Manager, Product Operations

About Hearst Newspapers

Hearst Newspapers (HNP) is the operating group responsible for Hearst’s newspapers, local digital marketing services businesses, and directories. With more than 2,500 colleagues nationwide, HNP publishes 30 daily and 50 weekly newspapers reaching more than 45 million readers each month.

As local journalism and technology continue to evolve, Hearst Newspapers is investing in innovative ways to tell stories, grow audiences, and strengthen communities. From AI-powered newsroom tools to smarter operational systems, our teams are using technology to improve experiences for both readers and employees.

Our mission is to be the most trusted and accurate source of news and information in the communities we serve. We are committed to truthfulness, fairness, independence, and the belief that access to reliable information is essential to a healthy society.

About the Product Development Team

The Hearst Newspapers Product Development team partners closely with newsrooms and business stakeholders to build digital products and experiences that serve the evolving needs of local communities and future generations of readers.

We operate at the intersection of journalism, technology, audience behavior, and business innovation — delivering trusted local reporting in ways that are more accessible, engaging, and relevant to how audiences consume information today.

The Mission of Product Operations

Product Operations helps turn strategy into execution. The team improves how cross-functional teams plan, collaborate, execute, and adapt by building scalable systems, reducing operational friction, and thoughtfully integrating AI, automation, and emerging technologies into day-to-day workflows.

This is a highly adaptive, hands-on function. The strongest people on our team are builders and problem-solvers who are comfortable navigating ambiguity and leaving teams, systems, and processes better than they found them.

About the Role

As Manager, Product Operations, you’ll help drive alignment, improve execution, and build the operational foundations that enable teams to deliver meaningful outcomes.

This role spans program leadership, workflow design, planning operations, tooling, team enablement, and organizational effectiveness. You’ll partner closely with stakeholders across product, engineering, design, editorial, advertising, finance, and marketing to help complex initiatives move forward with clarity and momentum.

You’ll also identify opportunities to leverage AI, automation, and emerging technologies to improve collaboration, execution, and operational efficiency.

This is an ideal opportunity for someone who enjoys solving operational challenges, leading cross-functional initiatives, and building scalable systems that help teams work smarter.

Key Responsibilities

Cross-Functional Program Leadership

• Drive execution of high-priority, cross-functional initiatives aligned to organizational goals and measurable business outcomes.
• Coordinate across teams to reduce dependencies, improve alignment, and increase execution clarity.
• Support leadership in operationalizing strategic priorities across the product organization.
• Facilitate planning sessions, retrospectives, workshops, and operational reviews that drive alignment and accountability.

Operational Systems & Planning

• Own and evolve planning cadences, including quarterly roadmapping, intake processes, prioritization frameworks, and operational governance.
• Build scalable workflows, operational systems, and documentation practices that improve consistency and visibility across teams.
• Improve visibility into team capacity, delivery health, risks, and outcomes through dashboards, reporting, and operational metrics.
• Help teams measure outcomes — not just output — across initiatives and workflows.

AI & Workflow Innovation

• Identify opportunities where AI, automation, integrations, and existing tools can improve team effectiveness, reduce operational overhead, and accelerate execution.
• Continuously optimize how teams use existing platforms and workflows to maximize the value of the organization’s tool stack.
• Experiment with tools and operational patterns that improve planning, communication, reporting, documentation, and knowledge sharing.
• Develop scalable automations, templates, systems, and playbooks that help teams responsibly integrate AI into day-to-day product development.
• Serve as an advocate for evolving ways of working, helping teams adapt thoughtfully as technology and organizational needs change.

Team Enablement & Collaboration

• Serve as a strategic owner and administrator for collaboration and productivity platforms, including Jira, Confluence, Airtable, Miro, and AI tooling ecosystems.
• Build workflows, templates, and automations that improve operational efficiency and collaboration.
• Support onboarding, documentation quality, transparency, and knowledge sharing across teams.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-trust team environment grounded in continuous improvement.
   

