Product Operations Specialist

About Kinaxis

Are you looking to join an innovative, market-leading company where you can truly elevate your career? At Kinaxis we are serious about culture, we are serious about technology, we are serious about customers, and we are serious about not taking ourselves too seriously. If you are looking to be part of an incredible growth story, then we might just be the place for you!

In 1984, we started out as a team of three engineers. Today, we have grown to become a global organization with over 2000 employees around the world, 6 global office and a best-in-class HQ in Ottawa, Canada. As winners of several Top Employer awards globally, we are proud to work with our customers and employees towards solving some of the biggest challenges facing supply chains today.

Kinaxis is a global leader in modern supply chain orchestration, powering complex global supply chains, and supporting the people who manage them. Our powerful, AI infused platform provides full transparency and visibility across end-to-end supply chains, enabling our customers to make faster, better decisions. We are trusted by renowned global brands to provide the agility and predictability needed to navigate today’s volatility and disruption. With more than 40,000 users in over 100 countries, we are expanding our team as we continue to innovate and revolutionize how we support our customers.

Location

Ottawa and Toronto, Canada - Hybrid

Other Canadian locations - Remote

About the role

The Product Operations Specialist enables the Product organization to execute more effectively, consistently, and at scale by developing and improving the processes, frameworks, tools, reporting structures, and operating practices that support product delivery and execution.

This role contributes to the design and evolution of the operating models, governance frameworks, processes, tooling, and insights that help Product teams make informed decisions, improve delivery consistency, identify execution friction, and operate more effectively at scale.

Working across Product Operations, Product Management, Engineering, UX, Product Marketing, Customer Success, and other stakeholders, the Product Operations Specialist identifies opportunities to simplify and standardize how product work is planned, executed, validated, and reported, improve visibility and accountability, and drive operational excellence across the product lifecycle.

Vacancy Status

This is an existing job vacancy

What you will do

• Partner with Product and Product Operations leaders to design, implement, and continuously improve Product delivery and execution frameworks, including execution planning, market validation, lifecycle governance, and standardized operating practices that enable consistent execution across the Product organization.
• Identify process friction, execution bottlenecks, tooling gaps, data-quality issues, inconsistent practices, and operational inefficiencies, and translate findings into scalable process, tooling, automation, and governance improvements across Product teams.
• Establish and maintain consistent program reporting structures, metrics, dashboards, definitions, and operating mechanisms that provide visibility into product execution progress, milestones, risks, dependencies, readiness, and outcomes.
• Drive consistency in product planning, lifecycle management, release readiness, and cross-functional decision-making.
• Optimize the Product organization's use of execution planning and delivery tools, workflows, integrations, and automation to improve consistency, data quality, visibility, and productivity while reducing manual effort and duplicate work.
• Facilitate alignment across Product, Engineering, UX, Customer Success, and other stakeholders to support successful delivery of strategic initiatives.
• Analyze operational data and trends to generate insights, recommend improvements, and support leadership decision-making.
• Champion a culture of continuous improvement by simplifying and standardizing Product execution practices, scaling proven approaches, and introducing best practices, automation, and AI-enabled ways of working that improve execution quality, transparency, predictability, and organizational agility.

What we are looking for

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Computer Science, Operations, Information Systems, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 5+ years of progressive experience in Product Operations, Business Operations, Program Management, Product Management, or a related discipline.
• Experience supporting software, SaaS, or technology product organizations, with an understanding of how product strategy moves through planning, development, validation, release, and in-market operations.
• Demonstrated success designing, implementing, and improving scalable operational processes, execution frameworks, workflows, governance practices, and organizational standards across multiple teams.
• Experience leading cross-functional process and operational improvement initiatives and influencing stakeholders to adopt new ways of working without direct authority.
• Strong understanding of modern product development and delivery practices.
• Exceptional problem-solving, analytical, and process-improvement capabilities, with experience identifying root causes and execution friction and translating findings into practical, scalable improvements.
• Experience developing operational metrics, reporting frameworks, and business insights.
• Strong communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Hands-on experience with product planning, work management, reporting, analytics, and workflow automation tools, with the ability to design scalable workflows, reporting structures, templates, and operating standards.
• Experience with Smartsheet and Atlassian is strongly preferred; experience with Aha!, Power BI, Microsoft 365 suite, or comparable enterprise platforms is an asset.

This role is ideal for someone who enjoys improving the system behind product execution: identifying friction, designing better processes and tools, using data to understand what is working, and helping Product teams adopt more consistent and effective ways of working. #Intermediate; #LI-EM1

Work With Impact: Our platform directly helps companies power the world’s supply chains. We see the results of what we do out in the world every day, when we see store shelves stocked, when medications are available for our loved ones, and so much more.

Work with Fortune 500 Brands: Companies across industries trust us to help them take control of their integrated business planning and digital supply chain. Some of our customers include Lockheed Martin, Unilever, P&G, ExxonMobil, Cisco and more.

Social Responsibility at Kinaxis: Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee weighs in on hiring practices, talent assessment training materials, and mandatory training on unconscious bias and inclusion fundamentals. Sustainability is key to what we do and we’re committed to a long-term net-zero operations strategy. We are involved in our communities and support causes where we can make the most impact.

People matter at Kinaxis and here are some of the perks and benefits we offer, which may vary by location and employee:

• Flexible vacation and Kinaxis Days (company-wide days off)
• Flexible work options
• Physical and mental well-being programs
• Regularly scheduled virtual fitness classes
• Mentorship programs, training, and career development
• Recognition programs and referral rewards
• Hackathons

For more information, visit the Kinaxis website at www.kinaxis.com or the company’s blog at http://blog.kinaxis.com.

Kinaxis welcomes candidates to apply to our inclusive community. We provide accommodations upon request to ensure fairness and accessibility throughout our recruitment process for all candidates, including those with specific needs or disabilities. If you require an accommodation, please reach out to us at [email protected]. This contact information is for accessibility requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.

Kinaxis is committed to ensuring a fair and transparent recruitment process. We use artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the initial step of the recruitment process to compare submitted resumes against the job description to identify candidates whose education, experience, and skills most closely match the requirements of the role. After the initial screening, all subsequent decisions regarding your application, including final selection, are made by our human recruitment team. AI does not make any final hiring decisions.