AcademicWorks is seeking a Director of Product Management to help us delight our users through solving complex problems by understanding their business practices, motivations and pains. In this role, you’ll lead the product and design team and work closely with engineering and our CTO, services, marketing, and sales. You will both iterate on and improve existing products, as well as develop new products from inception to product launch.

You will work closely with the executive team to define the product strategy through discovery and validation of market problems, leverage of distinctive competencies, and analysis of the market landscape and competition. You’ll provide input on product positioning, pricing strategy, and the definition of success. Day-in and day-out, you’ll lead and mentor the product team, and together, you will execute on a product roadmap that incorporates development for products in a range of different stages, from mature, to growth, to recently launched, to just getting started. You will drive both the definition and execution of product features from vision to market launch and rollout. It’ll be imperative that you exhibit excellent judgment on how to prioritize and strike the right balance for driving adoption among existing clients and acquiring new clients. You’ll need the ability to understand technical concepts and balance those with business needs to make appropriate trade-offs. Perhaps most importantly, though, you’ll be the key product evangelist and effectively communicate the product vision both within the company and outside the company, with clients and prospective clients.

On a daily basis, your time will be focused on solving our users’ biggest problems, both through enhancements to our current products and through innovative new solutions. You will specify a product research roadmap focused on discovering and defining problems our clients are facing. Through engaging with clients, sales, support, services, and marketing, you and your team will conduct in-depth research to understand the business processes of our clients and translate those into actionable product initiatives. From there, you will direct, create, and execute on product plans that incorporate delivering new features, beta rollouts, adoption programs, and feedback loops. You’ll have your finger on the pulse of all things product, plan for research that informs design, and write business requirements that it are completed in advance of when engineering needs them to be able to successfully execute on the roadmap. You’ll also oversee a steady stream of high-value, low-effort feature improvements that supplement each release. You will work cross-functionally to communicate new features and product initiatives both internally, and to clients and prospects.

About You

You’re kind, dedicated, talented, engaged, and responsible. We’re looking for someone who:

• Considers themselves a “full-stack” product manager, who can jump in anywhere in the process, from ideation to launch

• Takes pride in delivering solutions our clients love

• Is comfortable juggling multiple high priority projects at the same time

• Is excited to mentor and develop their team through product management best practices

• Owns their own decisions, and feels responsibility for their team

• Fully embraces empathy for the user and strives to become a subject matter expert

• Ideally has experience with the higher education market

To Apply

Send an email to [email protected] with a bit more about yourself, what attracts you to AcademicWorks, and any additional information you think would be relevant (your resumé, your portfolio, examples of features you’ve taken from ideation to launch, success metrics, etc.). We’ll be back in touch within a few days, and if things look bright, we’ll start the interview process!

About AcademicWorks

The complete scholarship management platform

We're a growing 40+ person, product-focused SaaS company improving access to education through innovative technology and fanatical customer service. After 5 years on the market, we have helped hundreds of thousands of students find the aid they need while helping schools expand their reach to find the best and brightest applicants.

We earnestly believe we're making the world a better place by providing students the opportunity to attend college, and we have both the numbers and the anecdotes to stand behind.

We take pride in a culture that helps employees thrive at work and in their personal lives. Our brand new offices are at 38th and Lamar across from Central Market, and we provide bike storage, showers, and healthy (OK, and some less healthy) snacks on-site. Work-life balance is a priority, and we all work to be flexible with our schedules to accommodate our coworkers’ needs.

About the Product Team

We’re a small, but growing team who work closely with engineering, marketing, and the leadership team and encourage company-wide collaboration. We believe that our team success is defined by knowing our users, the success of our colleagues, and accountability to each other.

About the Process

Interviewing can be stressful. We want to do our best to get to know one another thoroughly while being reasonable and accommodating. Not only does this help us become familiar with you, but it affords you the opportunity to determine if AcademicWorks is the right fit for you. That said, this is what we anticipate the interview process to look like:

1. A quick introductory phone call with our CTO to be sure we’re all on the same page

2. A 30-60 minute face-to-face for coffee  with the CTO to learn more about our team and the role (FaceTime or WebEx isn’t out of the question)

3. A 30-60 minute follow-up call to learn more about our history and direction with one of our founders

4. A half-day on-site interview. This will involve 1-2 hours of further discussion of your design experience, philosophies and how you work. You'll meet the rest of our product team, at least one product engineer, and someone from the marketing team.

5. You'll hear back from us with a hiring decision!

FYI!