(Remote Work) Senior Director of Platform & Product – Kitces.com

Job Overview:

• Job Title: Senior Director of Platform & Product
• Hiring Organization: Kitces.com
• Company Website: https://kitces.com/
• Remote Locations: US
• Job Type: Remote, Full-Time

The mission of Kitces.com is to help financial advisers be better and more successful, creating a 100X multiplier effect for our work and the number of consumers we can positively impact with the power of financial planning delivered by a Kitces-supported financial adviser to their clients.

To achieve this mission, Kitces.com publishes the leading financial planning industry blog Nerd’s Eye View, producing award-winning commentary on financial planning strategies and practice management trends for financial advisors ranked as the most Influential, Objective, Relevant, and Useful content amongst any online media publication for financial advisors. In addition, our Members Section provides additional white papers, webinars, training Courses to master essential skills, and the opportunity for financial planning professionals to earn Continuing Education credits, and we are invited to speak regularly at financial advisor conferences across the US and around the world to present our analysis and insights.

Unlike traditional media sites, though, Kitces.com deliberately generates no revenue from advertising or sponsored content. Instead, we remain solely focused on creating value directly for the financial advicer community, strengthening the awareness of and integrity of the Kitces brand, and being compensated directly from our readers both on our site (for those who join our Members Section, hire us to speak and consult, or purchase Kitces Research), and through our co-owned financial services solutions for consumers (who may engage with our related financial advisory firms) as well as our business solutions for financial advisors themselves (for whom we have a number of businesses providing service and technology solutions for advisory firms).

We are an Equal Opportunity employer committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce. We believe that cultivating a team with a diverse set of perspectives and experiences and fostering an environment of trust where different ideas are encouraged will be a long-term advantage. We actively seek out diversity of all kinds and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability. 

From time to time, Michael Kitces of Kitces.com has positions available for hire, either associated with Kitces.com itself, or one of Michael’s related businesses.

Current Career Opportunities At Kitces.com

Kitces.com is hiring a Senior Director of Platform & Product to lead the development of and serve as Product Owner for our digital media and online educational platform. In practice, this means learning how our Financial Advicer audience engages with our platform and its offerings, identifying and prioritizing improvements and new platform capabilities at the intersection of user demands and business strategy, lead our full-time developer team (and contractors, where appropriate) to build and implement the new features, and working cross-departmentally to deploy and launch. In addition, the Senior Director of Platform & Product should be able to strategize about the platform infrastructure and technical requirements to ensure stability and scalability as we grow, and have a strong focus on data-driven user experience, to help make UX improvements that strengthen the experience of, and bolster our Trusted-Source brand with, our Readers and Members. 

So if you can’t stand the negative reader experience of media websites that are filled with annoying slideshows and interstitial ads and want to work for a digital media platform that avoids advertising and cares about building a good platform experience, are constantly curious about what drives engagement behaviors and have always wanted the opportunity to work with an existing and loyal audience to build new digital experiences for them, and love turning product visions into reality by leading a developer team through a data-driven iterative process while building a great developer culture, … then this is the job for you! 

Job Responsibilities:

This entirely virtually based staff position will report to Managing Director Rachel Zeller, and work directly with the Chief Financial Planning Nerd and lead visionary Michael Kitces, and serve as the Lead Engineer and Product Owner for the Kitces.com website and educational platform, including managing a growing team of contract and full-time employees in the Platform department. 

Further description of annual responsibilities are indicated below. 

Platform & Product Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with leadership on and then be accountable for driving the execution of our overall platform strategy and roadmap, with responsibility for the entire product development process for new Kitces features and capabilities, including maintaining the product roadmap, prioritizing the backlog, gathering internal and external stakeholder input to determine requirements and user journeys, leading development and QA, deployment in coordination with other departments, and outcome tracking. 
• Responsible for managing the day-to-day and week-to-week developer team in their build process, mentoring and focusing the developers to optimize both their productivity and value of the developer team’s work output. (Currently we operate using a 2-week sprint cycle, though candidates will have the opportunity to set their own approach and cadence.) 
• Accountable for the Platform experience of our readers and Members when they interact with the Kitces website, making iterative changes to improve on key Reader and Member metrics as they navigate to and engage with our offerings, and tracking and reporting on relevant metrics.  
•  Accountable for the management and maintenance of our (WordPress) website, the Kitces Advicer Database (KAD), and other key integrated systems, as well as the identifying, vetting, and selection of potential new technology vendors and platform solutions to integrate with (or update or replace) existing systems, to ensure systems stability and scalability.  
• Responsible for determining, tracking, and reporting relevant data metrics, regarding both utilization of the platform and product offerings, efficiency of the developer and building process, and outcomes of new features and capabilities. 
• Leadership of the Platform/developer team, including the training and development of team members (weekly L10s and 1:1s, quarterly check-ins, and annual performance reviews), and responsible for the expansion of the Platform team by mapping out future seats and being able to distinguish between the needs of full-time hires vs contractors.

Job Requirements:

The ideal candidate should be self-motivated enough to work in a virtual environment with limited supervision (autonomous), have an extremely strong inclination for continuous learning (self-development), an immaculate attention to detail (organized and efficient), a service mindset (seeks to collaborate and to help and support others), an ability to work in a changing environment (adaptability), and be highly effective at team communication in a virtual environment.  

Key domains of required expertise and experience include:

•  Building within and around WordPress website platforms (e.g., WordPress, Javascript, etc.)
• Developing standalone web-based apps to integrate into existing products/platforms (e.g., Golang, Python, Ruby, etc.)
• Determining and managing server infrastructure for websites, web apps, and underlying user databases
• Product Owner leadership in executing the product development process
• Running DevOps and leading a team of developers through ongoing sprints
• Leadership of developers and building good developer culture 
• Experience in digital media is strongly preferred but not required. Experience with EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) is preferred but not required. 
• Candidates must be U.S. Citizens and work primarily within the United States. 

Employee Benefits:

•  Base salary $150,000 – $180,000/year based on experience
•  Available bonus up to 12% of base salary, determined by meeting key Members Section and other business metrics
•  $3,000 budget for additional training/skills education
• $4,000 conference budget
• $2,000 budget for technology hardware/software or related office materials
• Paid membership in a relevant membership association and for a relevant professional designation or certification
• 20 days of paid time off for combined vacation + sick, plus 6 national holidays 
• Paid parental leave
• Participation in company health plan
• Participation in company 401(k) plan
• “No Meeting” Wednesdays 

How To Apply:

Interested candidates for the Senior Director of Platform & Product should complete the pre-interview application form. Questions may be sent to jobs@kitces.com.