Senior Director, Product Strategy and Corporate Development

This role, within the ACS Publications division, is highly visible. It is responsible for organic product strategy/development and inorganic growth initiatives – driving sustained revenue growth, portfolio differentiation, and long-term value. This role sits at the intersection of product management, division strategy, M&A, and go-to-market execution, ensuring that build, buy, and partner decisions are tightly aligned with customer needs, technology evolution, market opportunities, and business strategy.
Reporting to the Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Product, this leader translates vision into action—ambitiously shaping the product portfolio, accelerating innovation, and executing strategic transactions that expand capabilities and markets and grow revenue for Publications.

Key Responsibilities

Product / Portfolio Strategy & Organic Growth

• Define and execute end-to-end product and portfolio strategy across the product lifecycle, driving revenue growth, margin expansion, and strategic differentiation.
• Lead market opportunity assessment through customer discovery, industry research, competitive intelligence, and whitespace analysis.
• Establish clear product vision, roadmaps, and business cases aligned to strategy.
• Own financial performance of product portfolios, including pricing, packaging, and lifecycle management.
• Partner with go-to-market (Marketing, Sales, etc.) teams to shape launch strategies, customer adoption, and revenue realization.

Corporate Development & Inorganic Growth

• Lead full lifecycle for M&A and strategic partnerships: sourcing, evaluation, valuation, diligence, structuring, negotiation, and integration planning.
• Build and maintain a robust pipeline of acquisition targets and partnership opportunities aligned to strategic priorities.
• Develop financial models, scenario analyses, and executive-level investment materials.
• Evaluate strategic fit, technology differentiation, market adjacency, and execution risk for potential transactions.
• Partner with internal stakeholders and external advisors to ensure disciplined capital deployment.

Product-Led Inorganic Integration

• Collaborate with Technology and R&D leaders to assess technical diligence, integration complexity, and post-transaction value creation.
• Ensure acquisitions, partnerships, and other investments translate into scalable products, platforms, and revenue streams.
• Support early integration planning and integration governance to accelerate synergy capture and minimize disruption.

Leadership & Cross-Functional Influence

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of 8 motivated professionals, with opportunities to grow, across product strategy, product management, and corporate development responsibilities.
• Drive tangible outcomes, executional rigor, prioritization, and accountability in highly matrixed environments.
• Serve as a trusted strategic partner to the Publications Leadership Team (PLT); prepare and deliver clear, compelling executive-level communications.
• Operate with strong collaboration, confidentiality, and governance discipline across all strategic initiatives.

Qualifications & Experience

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, economics, science, or related field.
• 12–15+ years of progressive experience across product management, product strategy, corporate development, management consulting, or strategic finance.
• Proven track record driving revenue growth through product strategy, portfolio management, and/or inorganic growth initiatives.
• Experience developing and executing AI and/or technology adoption strategies and multi-year roadmaps aligned to enterprise product vision, commercialization plans, and growth priorities.
• Experience leading and scaling product management and strategy teams that operate in matrixed organizations.
• Experience in data or information industry and its monetization opportunities.
• Strong financial modeling, valuation, and analytical expertise.
• Deep experience building business cases and influencing executive-level decision making.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex, cross-functional initiatives from strategy through execution.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills with executive presence.

Preferred

• MBA or other advanced degree.
• Experience in data-driven, SaaS, platform, technology, and/or STM publishing.
• Strong familiarity with AI-enabled tools for market analysis, product insights, and transaction workflows.

Leadership Profile

The ideal candidate is a builder-operator—strategic, analytical, and hands-on—who thrives in ambiguity and is equally comfortable shaping long-term vision and driving near-term execution. They bring strong customer empathy, commercial acumen, and a passion for translating innovation into measurable business outcomes. This leader is energized by bridging product excellence with disciplined investment to shape the future of non-journal business for ACS Publications.

This role is based in our Washington, D.C. office.  A reasonable rate of total compensation for this position is between $250,000-$280,000 per year.   

ACS currently provides the following benefits for this position: paid vacation leave, paid sick leave, paid holidays, health insurance, flexible spending account or health care savings account, dental insurance, life insurance, vision insurance, retirement benefits, short- and long-term disability, and 4-week work from anywhere; each benefit is subject to the terms of the applicable program. Additional benefits may apply based on skills, experience, and location.  

Any actual offer of employment, reflecting the total compensation package and benefits, will be made in the sole discretion of ACS. ACS reserves the right to amend or modify its employment benefits and compensation structure at any time.