Job Information
BDC DIRECTOR, DIGITAL PRODUCT MANAGEMENT in Montreal, Canada
We are banking at another level.
Choosing BDC as your employer means working in a healthy, inclusive, and skilled workplace that puts forward the best conditions to bring together unique teams where employees are empowered to act. It also means being at the centre of ambitious economic and financial projects to see further and to do things differently, to fuel the success of Canadian entrepreneurs.
Choosing BDC as your employer also means:
Flexible and competitive benefits , including an Employee Savings and Investment Plan where BDC matches part of your voluntary contributions, a Defined Benefit Pension Plan, a $750 wellness and health care spending account, to name a few
In addition to paid vacation each year, five personal days , sick days as necessary , and our offices are closed from December 25 to January 1
A hybrid work model that truly balances work and personal life
Opportunities for learning , training and development , and much more...
Explore the BDC Way in our Culture Book (https://www.bdc.ca/globalassets/digizuite/57896-bdc-culture-book.pdf)
POSITION OVERVIEW
Reporting to the Associate Vice-President, Digital Product Delivery, the Director, Digital Product Management, is a strategic role within the IT sector. This person structures, oversees, and develops digital product management across the organization, in collaboration with various product resource managers. They assume responsibility for the end-to-end digital product discovery process and coordinate interactions with business stakeholders and IT teams, while providing direct line management of a chapter comprising eight Product Owners (POs).
This role leads the bank's digital product practices — defining and harmonizing the standards, competencies, governance mechanisms, and ways of working associated with the Product Owner and Product Manager roles, and supporting their evolution within a hybrid product & project, matrix, and multidisciplinary environment. Working in close collaboration with the Director, Digital Product Delivery (responsible for the Lean‑Agile Centre of Excellence), the incumbent contributes to overall coherence between product and delivery practices (cadence, discovery, planning, governance, adoption), in order to increase the value delivered and the organization's maturity.
BDC's IT sector is undergoing a significant transformation, with the objective of modernizing its development and testing practices while delivering a significant number of business and IT transformation projects. This position requires an experienced leader who will contribute to this transformation while acting as a change agent for teams and colleagues.
We are looking for a leader who is deeply committed to improving the value offered to BDC's clients and employees, to championing BDC's cultural standards, and who demonstrates a passion for the organization's mission, vision, and values.
CHALLENGES TO BE MET
1) Lead a Product Owner (PO) Chapter — 8 Resources — Direct Line Leadership
Manage the Product Owners (POs) personnel: recruitment, onboarding, career development, performance management, coaching, development plans, and oversight of working arrangements (and, where applicable, oversight of consultants/contractors).
Define and maintain the Product Owner competency model (expectations, behaviors, quality standards) and accelerate the chapter's maturity growth.
Support product family leaders (PdMs, Delivery Leads, Architects, Chapter Leads) to ensure the availability and quality of Product Owner work required for squad effectiveness.
2) Evolve the Product Owner (PO) and Product Manager (PdM) Roles
Drive the evolution of responsibilities, interactions, boundaries, and decision rights for the Product Owner and Product Manager roles to reduce friction and increase effectiveness — for their own employees as well as other product roles.
Strengthen the consistent application of key responsibilities: Product Owners (maximizing product value at the squad level, vision/roadmap, backlog management and prioritization authority, OKR alignment, stakeholder collaboration); Product Managers (vision & strategy at the family/product line level, prioritization and ROI, multi-horizon roadmap, cross-product alignment, support to Product Owners).
3) Orchestrate the Discovery Process Aligned with the Bank's Strategic Priorities
Own the cross-functional discovery process: define and orchestrate a common discovery framework (approach, expectations, expected deliverables) to ensure consistent and repeatable discovery at scale.
Align discovery with strategic priorities: ensure that discovery activities steer choices towards the bank's issues/priorities and established prioritization process, and that explored opportunities are qualified according to that alignment.
Ensure coherence between discovery and execution across more than forty squads: work in close collaboration with delivery so that discovery integrates into ways of working and the delivery cycle.
Strengthen the quality of discoveries and the product teams' capacity to make better upstream decisions.
4) Lead the Bank's Digital Product Management Practice
Responsible for defining, harmonizing, evolving, and documenting product standards and practices in close collaboration with the various Product Manager (PdM) and Product Owner (PO) leaders: templates, playbooks, checklists, quality criteria, and common ways of working (vision, roadmaps, discovery, OKR/outcomes, prioritization, backlog health).
Ensure overall consistency in the integration of functional and non-functional requirements in product development, aligned with the various governance bodies.
Implement maturity measurement and continuous improvement mechanisms (indicators, feedback loops, improvement plans); is accountable for adherence through change management.
Improve the management of technology assets (IT Assets & Crown Jewels) underpinning digital products, in collaboration with business lines and IT asset owners.
Establish effective tracking of product relationships with vendors and contracts, supported by IT owners.
5) Play an Influence and Matrix Leadership Role
Matrix leadership across the entire digital Product Manager (PdM) and Product Owner (PO) community at the bank, outside the direct reporting line.
Act as an organizational reference and facilitator for Product Owners outside their team, and for Product Managers, to increase consistency of practices and quality of deliverables.
Socialize the product management model, its functioning, and its benefits with stakeholders (Directors, VPs/AVPs, etc.) in business lines and IT.
Structure, facilitate, and support communities of practice and cross-functional practices that touch product management and its interfaces (e.g., architecture, data, security, operations, marketing, risk, delivery, etc.).
6) Collaborate Closely with the Lean‑Agile Centre of Excellence / Delivery
Collaborate closely with the colleague Director, Digital Product Delivery, to ensure alignment and joint evolution of product and delivery practices (cadence, planning, discovery, governance, adoption).
Guide the transformation of the operating model at the product management level, ensuring a simple and effective articulation between product strategy and execution.
WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
15 years of functional leadership, including 10 years in a matrix environment.
Bachelor's degree in IT, business administration, or a relevant field. Master's degree (an asset).
Significant experience in product management and in an agile/hybrid context, with strong multi-stakeholder collaboration.
Demonstrated experience in direct line leadership (management of professionals) and influence leadership in a matrix environment.
Proven ability to define and deploy practices (standards, tooling, governance, training, communities of practice) at an organizational scale.
Excellent skills in communication, stakeholder management, and complex problem-solving (strategic vision + execution pragmatism).
Interest in leveraging artificial intelligence to improve ways of working.
Proficiency in common collaboration and work management tools (e.g., Confluence, Miro, Azure DevOps). Power BI (an asset).
Excellent talent management and transformational leadership.
Strong ability to solve complex problems with a strategic vision.
Stakeholder management and political influence.
Strong business acumen and excellent communication skills.
Bilingualism essential (French and English).
Proudly one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers and one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers , we are committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, inclusive and accessible environment where all employees can thrive and feel empowered to bring their whole selves to work. If you require an accommodation to complete your application, please do not hesitate to contact us at accessibility@bdc.ca .
While we appreciate all applications, we advise that only the candidates selected to participate in the recruitment process will be contacted.