Product Manager

ABOUT APPLY APPLY is the Agentic Customer Experience (ACx) partner for the world's most ambitious consumer and entertainment brands. We bring together deep domain expertise across Retail, CPG, Sports, and Media with AI-native delivery capability, designing and delivering agentic solutions that turn CX vision into commercial reality. We are the partner of choice for brands like Arc'teryx, NFL, Lululemon, and Kraft Heinz. For more information, visit applydigital.com. LOCATION: APPLY is hybrid/remote-friendly. The preferred candidate should be based in the Greater Los Angeles area ,__with working hours that align to PST . This is a hybrid role and requires regular on-site presence at our client's office, at least 3 days a week . THE ROLE: As a Product Consultant embedded with our client in sports entertainment, you will be responsible for driving the delivery of world-class video and advertising experiences across web, mobile, and connected devices. This is a technically demanding space — spanning live streaming infrastructure, video delivery pipelines, and programmatic advertising — and you will need to be comfortable going deep with engineering teams, evaluating technical tradeoffs, and holding your own in conversations with vendors and architects. Working alongside the Product Manager on the Video team and Director of Product on the Ads team, you will take ownership of roadmap execution and day-to-day delivery across these two high-impact product areas — Video and Ads — collaborating with engineering, design, and business stakeholders to ensure we ship with quality and velocity. You will be an active contributor to product strategy: leading roadmap conversations, identifying new opportunities, developing use cases, and helping define initiatives from the ground up. You'll own meaningful scope across the product lifecycle — from discovery and problem definition through to launch — with direct exposure to and influence with Product and business leadership at one of the world's most recognized sports entertainment brands. RESPONSIBILITIES Delivery & Execution Own the operational health of the video and ads backlogs: grooming, ticket hygiene, user stories, sprint tracking, and release readiness across two squads. Lead coordination across a vendor ecosystem that includes the video player, encoding/pipeline, video analytics and observability, casting and cross-device continuity, and ad insertion partners — including holding vendors accountable to commitments and evaluating technical tradeoffs. Translate product direction into well-scoped product spec docs and ensure they stay accurate as work evolves. Own release tracking and delivery reporting, proactively surfacing risks and blockers before they become misses. Serve as the connective tissue between platform teams, engineering, QA, design, and external partners on a daily basis. Strategy Drive roadmap and strategy conversations across Video and Ads — leading opportunity identification, initiative sizing, and prioritization decisions. Partner with the Ads Product Director to develop and maintain the ads roadmap; help shape what goes on it, not just execute what's there. Identify new product opportunities across streaming and monetization — bring structured thinking to early-stage ideas and develop them into business cases. Stay close to industry trends in streaming media, programmatic advertising, and emerging platforms; bring relevant signals back to the team and influence direction. Stakeholder & Product Development Build and own direct relationships with client stakeholders across product, engineering, ad ops, and business teams. Lead the development of user-facing features — gather requirements, synthesize feedback, define success metrics. Drive new initiative discovery — interviews, use-case development, competitive research — as the team explores new product surface areas. Own product areas end-to-end: from problem definition through launch. WHAT YOU BRING 3 to 5 years of product management experience on a digital product team. Strong understanding of video streaming technologies, content delivery networks (CDNs), encoding, playback optimization, and digital video advertising. Sharp product instincts: you lead roadmap conversations, spot what's missing, and push back when something isn't right. Proven experience coordinating with external technical vendors or partners; comfortable holding people to commitments. Clear, precise written communication — your tickets, PRDs, and updates don't require follow-up questions. Track record of taking products from concept to launch. Curiosity about the business, not just the backlog — you want to understand why things are being built, not just what. Nice to Have: Hands-on experience with ad insertion platforms or DAI/SSAI workflows. Experience with video analytics (QoE) or observability platforms (Mux, Conviva, or similar). Ability to analyze product data and translate insights into actionable improvements. Excellent co