--- layout: job_family_page title: "Director of Product" --- As the Director of Product, you will be responsible for managing and building a team that focuses on a [specific](#specialties) GitLab collection of groups from our [product hierarchy](/handbook/product/categories/#hierarchy) ([sometimes encompassing entire stages or sections](/handbook/product/leadership/#product-organizational-structure)). ## Requirements Requirements for the role are outlined as part of the [Product Career Development Framework](/handbook/product/product-management/#product-management-career-development-framework). - [Validation Track](/handbook/product-development-flow/#validation-track) Skills - Ensures consistent execution of discovery track skills across a large team - [Build Track](/handbook/product-development-flow/#build-track) Skills - Ensures consistent execution of build track skills across a large team. - Responsible for health of working relationships with Engineering Directors. - Business Skills - Works cross [product hierarchy](/handbook/product/categories/#hierarchy) and cross-functionally to ensure an excellent end-to-end customer experience. - Excellent at understanding and managing business impact across a wide range of product domains. - Capable of making key pricing and packaging recommendations. - Communication Skills - Visible leader across teams. - Establishes compelling team purpose that is aligned to overall organizational vision. - Inspires broader team to achieve results. - Identifies disconnects to vision and takes appropriate action. - [People Management](/handbook/leadership/#director-group) Skills - Aligns team with larger [Section](/handbook/product/categories/#devops-stages) vision and goals. - Provides appropriate level of guidance and latitude to managers and individuals. - Experienced at hiring and at managing out underperformance. - Excellent at caring personally for team members and providing candid real-time feedback. - Technical Background - Clear understanding of developer products - Experience in DevOps tools products - Familiarity with Git, CD, Containers and Kubernetes - Ten to twelve years of experience - Four years of people management experience - You are living wherever you want and are excited about the [all remote](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/) lifestyle - Share our [values](/handbook/values), and work in accordance with them - Ability to use GitLab ## Individual responsibility - Make sure you have a great product team (recruit and hire, sense of progress, promote proactively, identify underperformance) - Work on the vision with the VP of Product Strategy, [Product Leadership](/handbook/product/leadership/), and CEO; and communicate this vision internally and externally - Distill the overall vision into a compelling roadmap - Make sure the vision advances in every release and communicate this - Communicate our vision though demo's, conference speaking, blogging, and interviews - Work closely with Product Marketing, Sales, Engineering, etc. ## Team responsibility - Ensure that the next milestone contains the most relevant items to customers, users, and us - Work with customers, users, and other teams to make feature proposals enticing, actionable, and small - Make sure the [DevOps tools](/devops-tools/) are up to date - Keep relevant [/direction](/direction) pages up to date as our high-level roadmap - Regularly join customer and partner visits that can lead to new features - Ensure that we translate user demands to features that make them happy but keep the product UI clean and the codebase maintainable - Make sure the release announcements are attractive and cover everything - Be present on social media (hacker news, twitter, stack overflow, mailing-list), especially around releases ## Primary Performance Indicators for the Role * [Stage Monthly Active Users](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/metrics/#adoption) * [Category Maturity Achievement](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/metrics/) ## Specialties ### Dev The Director of Product, Dev leads the Dev parts of the [DevOps lifecycle](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/categories/#dev-section) (e.g manage, plan, and create) and reports to the VP of Product. ### CI/CD The Director of Product, CI/CD leads the CI/CD parts of the [DevOps lifecycle](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/categories/#cicd-section) (e.g verify, package, and release) and reports to the VP of Product. ### Ops The Director of Product, Ops leads the Ops parts of the [DevOps lifecycle](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/categories/#ops-section) (e.g. Monitor and Configure) and reports to the VP of Product. ### Secure The Director of Product, Secure leads the Secure parts of the [DevOps lifecycle](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/categories/#secure-section) and reports to the VP of Product. ### Defend The Director of Product, Defend leads the Defend parts of the [DevOps lifecycle](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/categories/#defend-section) and reports to the VP of Product. ### Growth The Director of Product, Growth leads the Growth parts of the [DevOps lifecycle](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/categories/#growth-section) and reports to the VP of Product. ### Enablement The Director of Product, Enablement leads the Enablement parts of the [DevOps lifecycle](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/product/categories/#enablement-section) and reports to the VP of Product. ## Senior Director of Product - Effective at hiring, coaching, and leading a team of 10+ that typically spans numerous stages, and is composed of Directors, Group Managers, and IC's - Demonstrated ability to lead and coach product validation in brand new market areas - Skilled at curating excellent cross-stage customer experiences - Experience and skill managing products at all stages of the lifecycle (incubation, growth, maturity, decline), and balancing priorities and investment accordingly - Visible strategic leader across the company - Skilled at big stage communications - Capable of coaching team members on excellent communication skills