Director - Products & Services, Animal Agriculture

LifeWorks, Inc.$120K — $150K *
Food & Beverages
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 7+ years of leadership in Product Management, Data & Analytics, Technology, or Operations.
  • Proven track record in developing and executing digital product strategies.
  • Experience in leading technology transformation initiatives in dynamic environments.
  • Strong financial planning and capital budgeting skills.
  • Hands-on leadership experience with AI/ML integration in products or operations.
  • Exceptional relationship-building and collaboration skills across teams.
  • Knowledge of enterprise data governance practices.

Responsibilities

  • Build and mentor cross-functional teams in Product Management, Data Services, IT, and Client Support.
  • Champion AI and automation adoption to enhance service delivery and productivity.
  • Oversee the business unit's capital strategy and budget management.
  • Define the product portfolio strategy to support veterinary and scientific experts.
  • Coach Product Managers on best practices in product management.
  • Lead data governance efforts ensuring quality, security, and compliance.
  • Deliver actionable reporting and analytics for internal stakeholders and customers.
  • Collaborate with Engineering, Operations, and Customer Success to enhance digital capabilities.
  • Drive continuous improvement in product development and internal technology services.
  • Provide strategic leadership for internal IT services.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to lead a high-performing and innovative team.
  • Chance to work at the intersection of technology and agriculture.
  • Engagement in a sector focused on enhancing livestock solutions.
  • Position plays a critical role in promoting sustainable agricultural practices.
Full Job Description
Take the next step in your career and lead our digital products, data services, and technology functions in Animal Agriculture, elevating our high-performing team and livestock solutions to even greater heights.

What you'll do

As the Director - Products & Services, Animal Agriculture, your primary responsibility will be to strategically lead and optimize our digital product portfolio, data governance, and technology operations. You will leverage your vision to elevate our high-performing team, drive capital efficiency, and ensure our technology investments support our team of experts and deliver meaningful value to customers while enabling long-term business growth. You'll lead a team of 32 across Product Management, Data Services, IT, and Client Support, managing the annual capital budget and technology investment portfolio, reporting to the VP-Animal Agriculture. You'll balance strategic planning (e.g., product strategy workshops, quarterly planning cycles) with hands-on leadership of your teams and cross-functional partnerships with Engineering, Operations, and Customer Success.

Your key responsibilities will include:

  • Build and mentor high-performing Product Management, Data Services, IT, and Client Support teams, fostering a culture of strategic thinking, innovation, accountability, and continuous learning.
  • Champion the adoption of AI and automation across the business unit, from embedding predictive and AI-powered workflows and intelligent automation into our product roadmap, to fostering team AI literacy, to identifying and executing operational AI automation opportunities that elevate service delivery and team productivity.
  • Own the business unit's capital strategy and annual capital budget, including business case development, investment prioritization, governance processes, forecasting, and monthly financial management.
  • Define and execute the product portfolio strategy, ensuring digital initiatives enable our veterinary and scientific experts to deliver unmatched value to primary cattle producers, while driving long-term business growth and technical alignment.
  • Coach and mentor Product Managers, establishing best practices for product discovery, requirements definition, prioritization, and cross-functional delivery.
  • Lead the organization's data governance program, establishing standards for data quality, stewardship, security, compliance, and master data management.
  • Ensure the timely delivery of accurate, reliable, and actionable reporting and analytics that support our internal stakeholders (our veterinarians, nutritionists, and other consultants) and our customers.
  • Coordinate, collaborate, and interlock with Engineering, Operations, Commercial, and Customer Success teams to successfully deliver new digital capabilities and continuously improve existing products.
  • Drive continuous improvement across product development, data operations, and internal technology services through process optimization and operational excellence.
  • Provide strategic leadership for internal IT services, ensuring reliable technology operations and effective end-user support.


What you bring
  • 7+ years of progressive leadership experience in Product Management, Data & Analytics, Technology, Engineering, or Operations leadership where you've directly managed cross-functional teams delivering complex technology solutions.
  • Demonstrated experience developing and executing digital product strategies from concept through delivery and managing complex product portfolios and technology roadmaps.
  • Demonstrated success leading organizational or technology transformation initiatives in fast-paced, customer-focused environments.
  • Strong financial planning capability, allowing for the development of business cases, capital investment planning, portfolio prioritization, and investment governance.
  • Experience deploying or leading teams that integrate AI/ML capabilities (e.g., predictive analytics, automation, or generative AI features) into products or business operations. Alternatively, demonstrated comfort and hands-on familiarity with generative AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, copilots, etc.) and a growth mindset around emerging AI technologies.
  • Exceptional relationship-building, collaboration, and influence skills at all organizational levels and across multiple cross-functional teams.
  • Working knowledge of enterprise data governance practices (e.g., establishing data quality standards, building data stewardship models, defining master data management).
  • Excellent organizational, strategic planning, presentation, and communication skills, with the ability to convey complex technical and strategic concepts clearly.
  • MBA or Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Data Science, Mathematics, Business, or a related discipline.


Great to Haves
  • Experience within the livestock sector, with a specific focus on cattle production (beef or dairy) or other production animals (e.g. swine, sheep, poultry), is considered a highly valuable asset.
  • Strong understanding of modern data architecture, cloud-based data platforms (such as Azure, GCP, or AWS), and enterprise analytics (including Snowflake, Tableau, or Power BI).
  • Demonstrated hands-on experience deploying or leading AI/ML initiatives (e.g., predictive models, automation, generative AI features) in product or business contexts.
  • Professional certifications in Product Management, Agile methodologies, cloud technologies, or analytics platforms are considered an asset.

About LifeWorks, Inc.

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