Derek Garson

About Derek Garson

Product leader with 15+ years of experience driving transformative initiatives across advertising, analytics, and enterprise platforms. At Indeed, I’ve led 10+ R&D teams to deliver solutions to drive advertiser ROI and platform revenue, including the development of a campaign management system and a holistic employer experience that supported >100% growth in self-serve usage and 25% YoY revenue growth, surpassing $2.4b in revenue in 2024. I also led Indeed\'s employer Analytics organization, growing the team by 4x and launching the first cross-product analytics platform. This experience was adopted by over advertisers (representing >50% of total Indeed revenue) within the first quarter of launch, and involved re-architecting Indeed’s legacy tech stack to OneHost and GraphQL as well as improving efficiency of our services via integration of a Vertica analytics database. I also founded Indeed’s Austin Enterprise Sales Strategy team and partnered with sales to build a sales pricing tool that supports $300M+ in sales deals annually. My leadership style blends strategic vision with hands-on execution, cross-functional alignment, and deep empathy for users. I thrive in ambiguous, high-impact environments where I can deliver both innovation and measurable results. MBA with distinction (UT Austin)| BS in Finance & International Studies (Indiana University) Fluent in Spanish | Proficient in Portuguese | Certified Scrum Master Skills: Product Strategy & Execution Enterprise UX & Ad Tech B2B SaaS & Monetization Agile Product Leadership Cross-Functional Alignment Advertiser Analytics & Insights User-Centered Design Innovation Go-to-Market Strategy Revenue & Growth Optimization People Leadership & Mentorship Strategic Vision Data-Driven Decision Making Organizational Change Management Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Experience

1. Director of Product Management

   Indeed

   Jul 2022 — Present · Austin, TX, US

   In my current role as Product Director, I led a transformative initiative at Indeed to harmonize user experiences across the spectrum of Indeed\'s enterprise employer offerings. This involved establishing and steering a ten-team R&D organization in close partnership with the UX team. We embarked on a data-driven journey, leveraging insights from six years of research encompassing 90+ studies. This collaborative effort allowed us to define the optimal employer journey and identify previously unmet needs, and to develop detailed plans to enable this workflow by team.I then supported transition of several of these teams to new organizational structures in 2023, enabling the continuity and efficacy of our work. I am now directly leading teams building Indeed\'s next-gen ad system, representing more than 25% of all Indeed revenue, to increase employer’s control, transparency, and overall ROI on the platform, while also supporting cross-team development of the enhanced employer experience. During my time in this role I have played a pivotal role in achieving remarkable results, including a growth of self-serve usage by over 100% and a ~25% YoY increase in revenue.

Education

• Indiana University - Kelley School of Business

  Bachelor of Science, Business; Finance and International Studies

  2002 — 2006

• The University of Texas at Austin

  Master of Business Administration (MBA)

  2012 — 2014