Lead, Product Operations

SmartNews is a leading global information and news discovery company dedicated to delivering quality information to the people who need it. Thanks to our unique machine-learning technology and relationships with more than 3,000 global publisher partners, we provide news that matters to millions of users.

Founded in 2012 in Tokyo, SmartNews also has offices in Palo Alto, New York, Beijing, and Singapore.

If you share our vision and are passionate about our mission, we encourage you to apply!

The Team

The Global Product Team is responsible for broadening the global reach of SmartNews.  Primarily, we are focused on the US News market as a means to broaden our footprint and provide more people high-quality news that they find essential.  Presently, we are building a new application called NewsArc. 

Your Role

Make it work and make it awesome.  Understanding and working with the development team in real time to develop and release new features.  You will also be responsible for traditional areas like release and quality assurance, but in very non-traditional, blended, ways.  You will constantly be hands-on and very close to our readers, working side-by-side with design, product, business, and engineering.  You also get to work closely with both our US and JP based engineers and development teams, with your primary responsibilities located in the US. Some of your responsibilities will include:

• Daily, weekly releases and updates, working with internal systems as well as app store processes
• Quality assurance, operational work as well as helping to build scalable systems and processes
• Triage and responding to customer feedback and reports
• 3 days a week in-office

Requirements

• You drive product delivery end-to-end with emphasis on QA and Release. You proactively identify and remove any bottlenecks both for technical and operational. You excel under pressure, balancing multiple concurrent releases without sacrificing quality or stability.
• You follow through post-release and maximize impact of product changes. You dissect both qualitative and quantitative data to uncover product opportunities. You lead or help focused retrospectives when any incident happens, making sure we operate better next time.

Benefits available at the SmartNews US Office

• Compensation range: $135,000 to $201,250 base salary, plus bonus and equity
• 401(k) with employer matching
• Up to 100% medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family
• Benefit plan with monthly allowances
• Complimentary lunch, snacks, and beverages in the office