About You

AI-Native and Curious: You actively experiment with AI tools and workflows in your own work and are excited about helping organizations adapt to AI-enabled ways of operating. You think beyond simply using AI tools and toward redesigning systems and workflows around new capabilities.

Systems Thinker: You naturally connect people, processes, tools, and information into scalable operational systems. You identify patterns, bottlenecks, and opportunities others may miss.

Builder Mentality: You are proactive, resourceful, and comfortable creating structure from ambiguity. You enjoy building and iterating quickly.

Outcome-Oriented: You focus on measurable impact and understand how operational improvements influence team effectiveness, product outcomes, and business results.

Strong Facilitator & Communicator: You can align stakeholders across disciplines, facilitate productive discussions, and communicate clearly with both leadership and execution teams.

Operationally Excellent: You are highly organized, detail-oriented, and capable of managing multiple complex initiatives simultaneously.

Trusted Partner: You build strong relationships, follow through on commitments, communicate challenges openly, and consistently improve the systems and teams around you.

Change Management: You are skilled at driving adoption of new systems, processes, and ways of working across cross-functional teams.

Skills & Experience

Core Competencies

• Experience in Product Operations, Program Management, or Product Management within a technology or digital product environment.
• Strong understanding of Agile product development practices and organizational operations.
• Experience designing scalable workflows, operational systems, and process improvements.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and influence without direct authority.
• Strong analytical skills and experience using operational metrics and reporting to guide decisions.
• Experience leading organizational change management and adoption initiatives.
• Experience designing and implementing AI-assisted workflows, automation solutions, and operational systems that improve team effectiveness and reduce manual overhead.
• Ability to build systems that balance flexibility, usability, scalability, and long-term maintainability.
   

Workflow, Collaboration & Operational Systems

• Airtable — advanced experience required, including relational data structures, automations, interfaces, and workflow design.
• Jira
• Confluence
• Miro
• Figma
• Google Workspace & Microsoft 365
• Analytics & Reporting
• Looker
• Power BI
• Google Analytics
• Spreadsheet modeling, operational reporting, and data analysis

AI, Automation & Emerging Tools: 

Experience using AI and automation tools to improve workflows and operational efficiency, including:

• ChatGPT
• Claude
• Gemini
• Cursor
• Zapier
• Make
• Power Automate
• Lovable

Why This Role Matters

Hearst Newspapers is evolving how local journalism and digital product development work together in a rapidly changing media and technology landscape. Product Operations plays a critical role in helping the organization adapt — improving how teams collaborate, execute, and scale across a complex cross-functional environment while enabling the future of local news and digital experiences.

Salary Range

In accordance with applicable law, Hearst is required to include a reasonable estimate of the compensation for this role if hired in New York, NY. The reasonable estimate is $100,000–$130,000. A final decision on the successful candidate’s starting salary will be based on a number of permissible, non-discriminatory factors, including but not limited to skills and experience, training, certifications, and education.

This position does not provide sponsorship. All applicants should have the right to work in the U.S. without immigration sponsorship.

Our Benefits

At Hearst Newspapers we not only support our employees through personal and professional development, but we also believe in promoting each individual’s physical, financial and emotional wellbeing (and that of their family).  Our industry-leading benefits include:

• Physical Wellbeing: Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage to keep you and your family healthy.
• Invest for the Future: Competitive retirement plan with matching program in most markets.
• Generous Paid Time Off: Recharge with ample time off, including holidays and vacation.
• Paid Parental Leave: Support for growing families, with paid leave for new parents.
• Monthly Child & Dependent Care Reimbursement: Financial support for the care of your loved ones.
• Emotional Wellbeing: Be your best self with our mental wellness benefits.
• LGBTQ+ & Inclusive Health Services: Inclusive healthcare designed for every individual’s unique needs.
• Fertility Coverage & Menopause Support: Helping you along every step of your family journey.
• Pet Wellness Reimbursement & Rover Credits: We care about your pets, too – helping you keep them happy and healthy.
• And more, click here for additional benefits and details.

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