Product Operations Lead (B2B SaaS)

Overview
A growing B2B SaaS organisation in the digital learning and human skills development space is undergoing a significant transformation – shifting from a sales-led model to a more product-led approach focused on activation, engagement, and retention.

To support this transition, we are hiring a Product Operations Lead to build and scale the systems that connect strategy to execution across a multi-team product organisation.

The Role

As the first Product Operations Lead, you will design and implement the operating model that enables effective planning, decision-making, and delivery across product teams. This role focuses on improving execution quality, increasing alignment, and ensuring that strategic priorities translate into measurable outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

Product Operating Model

• Design and implement frameworks that connect strategic objectives (e.g., OKRs) to team execution
• Establish planning cadences, prioritisation approaches, and team rituals
• Standardise documentation and workflows to reduce ambiguity and improve coordination

Insights & Decision Support

• Build processes to ensure product teams leverage insights from analytics, customer feedback, and research
• Improve how data and qualitative inputs inform product decisions

Metrics & Performance Management

• Define consistent KPI frameworks and metric definitions
• Partner with data teams to build dashboards and reporting tools
• Establish regular performance review cycles to track outcomes

Execution Excellence

• Identify bottlenecks in delivery and improve end-to-end execution flow
• Reduce cycle time from idea to delivery
• Proactively manage cross-team dependencies

Cross-functional Alignment

• Strengthen collaboration between Product, Engineering, Design, and commercial teams
• Improve communication, handoffs, and shared understanding of priorities

Tooling & Automation

• Drive adoption of tools and workflows that improve productivity
• Support the use of AI and automation to streamline operational processes
• Optimize usage of collaboration and delivery tools (e.g., ticketing, communication, analytics platforms)

Scope & Boundaries

• Product teams retain ownership of product decisions and outcomes
• Data teams retain ownership of data infrastructure and reporting accuracy
• This role focuses on how systems operate – ensuring data, processes, and decisions work effectively together

Success Metrics (First 6 Months)

• A clearly defined and adopted product operating model
• Improved use of data in day-to-day decision-making
• Consistent KPI definitions and regular performance tracking
• Increased visibility and proactive management of dependencies
• Measurable reduction in delivery cycle times
• Improved efficiency through tooling and automation

Candidate Profile

Experience & Skills

• Experience in Product Operations, Strategy & Operations, or similar roles within a B2B SaaS environment
• Strong systems thinking and ability to design scalable processes
• Data-literate with the ability to interpret and apply insights
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills
• Comfortable working in fast-changing, ambiguous environments

Preferred Mindset

• Focused on building systems rather than managing individual projects
• Comfortable challenging assumptions and influencing senior stakeholders
• Views processes as adaptable frameworks rather than fixed rules
• Thrives in transformation and scaling environments

Darwin Recruitment is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.

Luchian Van Der Merwe