Director of Product

Code for America believes government can work for the people, by the people, in the new digital age, and that government at all levels can and should work well for all people. For more than a decade, we've worked to show that with the mindful use of technology, we can break down barriers, meet community needs, and find real solutions.

Our employees build and transform government and community tools and services, making them so good they inspire change. We merge the best parts of technology, nonprofit, and government to help support the people who need it most.

With a focus on transparency and fairness, and deep empathy for partners in government and community organizations and the people that our partners serve, we're building a movement of motivated change agents driven by meaningful results and lasting impact.

At Code for America, you contribute to exciting work while learning and developing in a supportive and flexible environment. Our compensation and benefits are holistic and thoughtfully curated to represent our employees and our mission. Help us drive real generational change that lasts.

Code for America is looking for a talented Director of Product who will lead teams that expand Code for America's ability to improve outcomes for the people we serve. The solutions we build may be tools for people accessing government benefits, tools for caseworkers providing services, or tools for community-based organizations and government partners helping people get the support they need.

The pace of change in the policy and government landscape is accelerating, as technology possibilities are also shifting rapidly. Policy shifts, legislative changes, crises, and new technology can create brief windows of opportunity when the right tool can determine whether someone keeps healthcare, accesses benefits, or gets the support they need. Our Directors help ensure Code for America is ready for those moments, whether that means building something new, scaling what works, or advising partners on the best path forward.

About the role: 

The Director of Product Management leads a team of product managers to identify opportunities, build products and technology solutions, support our partners, and deliver meaningful impact for the people we serve.

Product Management at Code for America spans multiple delivery areas, including Criminal Justice, Tax Benefits, and the Social Safety Net, and extends into new areas when the moment calls for it. As a Director, your work will touch across these areas depending on organizational priorities and emerging opportunities.

You will set product direction for your group, guide and inform your team's product decisions so they are aligned with organizational strategy, and ensure your team has the clarity, support, and standards to deliver excellent work. You will work alongside the other Product Directors, collaborating on shared priorities while leading your group's distinct focus area.

Each Director works on one or more specializations, with the total of their time on specialized responsibilities being about 25%. This specific Director of Product position will have a specialization in New Products (0-1 products), which entails: proactively identifying new product opportunities, leading teams through high-ambiguity discovery and validation, building new products from concept to launch, finding product-market fit, and developing business plans that validate whether these products can be sustainable over the long term.

This role will report to the VP of Product and is expected to travel no more than 15% of the time. 

Code for America is based in California and can employ those who reside full-time within the United States. This is a remote position.

In this position you will:

• Product Vision and Strategy

• Develop and proactively communicate a clear, actionable vision for your group's focus area, ensuring alignment with Code or America's organizational strategy and mission

• Translate organizational priorities and emerging opportunities into product strategy for your group, making clear choices about where to invest and where to say no

• Partner with the VP of Product and cross-functional leaders to ensure your group's strategy connects to the broader organizational strategy

• Proactively identify, scope, and validate emerging opportunities across areas, in collaboration with other Product Directors, disciplines and teams (e.g. Philanthropy and Strategic Partnerships)

• Consistently communicate product roadmaps, priorities, future potential opportunities, impact, and results across the organization, including to Philanthropy and Strategic Partnerships, ensuring those teams have enough time to plan their work around those insights 

• Collaborate with Strategic Partnerships on thoughtful pricing and revenue negotiations and approaches, aligned to organizational sustainability, market dynamics, and Code for America's value creation 

• Leverage AI and emerging technologies to strengthen product discovery, prioritization, decision-making and delivery within your group

• Define what success looks like for your group's work, setting goals and metrics appropriate to the type of work your group does

• Build and Lead High-Performing Teams 

• Lead and develop a team of product managers, including managing people managers, providing guidance, mentorship, and feedback to support their growth

• Empower product managers to take accountability and ownership of their work, including understanding and shaping product strategy, roadmaps, discovery, and key deliverables, while maintaining alignment with group and organizational goals

• Set clear expectations for product quality and delivery, and hold your team accountable for results

• Foster a culture of curiosity, collaboration, and continuous improvement within your team and identify opportunities for sharing knowledge and learnings across teams

• Build your team's capabilities for the AI era, ensuring product managers are equipped to integrate AI tools and insights into their work, and supporting new ways of working

• Directly address conflict or misalignment within and across teams and support teams and stakeholders in moving from misalignment to shared understanding

• Lead teams through change with intention - communicate the why behind shifts in direction, address concerns before they become blockers, and maintain momentum without sacrificing buy-in

• Stakeholder Collaboration and Partnership

• Partner with engineering, experience, and program leadership to ensure product priorities are informed by user needs, policy opportunities, and technical feasibility

• Partner with other teams, such as Strategic Partnerships and Philanthropy, to ensure that what Code for America commits to is impactful, achievable, well-scoped, and sets teams up for success

• Collaborate with the other Product Directors to align on shared priorities, coordinate handoffs, and ensure coherence across the product organization

• Communicate product goals, priorities, and progress to stakeholders across the organization, translating complexity for different audiences

• Build strong relationships with external partners, ensuring product work is aligned with partner needs and Code for America's impact goals

• Specialty Expertise: New Products (0-1)

• Lead new product initiatives directly when needed - especially in early, ambiguous stages - and support PMs who are responsible for initiatives as they progress through scoping, validation, launch, finding product-market fit, and initial scaling

