Full Job Description
The Product Manager, WorldCat, owns the development and delivery for OCLC’s data ingest and enrichment services and the integration of WorldCat data across products. This role advances modernization of the data infrastructure, and services that make WorldCat an entity-first semantic data layer — extending data ingest pipeline capabilities, data enrichment mechanisms, and data interoperability across established and emerging data infrastructures.
Partnering closely with external stakeholders and internal cross-functional teams, the Product Manager drives product direction to translate market needs into innovative solutions.
Responsibilities
Product Strategy andPlanning
• Oversees market analysis and develops product strategy and business casesfor WorldCat.
• Assessesnew technologyand adds value to existing products by improving features to create best in class solutions, build and scale platform capabilities,and reduce costs.
• Produces andmaintainsthe product roadmap.
• Collaborates on release plans with Development.
• Collaborateswith Finance on budgets and forecasts.
Leadershipand Management
• Provides leadership to cross-functional product workgroups. Leads Product management meetings. Resolves conflicts and drives consensus.
• Facilitates collaboration and communication and secures commitment between Development and Product Management and other divisional workgroups towards achievement of common goals.
• Develops and monitors progress on product roadmap.
Product Marketing Oversight and Consultation
• Assistsin developing strategies for customer acquisition and retention; managesrelationships with user groups.
• Collaborates with the marketing and sales team in the generation of compelling marketing and awareness plans/presentations.
• Understands how and when to commission market research to develop andmaintainexpertise in markets served, alternative services, new technology, and related standards.
• Can generateappropriate informationfor market sizes by sector / territory and can generate market penetration statistics.
• Analyzesreasons for OCLC product wins and losses against competition in the metadata/entity data space and provides meaningful input to product planning.
• Defines and rationalizes user personas.
• Produces market/sector whitepapers.
Consultation on Portfolio Planning
• Provides input into portfolio business plans, roadmaps, strategies, metrics, and progress reports and reviews.
Qualifications
Minimum Required
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
• 2 to 4 years of experience in product, project, or program management
• 2 to 4 years of experience supporting online/database services, preferably for libraries or adjacent organizations (publishers, aggregators, cultural heritage institutions)
• Experience with linked data schemas, architecture and technologies (RDF, BIBFRAME, schema.org, ontologies, SPARQL), ideally within libraries, archives, or bibliographic/cultural heritage metadata contexts.
• Demonstrated knowledge and use of AI in day-to-day workflows and product development
• Well-developed verbal and written communication skills, and the ability to synthesize complex information into simple and persuasive messages for both technical and non-technical audiences
• Strong understanding of the Product Lifecycle model
• Demonstrated collaboration and able to work effectively with engineers, data scientists, other product teams and colleagues, and external users.
• Experience defining and launching new idea or product concepts
Desired but Not Required
• Master’s in library & information science, or equivalent combination of education and experience
• 2 to 4 years of experience in library services or library management systems
• Working knowledge of linked data / semantic web concepts and entity-based data models (e.g., BIBFRAME, IFLA LRM)
• Experience leading cross-functional workgroups
• Knowledge of OCLC products and services
Working Conditions: Normal office environment.