Product Manager: Data & Innovation (20770412)

Description

Product Manager - Data & Innovation

Application deadline: For first consideration, apply by Sunday, September 20, 2026. Application window closes on Sunday, September 27, at 5:00 p.m.

Salary: $144,144 - $175,200 annually plus excellent benefits!

THE CITY is focused on enhancing our community members' quality of life through well-designed services and a positive workplace culture. San Rafael is the economic and cultural heart of Marin County, and its high quality of life is centered on its commercial districts, engaged neighborhoods, active lifestyle, and natural environment. San Rafael, with a population of approximately 60,000, is a full-service city with a City Council/City Manager form of government with 12 departments, more than 400 employees, and a fiscal year 2026-2027 annual budget of approximately $208 million. The City's vision is to be a vibrant economic and cultural center reflective of its diversity. The City Council is engaged and seeks to strengthen the urban and commercial areas as well as sustain the beautiful natural environment.

San Rafael's Organizational culture framework is an initiative called "Together San Rafael." City employees are our greatest asset, and we seek talented individuals with diverse backgrounds who are creative, curious, and excited about a challenge. We are a results-driven team focused on the needs of community members. The Together San Rafael initiative is focused on modernizing City services and increasing the engagement of employees. This initiative recognizes the interconnectedness of the customer and employee experience.

THE DEPARTMENT

The core purpose of the Department of Digital Services & Open Government is to help make City services easy to use and work for everyone. We do this by applying human-centered design, process improvement, and performance measurement to continuously improve service delivery, civic engagement, and civic technology.

We believe:

• Government should be designed with and for people
• Empathy for all users leads to equitable outcomes
• Data and information should be used to create trust, transparency, and better government
• Building capacity across City teams empowers positive change
• Technology should be secure, accessible, and make life easier

Digital''s focus areas include Civic Engagement, Digital Transformation, Data and Insights, and IT Operations and Maintenance. The Data & Insights team was awarded San Rafael's Team of the Year for 2025, in part for helping San Rafael to achieve silver-certification as a data-driven city from Bloomberg Philanthropies' What Works Cities program.

IDEAL CANDIDATE

The ideal candidate for the Product Manager of Data & Innovation role is a results-driven and human-centered civic designer with expertise in data ecosystems, performance metrics, and agile digital service delivery. They have proven ability to break down departmental silos, scale open government initiatives, and lead cross-departmental teams to operationalize performance measurement. They can transform complex municipal workflows into accessible public services while championing responsible adoption of emerging technologies and artificial intelligence across the organization.

The Product Manager of Data & Innovation leads the Citywide Data and Insights program, oversees GIS operations, and works collaboratively with the Digital Service team to advance City Council priorities and address community needs. They lead, and work collaboratively with, cross-departmental teams to develop innovative solutions leveraging data, technology, and process improvements that enhance the community experience of City services.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

This list is meant to be representative, not exhaustive. CLICK HERE for the full job spec.

• Prepares and assists with the development of strategic plans related to area of

responsibility and addresses City-wide policy and management issues.

• Develops, defines, and manages the vision and roadmap for one or more of the City's

software and hardware products.

• Develops and shares clarity around what problem a product is solving and for whom;

builds services with a strong equity lens to support everyone who needs access to

services; ensures that the City's products work for all members of the public without

experience gaps.

• Runs user research sprints with users and usability testing workshops for products at

varying stages of development and analyzes into site/product analytics.

• Manages the execution of the vision and roadmap on a day-to-day and sprint-to-sprint

basis of products including managing priorities, grooming backlogs, and tracking task

completion.

• Develops success metrics by defining what success looks like for the products and

creates and manages the metrics to track progress during development and after

deployment; understands and analyzes user and business needs to ensure outcomes are

aligned with service vision and business strategy.

• Documents the City's products and the processes; develops and oversees the design and

end-to-end journey of services and business processes through user-centered design.

• Ensures that both qualitative and quantitative research inform the product, and that

product definition is not just about opinion.

• Embeds human-centered design principles into every aspect of how the City is building

the product.

• Develops strong stakeholder relationships at every level; manages resourcing in

collaboration with the design and development teams; works with departments to help

them understand Agile; leads and collaborates with cross-functional teams to explore,

prototype and define the end-to-end product experience; and manages stakeholders so

that the product team gets decisions and is supported at a senior level.

• Works with service designers to create functional prototypes to illustrate design or

architecture options.

• Establishes best practices and standards for front end testing, and works to oversee

adoption across the organization.

CORE COMPETENCIES

• Human-centered civic design and product management - Develop digital solutions and rapid prototypes based on user research and community feedback.
• Data strategy and product development - Evolve the City's data strategy and governance, develop performance dashboards, and self-service analytics to empower internal staff and external stakeholders.
• Responsible Public Sector AI Governance: Implement automation and AI tools responsibly by aligning innovation with policy, privacy, and risk-mitigation standards.

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE

Equivalent to graduation from an accredited college or university with a degree in computer science, information systems, information technology, public policy, business, public administration, or closely related field and three years of experience working as a product manager for a digital product that is in use by people today.

One year of experience serving as a lead or in a supervisory or management capacity is desirable.

A Master''s Degree is preferred