How to hire a senior director, product development

How to hire a senior director, product development, step by step

Here's a step-by-step senior director, product development hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a senior director, product development job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new senior director, product development
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a senior director, product development do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a senior director, product development, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A senior director, product development's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, senior directors, product development from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list shows salaries for various types of senior directors, product development.

   Type of Senior Director, Product Development	Description	Hourly rate
   Senior Director, Product Development	Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers plan programs to generate interest in products or services. They work with art directors, sales agents, and financial staff members.	$51-115
   Development & Program Manager	The responsibilities of a development and program manager depend on one's place or industry of employment. Typically, they are in charge of overseeing the operations behind various projects and programs, ensuring everything is running smoothly and efficiently... Show more	$36-65
   Product Management Director	A Product Management Director is responsible for a business product planning as well as execution throughout the life cycle of the business. They create the product strategy and requirements, develop and execute tactical plans, and maintain product and market knowledge.	$53-105

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Project Management
   • Product Development
   • Digital Marketing
   • Business Development
   • Product Management
   • SR
   • R
   • Software Development
   • FDA
   • Lifecycle Management
   • Clinical Trials
   • Product Strategy
   • Strategic Direction
   • API

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Manage the software developers, SAAS hosting operations, documentation resources, technology partnerships and quality assurance teams.
   • Manage interdepartmental groups using advance simulation methodology to guide technology development direction for device and process architecture base on application impacts.
   • Reduce support costs of Siebel maintenance by incorporating offshore resources for both development and QA.
   • Develop and launch an API upgrade project for prepay card ($ 2MM net revenue/yr).
   • Manage company intellectual portfolio and develop key relationships with vendors and clients including leading global technology companies.
   • Champion the creation of technical support operational dashboard leveraging Hyperion to provide key performance metrics to leadership teams globally.

   More senior director, product development duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your senior director, product development job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A senior director, product development can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, senior directors, product development' average salary in montana is 29% less than in washington.
   • Seniority. Entry-level senior directors, product development 56% less than senior-level senior directors, product development.
   • Certifications. A senior director, product development with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a senior director, product development's salary.

   Average senior director, product development salary

   $160,980yearly

   $77.39 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level senior director, product development salary

   $107,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 20, 2026

   Average senior director, product development salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$191,568	$92
   2	Washington	$188,807	$91
   3	Arizona	$171,123	$82
   4	Oregon	$166,319	$80
   5	Maryland	$166,222	$80
   6	Pennsylvania	$162,931	$78
   7	Massachusetts	$161,930	$78
   8	Missouri	$157,982	$76
   9	New York	$150,072	$72
   10	Illinois	$148,753	$72
   11	Ohio	$147,454	$71
   12	Colorado	$145,411	$70
   13	Wisconsin	$142,027	$68
   14	Florida	$141,184	$68
   15	Arkansas	$136,443	$66
   16	Texas	$131,560	$63
   17	Georgia	$127,179	$61

   Average senior director, product development salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Genentech	$204,767	$98.45	79
   2	Walmart	$190,808	$91.73	260
   3	RealNetworks	$183,424	$88.18
   4	Everyday Health	$177,724	$85.44	1
   5	Allbirds	$175,832	$84.53
   6	Medidata	$173,498	$83.41	3
   7	Micron Technology	$165,422	$79.53	49
   8	Cleveland Clinic	$164,478	$79.08	24
   9	Glaxosmithkline	$161,037	$77.42
   10	Hoffmann-LA Roche Inc	$159,878	$76.86	8
   11	Inovalon	$158,378	$76.14	36
   12	TUSHY	$157,798	$75.86	5
   13	Intercontinental Exchange Holdings Inc	$157,798	$75.86
   14	Sunquest Information Systems	$157,221	$75.59
   15	T1D Exchange	$157,112	$75.53
   16	Vantage Deluxe World Travel	$156,804	$75.39
   17	Central	$153,560	$73.83	3
   18	Pharmaceutical Product Development	$152,643	$73.39
   19	Blackhawk Network	$150,227	$72.22	3
   20	Oscar	$149,171	$71.72	6

4. Writing a senior director, product development job description

   A senior director, product development job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of a senior director, product development job description:

   Senior director, product development job description example

   The Senior Director leads the Product Development team in strategy and delivery of world class products for our customers. You'll leverage your deep experience in and passion for healthcare, technology, and solving customer problems to develop and drive product roadmaps and product teams that help bring to life some of healthcare's most promising opportunities in digital health, patient experience, personalized care, and healthcare operations.
   
   As an experienced healthcare technology product leader you will focus relentlessly on customer needs to establish and continuously update the vision and strategy for your product areas. You will work extensively with data, market analyses, patients or user researchers, clinicians, executives, data scientists, information technology professionals, and operations leaders to define the problems, opportunities, objectives, and desired outcomes that your products address. Working backwards from the target outcomes, you'll drive definition and development of the product capabilities and features that are most effective and feasible, while constantly pushing the envelope toward strategic innovation and forward-thinking approaches.
   
   The Senior Director of Product Development has proven success executing highly complex or specialized products, as well as managing product teams across a program or portfolio of products. You adapt precedents and are comfortable making significant departures from traditional approaches to develop remarkable solutions. You're a skilled facilitator and influencer who guides cross-functional teams in executing the principles of Agile product development. You are a servant leader to your teams and colleagues, setting the example, clearing roadblocks, facilitating team learning and growth, and ensuring continuously improving processes to maximize remarkable, timely, and quality solutions.
   
   Also, as a Digital Products and Services team member you are responsible for securely managing information systems throughout their lifecycle, including knowing what information systems are within your scope of responsibility, understanding what sensitive data is stored, transmitted, or processed on those information systems, enforcing the security principles of least privilege, knowing what events may constitute a cybersecurity incident, and understanding your role in security incident response activities.
   #JoinTeamAubergine #NovantHealth Let Novant Health be the destination for your professional growth.
   
   At Novant Health, one of our core values is diversity and inclusion. By engaging the strengths and talents of each team member, we ensure a strong organization capable of providing remarkable healthcare to our patients, families and communities. Therefore, we invite applicants from all group dynamics to apply to our exciting career opportunities.
   
   Qualifications
   
   * Education: Bachelors Degree, required. Graduate Degree, preferred.
   * Experience: 15+ years in Technology Product Development/Management, required; with at least 7 years in the Healthcare industry.
   * Licensure/Certification: Current or prior Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Product Owner (CPO), and/or Project Management Professional (PMP), required.
   * Additional skills (required): Business analysis, user-centered design / design thinking, product development, project management, budget management, and team leadership experience required. Strong technology skills and experience delivering cloud-native products required.
   * Additional skills (preferred): Ability to travel to Novant leadership meetings as needed (approximately 1-2 times per year).
   
   Responsibilities
   
   It is the responsibility of every Novant Health team member to deliver the most remarkable patient experience in every dimension, every time.
   
   * Our team members are part of an environment that fosters team work, team member engagement and community involvement.
   * The successful team member has a commitment to leveraging diversity and inclusion in support of quality care.
   * All Novant Health team members are responsible for fostering a safe patient environment driven by the principles of "First Do No Harm".

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   There are a few common ways to find senior directors, product development for your business:

   • Promoting internally or recruiting from your existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals from friends, family members, and current employees.
   • Attend job fairs at local colleges to meet candidates with the right educational background.
   • Use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to recruit passive job-seekers.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your senior director, product development job on Zippia to find and recruit senior director, product development candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting senior directors, product development requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new senior director, product development

   Once you've decided on a perfect senior director, product development candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   To prepare for the new senior director, product development first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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