Director Product Management

**About us**:
At Pearson, we’re committed to a world that’s always learning and to our talented team who makes it all possible. We are bold thinkers and standout innovators who motivate each other to explore new frontiers in an environment that supports and inspires us to always be better. With a rich heritage that combines 150 years of experience in publishing with the latest learning technology and digital services, we help people learn whatever, wherever and however they choose.

**Purpose**:
The Director, Institutional Product Managementreports to the Vice President of Product Management, Institutions. The Director, Institutional Product Managementleads a product team to assess market and customer needs, create a product strategy, define the roadmap for the product(s), monitor its development and delivery, and communicate with internal and external stakeholders. This Director and team will focus specifically on building a strategy around simplifying the portfolio and building a digital first agile portfolio that is able to easily respond to market needs. This role will be instrumental in leading their team from a print-based publishing product team to a digital-first agile solution developing product team addressing the key needs of the ELL market. The team works closely with Digital Product Management, Content Production, Assessment Production, User Experience and Efficacy to ensure the customer and market need for Pearson’s ELL Institutional products are carried through into software development. The Director is expected to be an expert in Agile Software Development practices and will be part of the implementation of those practices within the Product Management team. They must also provide mentorship for internal stakeholders who are maturing in their knowledge of agile practices. The Director will lead their team through the digitization of courseware to promote and ensure a solution selling value proposition for customers. The Director will lead their team through the simplification of the product and platform portfolio to increase agility and find efficiencies in operations.

**Responsibilities**
- Define and execute the new ELL portfolio strategy of solution selling designing user journeys from first touch through the end of the learning experience; including assessing, teaching, and re-teaching in a digital first, but hybrid solution, supporting both the learners and those that support the learners (teachers, admin, etc.)
- Develop and continually refine product vision and roadmaps based on strategy and investment priorities, focusing on ELL learners utilizing agile methodologies
- Leverage Pearson’s market research, competitive intelligence, and user experience research capabilities to reflect the voice of the customer in all product roadmaps
- Ensure all stakeholder voices are heard and clear priorities are set for development teams, especially focusing on key features and capabilities required to stay ahead of the competition
- Clearly communicate product plans and business cases to the team and stakeholders, articulating both the product’s value proposition as well as defining and measuring metrics for its success
- Support preparation for release increments by coordinating the activities of multiple teams and ensuring customers and other stakeholders are informed in a timely manner
- Support all quality management efforts by assuring that the aggregate results of the teams are routinely integrated; that performance, security, reliability requirements and other standards are met
- Work with our research teams to define, measure, and improve the efficacy of our digital products
- Advocate for effective resource allocation decisions that support the program vision
- Evaluate dashboards and reports to ensure the successful delivery of our products and adherence to best practices.
- Build deep expertise and empathy for the customers and learners that use our curriculum, services, and software products
- Develop rapport and trust with key stakeholders
- Keep abreast of industry trends, technologies, and competitive analyses to identify new opportunities and initiatives which ultimately serve the long-term product strategy
- Lead and support continual process improvement by proposing optimizations for any aspect of the development environment and lifecycle

**Qualifications**
- Degree or equivalent preferred
- Experience in institutional product management leadership: experience of working with agile methodologies; able to lead and motivate cross functional mission teams
- Leadership skills; able to inspire and motivate teams around a continuously evolving agenda designed to delight our customers
- Ability to balance strategic thinking/long term opportunities with operational focus
- Understands customer empathy and ability to translate customer insights into winning product management strategies
- Understanding of the digital and EdTech world, and able to translate this into product str