Director-Product Delivery-ORCA

Salary range is $154k to $268k, with a midpoint of $211k. New hires typically receive between minimum and midpoint, however, we may go slightly higher based on experience, internal equity and market.

Sound Transit also offers a competitive benefits package with a wide range of offerings, including:

• Health Benefits: We offer two choices of medical plans, a dental plan, and a vision plan all at no cost for employee coverage; comprehensive benefits for employees and eligible dependents, including a spouse or domestic partner.
• Long-Term Disability and Life Insurance.
• Employee Assistance Program.
• Retirement Plans: 401a - 10% of employee contribution with a 12% match by Sound Transit; 457b - up to IRS maximum (employee only contribution).
• Paid Time Off: Employees accrue 25 days of paid time off annually with increases at four, eight and twelve years of service. Employees at the director level and up accrue additional days. We also observe 12 paid holidays and provide up to 2 paid floating holidays and up to 2 paid volunteer days per year.
• Parental Leave: 12 weeks of parental leave for new parents.
• Pet Insurance.
• ORCA Card: All full-time employees will receive an ORCA card at no cost.
• Tuition Reimbursement: Sound Transit will pay up to $5,000 annually for approved tuition expenses.
• Inclusive Reproductive Health Support Services.
• Compensation Practices: We offer competitive salaries based on market rates and internal equity. In addition to compensation and benefits, you'll find that we provide work-life balance, opportunities for professional development and recognition from your colleagues.

GENERAL PURPOSE:

Leads the regional, multi-agency effort to design, build, implement, and improve the ORCA regional fare payment system across multiple phases; provides oversight of staff, vendors, and consultants to enhance the integrated, end-to-end system; ensures effective communications and coordination with associated stakeholders and participating agencies. This is a regional position, working across seven ORCA partner transportation agencies, which includes Sound Transit.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

The following duties are a representative summary of the primary duties and responsibilities. Incumbent(s) may not be required to perform all duties listed and may be required to perform additional, position-specific duties.

• Owns the end-to-end strategy, roadmap, prioritization, and delivery of ORCA - the regional, cross-agency fare payment system.
• Provides strategic planning and leadership to enable product evolution and organizational change.
• Partners with internal, external, and cross-agency stakeholders to understand customer experiences, identify pain points, and improve system architecture.
• Creates and maintains the product roadmap, ensuring strong product-market fit and alignment with regional priorities.
• Develops detailed product specifications, value propositions, launch plans, business cases, and success metrics.
• Oversees risk management and issue resolution through structured project governance.
• Manages a portfolio of interrelated projects, including change control across multiple initiatives.
• Tracks and reports on project scope, schedule, budget, and performance.
• Leads and develops staff, consultants, and vendors; provides coaching, performance management, and corrective action as needed; advises Steering Committee and Joint Board.
• Oversees systems design and business processes, including delivery of hardware, software, applications, systems integration, and change management for an end-to-end fare payment system.
• Prioritizes product features pragmatically based on business value, customer impact, engineering effort, and time-to-market considerations.
• Maintains and grooms the product backlog in collaboration with business and technology partners, driving a thoughtful release cadence.
• Serves as a product evangelist and subject matter expert, supporting leadership, communications, customer relations, and public information efforts, including responses to media and customer inquiries.
• Promotes and advances a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion in alignment with Sound Transit's Equity & Inclusion Policy.
• Integrates sustainability and safety best practices into all aspects of work.
• Champions and models Sound Transit's core values and demonstrates values-based behaviors in everyday interactions across the agency.
• Contributes to a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion in alignment with Sound Transit's Equity & Inclusion Policy.
• It is the responsibility of all employees to follow the Agency safety rules, regulations, and procedures pertaining to their assigned duties and responsibilities, which could include systems, operations, and/or other employees.
• It is the responsibility of all employees to integrate sustainability into everyday business practices.
• Other duties as assigned.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

Education and Experience: Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business Management, Information Systems, Product Management or Project Management, or closely related field, and eight years experience in managing product delivery teams, agile software product development teams or large-scale technical projects with multiple stakeholders; Or a combination of education and experience. Six years of leadership, budgetary, planning and workforce management experience.

Preferred Licenses or Certifications:

• Current Project Management Professional Certification.
• Current Product Management Professional Certification.

Required Knowledge and Skills:

• Expert-level experience managing the delivery of complex integrated hardware and software systems projects through design, build, and implementation.
• Best practices and applications of product management and delivery, such as the Optimal Product Process.
• Agile product development methodology, including Agile Scrum and backlog/project management tools.
• Advanced project management principles and practices for a range of delivery methods.
• Product delivery and roadmap management software such as JIRA Product Discover or Aha!.
• Principles and standards of Enterprise IT Systems, Payment Systems, or Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS).
• Application Programming Interface (API) software specifications.
• Mobile application and website software development lifecycles.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools such as Salesforce.
• Issue and ticket tracking systems experience.
• Systems engineering from both a business and technology perspective.
• Ability to clearly communicate short- and long-term product strategy - including product roadmaps, customer insights, anticipated impacts, and mitigations - to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Proven experience guiding complex product decisions by balancing speed, cost, and complexity, providing expert recommendations, and aligning diverse stakeholders to move projects forward in the optimal direction.
• Risk assessment and strategic planning.
• Principles of financial management, including budget preparation, expenditure tracking, earned value, variance identification, and revenue tracking.
• Pertinent federal, state, and local laws, codes, and regulations as they apply to transit operations.
• Managing the goals and expectations of multiple stakeholders to ensure solutions meet diverse agency needs.
• Vendor and contractor oversight and performance management (e.g., vendor reviews, scorecards, and collaboration with procurement and legal teams).
• Establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with department staff, management, vendors, outside agencies, community groups, and the public.
• Leadership: supervising, leading, and delegating tasks and authority.
• Principles of supervision, leadership, training, and performance evaluation.
• Strong communication and presentation skills for diverse audiences (agency staff, contractors, elected officials, community leaders, and the public).
• Conceptualizing, influencing, developing, and administering goals, objectives, guidelines, and procedures.
• Collaborate with Systems Operations through product development lifecycle to ensure smooth handover for product maintenance and operations support.
• Identifying and responding to sensitive community and organizational issues, concerns, and needs.
• Performing high-level negotiations and partnering with local jurisdictions, agencies, consultants, contractors, and community groups.
• Critical and strategic thinking, complaint resolution, and problem solving.
• Identifying and resolving issues in a timely manner using sound judgment and effective communication.
• Planning and organizing work to meet changing priorities and deadlines.
• Techniques to work effectively under pressure, meet deadlines, and adjust to changing priorities.
• Balancing technical knowledge and business acumen.
• Modern office procedures, methods, and equipment including computers and applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, and statistical databases.

Physical Demands / Work Environment:

• Work is performed in a standard hybrid office environment.
• The Agency promotes a safe and healthy work environment and provides appropriate safety and equipment training for all personnel as required.

Sound Transit is an equal employment opportunity employer. No person is unlawfully excluded from employment action based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), age, genetic information, disability, veteran status or other protected class.