• Define product vision for initiatives that don't yet exist, evaluating and shaping new product bets across and beyond Code for Americas's core delivery areas

• Design and run time-boxed pilots with clear hypotheses, milestones, and decision points, and develop business plans that test whether new products can be sustained - validating both whether a product idea will meaningfully solve problems, and whether it can be sustained

• Make stop/pivot decisions on early-stage work, using evidence, strategic fit, and resource considerations to determine whether to continue, redirect, or stop investment

• Stand up and coach new product teams, defining roles and ways of working for highly ambiguous environments where the roadmap, users, and success metrics are all being defined simultaneously

• Partner with other Product Directors to inform shared platform capabilities with learnings from new product work, and to transition products from early-stage to market delivery or growth/scaling

• Lead and participate in external conversations regarding areas of new exploration, including contributing to thoughtful agendas, representing and pitching Code for America's capabilities, dynamically interacting with partners in real-time, and contributing to relationship strategy

• Other duties as assigned

About you:

• 10+ years of product management experience or equivalent experience, with at least 3 years in a leadership role managing direct reports
• Curiosity, humility, and a learning mindset that embraces iteration and feedback
• Familiarity with AI and emerging technologies, including practical understanding of how to apply them responsibly in product development
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to articulate product strategy, trade-offs, and decisions to both technical and non-technical audiences and across different levels, including executive leadership
• Strong leadership skills with a focus on mentorship, team development, and fostering a collaborative team culture
• Skilled at building trust with new partners and stakeholders in contexts where there are complex-stakeholder dynamics and/or where relationships are still forming
• Experience working with agile methodologies and product delivery in dynamic, complex, high-priority environments, along with strong analytical skills and experience using data to inform product decisions and evaluate product performance
• Ability to manage competing priorities, balancing short-term goals with long-term strategic impact, and to communicate clearly with teams to facilitate their understanding of priorities
• Comfort with ambiguity, a preference for learning by doing over waiting for the perfect plan, and the ability to make progress when the path forward isn't clear
• A proven track record of driving product strategy and execution within cross-functional teams, delivering results that meet user needs and organizational objectives
• A deep commitment to Code for America's mission of making government services work well for the people who need them most

This specific Director of Product should have specialized expertise in: 

• Demonstrated experience building new products from concept to launch, including leading discovery, validation, and go-to-market in ambiguous environments
• Experience running structured experiments or time-boxed pilots to validate product ideas before committing to full investment
• Experience partnering with business development or partnerships teams to shape and scope new product initiatives

It's a bonus if you have:

• Experience incorporating AI into products, including understanding of ethical considerations, limitations, and risk management
• Personal experience with or professional experience working within the social safety net or other government services
• Product advisory or consulting work with government, civic tech, or highly regulated industries
• Familiarity with the civic tech and digital services ecosystem, including an understanding of the movement, culture, and dynamics
• Experience in business-to-business (B2B) product management, and/or business-to-government (B2G) product management

What you'll get -

Salary: 

Code for America's salary bands are transparent as a part of our commitment to transparency and fairness. As part of our hiring practices, we aim to target the midpoint of the 2nd quartile of the range for all new hires.

Offer targets vary based on market / geographic location. The offer targets for this role range from $143,884 to $176,138, annually.

Benefits and perks: 

• Values:

• Leadership and teammates who share a strong work ethic and values, and who respect and care for one another

• A collaborative, cross-functional, hardworking, and joyful environment

• Employee Enablement Support: 

• Laptop provided

• A one-time $700 payment for remote environment setup; $200 stipend (in first paycheck) and up to $500 reimbursement, in accordance with our equipment policy

• Cell phone and/or internet reimbursement of $50 per month 

• Professional Development:

• $500 annual (per calendar year) stipend towards professional development; prorated at time of hire

• Up to $500 of professional development funds can be rolled over each year, up to a maximum of $1000

• Training / guidance for staff required to utilize AI as part of their role, plus opportunities for employees to gain AI-related skills to support job and career growth

• Retirement & 401k Plans:

• Employees receive a 100% employer match on the first 3% of contributions.

• Employees with 3+ years of service receive an additional 50% match on contributions between 3% and 5%, for a maximum employer contribution of 5%

• Medical:

• At least one no cost health insurance option for full-time employees for employee-only coverage

• A minimum of 80% of the cost of dependent coverage

• Remote Work:

• Code for America employees may work remotely across the US

• Code for America employees main residence must be within the US

• Full-time employees work 40 hours per week, Monday - Friday

• Collaborative working hours: we aim to hold all internal meetings between 10 AM - 3 PM PT. We expect all Code for America staff to be available during these set working hours

• Time Off: 

• Open personal time off (subject to manager approval), a minimum of 14 paid holidays, and an org-wide closure from Christmas Day through New Year's Day

• Paid sick time; up to 96 hours annually

• 17 weeks of paid parental and family leave

• 3 weeks of paid sabbatical after 5 years of service

Equal Employment Opportunity: 

Code for America is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will not be discriminated against because of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, citizenship status, disability, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, medical condition or any protected category prohibited by local, state or federal laws.

Code for America Workers United:

This position is not covered by a Collective Bargaining Agreement between Code for America and Code for America Workers United, affiliated with OPEIU, Local 1010. The agreement was ratified on January 13, 2026, and is currently in effect.

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