SR. BETA PROGRAM MANAGER at FortuneBrands

The Sr. Beta Program Manager is a hands-on leadership role at the center of Fortune Brands Innovations’ connected product validation strategy. This is not a project coordination role — it is a quality-focused, field-oriented program lead who owns the end-to-end consumer validation lifecycle across alpha, beta, and delta phases for smart home products spanning hardware, firmware, mobile applications, and cloud software. This role demands a candidate who combines the analytical rigor of a QA engineer, the cross-functional fluency of a product manager, and the field instincts of a hands-on technologist. You will be a trusted partner to QA, Engineering, Software Product Management, Hardware (Category) Product Management, UX, and Customer Support — and a vocal, data-backed advocate for real-world product quality. This role requires someone who rolls up their sleeves: reproducing reported issues, triaging bug quality before JIRA import, differentiating true defects from feature requests, and holding the line on release readiness — backed by data, not diplomacy. POSITION LOCATION: This position can work hybrid in either Deerfield, IL or San Francisco, CA.  RESPONSIBILITIES:  Consumer Validation Program Ownership • Design and execute end-to-end consumer validation programs across alpha, beta, and delta stages for connected hardware, firmware, mobile apps, and cloud services. • Develop structured test plans, targeted test scenarios, and use-case libraries with Product Management, QA, and Engineering — ensuring coverage of real-world edge cases. • Manage simultaneous test programs with discipline: tester recruitment, device logistics, NDA and trade compliance, communications cadence, and issue tracking. • Recruit and manage diverse, global tester pools segmented by persona, device type, geography, and platform to ensure representation across target markets. • Monitor tester engagement; identify and address participation risks early to prevent drop-off and sustain high-quality feedback throughout test cycles. • Coordinate required software builds, firmware versions, and hardware units to ensure program readiness across all phases. • Partner with shipping and logistics teams to ensure on-time device delivery for synchronized program launches.Bug Triage, Signal Quality & QA Partnership • Reproduce reported bugs from Centercode prior to JIRA import — verifying steps to reproduce, capturing logs/screenshots/video, and confirming device, firmware, and app version context. • Work daily with QA to validate issue severity and classification ahead of bug scrubs; serve as the first quality gate for every ticket entering the engineering queue. • Distinguish between verified software bugs, hardware/firmware defects, environment issues, duplicate reports, and feature requests — and reduce vague or non-actionable submissions through improved survey design, targeted feedback prompts, and tester education. • Actively participate in cross-functional bug scrub sessions with QA, Engineering, and Product; present pre-triaged, evidence-backed issues with clear severity assessments. • Own the Centercode-to-JIRA workflow: enforce submission quality standards, establish import criteria, and refine feedback templates to raise the baseline quality of inbound reports. • Track issues from initial report through resolution; follow up with Engineering to confirm closure and communicate outcomes back to testers.Data, Insights & AI-Powered Analysis • Use Claude AI and other AI-powered tools to accelerate documentation, analysis, survey development, and reporting — without substituting AI output for critical judgment. • Synthesize survey data, telemetry, usage patterns, and qualitative tester feedback into actionable insights — not just summaries of Centercode’s default reports. • Identify recurring failure patterns, user experience friction points, and systemic product risks before they become post-launch customer complaints. • Apply critical judgment to AI-generated findings; bring domain expertise to distinguish meaningful signals from noise. • Build customized dashboards and trend analyses beyond out-of-the-box platform views, tailored to team and leadership needs. • Correlate beta feedback with Customer Support ticket trends, historical NPI data, and post-launch metrics to surface recurring or emerging issues early.Cross-Functional Partnership & Stakeholder Collaboration • Serve as an embedded partner to QA, Engineering, Software PM, Hardware (Category) PM, UX, and Customer Support — not a peripheral coordinator. • Translate real-world user feedback into concrete, prioritized product improvements that balance technical feasibility with customer impact. • Advocate directly for product quality concerns backed by data — including flagging release-readiness risks to leadership when field evidence warrants it. • Engage one-on-one with testers to gather qualitative feedback, troubleshoot reported issues, and maintain a high-quality tester experience. • Coordinate with global stakeholders across multiple time zones. • Maintain strict adherence to Prototype Security protocols and Trade Compliance requirements across all phases.Reporting: Cross-Functional & Executive • Maintain two reporting tracks: detailed cross-functional reports (data-dense, issue-specific, and actionable for QA, Engineering, and Product) and executive summaries (business impact, release risk, and go/no-go recommendations). • Develop weekly, milestone, and end-of-program reports with clear metrics: issue volume trends, severity distributions, tester engagement, signal-to-noise ratios, and reproduction rates. • Create presentations for senior leadership grounded in field data — not sanitized for comfort. • Use Power BI, Tableau, or equivalent tools to build repeatable, self-service reporting views for cross-functional partners.Program Continuous Improvement & Tooling • Continuously improve testing frameworks, Centercode configurations, feedback templates, and tester onboarding processes. • Build Confluence documentation that captures institutional knowledge: program playbooks, triage criteria, escalation paths, and lessons learned. • Refine tester feedback quality through survey design best practices, targeted follow-up, and tester education. • Monitor competitive landscape, industry trends, and evolving customer expectations to benchmark and strengthen program effectiveness.