Discovery Product Manager - Springfield

Photon is seeking an experienced Discovery Product Manager with a proven track record in shaping findability features and search-driven digital experiences. The ideal candidate will own the end-to-end product strategy for discovery, working closely with engineering, design, data, and business teams to help customers find the right products faster and with greater confidence.

Responsibilities:

• Define and own the product vision, strategy, and roadmap for discovery — including search relevance, browse navigation, filtering, faceting, and product recommendations
• Shape and prioritize findability features grounded in customer behavior data, search analytics, and business objectives
• Partner with search engineering and data science teams to improve ranking algorithms, query understanding, and relevance tuning
• Translate complex discovery problems (zero-result searches, low-conversion browse paths, poor filter usability) into clear, actionable product requirements
• Drive end-to-end product lifecycle management for discovery features — from ideation and experimentation through launch and continuous optimization
• Define and track discovery-specific KPIs: search success rate, findability rate, zero-result rate, click-through rate, add-to-cart from search, and browse conversion
• Collaborate with UX to design intuitive search and browse experiences that reduce friction and improve product discoverability
• Manage and prioritize the product backlog with clear user stories, acceptance criteria, and measurable outcomes
• Facilitate Agile ceremonies and drive alignment across cross-functional teams including engineering, QA, analytics, and merchandising
• Drive stakeholder communication including discovery roadmap updates, experiment results, and executive reporting
• Manage product risks, dependencies, and trade-offs across the discovery domain

Requirements:

• 6–10 years of product management experience, with a strong focus on search, discovery, or findability products
• Proven experience owning search and browse features in a digital commerce or content-heavy platform
• Deep understanding of search fundamentals — query processing, relevance ranking, faceted navigation, synonyms, and boosting strategies
• Experience working with search platforms such as Elasticsearch, Solr, Algolia, or similar
• Strong analytical skills with hands-on experience using search analytics and A/B experimentation to drive feature decisions
• Familiarity with web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) for effective collaboration with engineering teams
• Experience with APIs, integrations, and third-party systems in a digital commerce context
• Strong experience in Agile/Scrum methodologies
• Hands-on experience with JIRA, Confluence, or similar tools
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills
• Experience with personalization, recommendations, or ML-driven ranking in a commerce environment
• Familiarity with digital analytics platforms (Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics) and search-specific tooling
• Understanding of SEO and its relationship to on-site search and category page structure
• Exposure to headless CMS and composable architectures
• Experience in automotive, parts, or parts-fitment search (year/make/model filtering) is a strong plus
• Experience working in enterprise-scale environments with large product catalogs
• Product management certifications (CSPO, Pragmatic, or similar) are a plus
• Experience with voice search or conversational search interfaces
• Understanding of CI/CD and DevOps practices
• Exposure to cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP
• Background in catalog management, taxonomy, or data enrichment