E-commerce Product Operations Manager

ABOUT THE POSITION

Our mission at Columbia Sportswear is to unlock the outdoors for everyone.

The Ecommerce Product Operations Manager is a key leader within the eCommerce team responsible for evolving how product information is created, managed, and activated to deliver a best-in-class consumer experience. This role partners closely with Product Creation, Technology, and Wholesale teams to influence how product data is structured and delivered-ensuring it is consumer-first, complete, consistent, and optimized for digital commerce.

This role acts as a critical bridge between product creation and digital experience, driving alignment on data standards, improving inputs, and enabling product information to better support discovery, engagement, and conversion.

You will also own product operations across eCommerce, including product setup and product response, ensuring a seamless experience from launch through post-purchase. This includes acting as the voice of the consumer, identifying friction points, and coordinating cross-functional action to improve conversion and reduce returns.

In addition, you will lead the strategy and management of third-party tools and solutions that power product discovery and merchandising-continuously evolving how Columbia surfaces and presents products in the digital ecosystem.

This role also includes direct people leadership, ensuring strong execution across onsite experience and product operations.

The ideal candidate is both strategic and highly operational, with a strong balance of data thinking, process rigor, and consumer empathy. You are energized by improving systems, influencing partners, and driving measurable improvements in how products are experienced online.

HOWYOU'LLMAKE A DIFFERENCE

Influence Product Data Strategy & Inputs

• Partner with Product, Technology, and Wholesale teams to influence how product data is created, structured, and delivered

• Advocate for a consumer-first approach to product data, ensuring key attributes, content, and details support how consumers shop digitally

• Define and socialize data standards for completeness, consistency, and usability across digital channels

• Identify gaps in product data inputs and work cross-functionally to improve upstream processes and outcomes

Enable Product Data for Digital Commerce

• Define how product data should be leveraged to power search, navigation, personalization, and product detail experiences

• Partner with Digital Journey, Buying/Merchandising, and Analytics teams to ensure product data supports discovery and conversion

• Identify opportunities to enhance taxonomy, attributes, and product structure to improve performance

• Connect product data improvements to tangible business outcomes (conversion, add-to-cart, return rate)

• Unify real-time product performance insights with streamlined bulk enrichment tools to maximize sales and catalog discoverability

Product Discovery Innovation & Experience Enhancement

• Lead strategy for uplifting product discovery experiences through new features, tools, and capabilities like Shopper Agent on PDP

• Identify and implement solutions that enhance how consumers find, evaluate, and engage with products (e.g., finders, recommendations, compare tools, outfitting/bundling)

• Continuously evaluate emerging technologies and capabilities that improve product discovery and merchandising

• Partner with cross-functional teams to test and scale new features that drive incremental engagement and revenue

Product Operations Ownership

• Own end-to-end product operations execution across eCommerce, including:

  • Product setup and QA

  • Product readiness and launch coordination

  • Data validation and accuracy checks

• Ensure high-quality, timely execution across all product-related workflows

• Continuously improve processes to increase speed, consistency, and scalability

Product Response & Consumer Feedback Loop

• Own product response strategy, including Ratings & Reviews, Q&A, and return reason insights

• Act as the voice of the consumer, translating feedback into actionable improvements

• Partner with Product, Buying/Merchandising, and Operations teams to address root causes of friction (e.g., low conversion, high return rates)

• Establish clear processes to ensure consumer feedback is captured, analyzed, and acted upon consistently

3rd Party Tools & Platform Management

• Own strategy, sourcing, onboarding, and management of third-party tools that support product discovery.

• Evaluate new vendors and solutions that enhance product discovery, personalization, and merchandising

• Ensure tools are effectively integrated and delivering measurable incremental value

• Track performance, adoption, and ROI, making recommendations for optimization or change

Cross-Functional Leadership & Alignment

• Act as a connector across Product Creation, Technology, Wholesale, Merchandising, Analytics, and eCommerce teams

• Align stakeholders on product data priorities, experience improvements, and execution plans

• Drive clarity and accountability across initiatives that span multiple teams

• Ensure product data and operations are fully integrated into broader eCommerce strategies

Performance & Continuous Improvement

• Define and monitor KPIs related to product data quality, product performance, conversion, add-to-cart rate, and return rate

• Partner with Analytics to measure the impact of product data and discovery improvements

• Identify opportunities to improve product experience through data, content, tools, and process enhancements

• Champion continuous improvement across product operations and discovery experiences

Ways of Working & Process Evolution

• Improve how teams work with product data by driving more aligned, efficient, and scalable processes

• Introduce governance, tools, and frameworks that increase data quality, visibility, and accountability

• Enable faster, more agile workflows across Product and eCommerce teams

• Support a shift toward more proactive, insight-driven decision-making

YOU ARE

• Consumer-First: You advocate for what the consumer needs to confidently purchase

• Detail-Obsessed: You care deeply about data quality, accuracy, and consistency

• Influential: You drive alignment across teams without owning all inputs

• Strategic & Operational: You connect big-picture thinking with execution excellence

• Performance-Oriented: You understand how product data and experience drive conversion and returns

• Innovative: You are always looking for new ways to improve product discovery and engagement

YOUHAVE

• Bachelor's or masters degree, or applicable certification or equivalent experience.

• 6-8+ years of experience in eCommerce, product operations, product data, or related roles.

• Experience working with product data, PIM ecosystems, or digital merchandising tools.

• Salsify experience is strongly preferred.

• Strong understanding of how product data drives search, navigation, product experience, and conversion.

• Experience influencing cross-functional teams across Product, Technology, and Operations.

• Experience managing or implementing third-party tools and platforms.

• Strong analytical mindset with the ability to connect product data quality to business performance.

• Experience improving processes, workflows, or systems in a complex environment.

• Strong communication and influencing skills across multiple stakeholder groups.

#LI-JC1

#Hybrid

This job description is not meant to be an all-inclusive list of duties and responsibilities, but constitutes a general definition of the position's scope and function in the company.