skills

  • Strategic thinking with a strong bias for action and delivery orientation.
  • Exceptional written and verbal communication skills tailored to executives and technical teams.
  • Strong stakeholder management and influence without authority across cross-functional partners.
  • Leadership and people management: coaching, mentoring, and enabling high-performing teams.
  • Excellent problem-solving and analytical thinking, able to break down ambiguous problems into executable plans.
  • Customer-centric mindset with empathy for end-users and data-informed prioritization.
  • Change management and resilience in fast-paced, ambiguous environments.
  • Conflict resolution and negotiation skills to balance trade-offs across competing priorities.
  • High attention to detail with an aptitude for simplifying complexity.
  • Strong organizational and time management skills, able to manage multiple programs and priorities concurrently.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, Product Design, Communications, or related field.

Preferred Education:

  • MBA, MS in Computer Science, or advanced degree in a related discipline preferred.
  • Certifications such as PMP, PgMP, Scrum Master/PO, or SAFe Practitioner are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration
  • Computer Science / Software Engineering
  • Product Management / Design
  • Information Systems
  • Communications / Technical Writing

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 8–15 years of progressive program/product management experience, with 3–7 years leading complex cross-functional programs or managing multiple product launches.

Preferred:

  • Prior experience leading programs for consumer or enterprise productivity products (e.g., Word processors, document collaboration, content platforms).
  • Demonstrated track record of launching multi-release product roadmaps, managing P&L, and delivering measurable business outcomes (growth, retention, revenue).
  • Experience working with distributed global teams and managing large-scale international rollouts.
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