Be A Part of our Team!
Join a working family that is dedicated to the mission of the work we do!
Teaching Strategies, headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, is the leader in the Early Childhood Education (ECE) sector, providing the most widely-used developmental assessment and curriculum system in the US, serving children from birth through 3rd grade. Recently, Teaching Strategies launched a first-of-its-kind integrated digital curriculum, assessment, and family communications solution to support traditional and remote learning environments and is experiencing significant growth.
The Early Childhood Education sector has been one of the fastest growing segments of the Education market over the past few years. With bi-partisan support and an increasing understanding of the positive impact that whole child development can have on academic and life success, the sector is expected to continue steady growth in the public and private sectors in the coming years, worldwide.
In addition to the very healthy market tailwinds, there are two other compelling reasons this opportunity is compelling:
There are few sectors where the intersection of for-profit and for-good combine so powerfully. The opportunity to create down-stream lasting effects on human outcomes is profound: 80% of the human brain is formed by the age of 3, and providing the right developmental experiences from birth to age 5 has an outsized effect on what happens in school and, more importantly, in life. By 3rd grade, developmental deficits are very difficult to remediate and too often seed indelible effect. There is no way to move the needle on human opportunity more drastically than improving the quality and availability of effective early childhood learning
The early childhood space is a step or two behind the powerful advances seen in similar industries such as healthcare, in which the application of powerful data, recommendation engines, dashboards, and interactive tools has significantly increased the speed and precision of diagnosis, remediation, and interaction between practitioner and patient. Early childhood education is one of the few last frontiers in which the powerful use of data and insights have not yet elevated work streams and efficacy.
There is no other company in the market with the reach, reputation, mission-orientation, balance sheet, and financial sponsors to make the kind of significant new headway over the next 3-5 years as Teaching Strategies. Teaching Strategies is on pace to build a powerful digital SaaS platform that more seamlessly connects the 5 pillars of its designed solution to maximize child outcomes: curriculum, assessment, family engagement, child-facing tech, and professional development.
Position overview:
Based anywhere in the U.S. and reporting directly to the VP, Product, the Senior Product Manager will be an integral member of the product team and a core driver of the company’s transition to a digital SaaS company.
The Senior Product Manager will be responsible for creating functionality and digital services to drive connected, intelligent workflows for teachers across the Teach, Assess and other pillars as appropriate. This focus will include our new SmartTeach Instructional Planning tool. You will be responsible for working in close cooperation with the VP, Education in setting and then driving execution against the strategy and roadmap for our next generation teaching and curricular platform and associated user experiences.
This individual will partner with other product managers, systems analysts, developers, and UX/UI designers in the design, development and implementation of digital solutions to drive revenue, product innovation and efficiencies in our business. This role is a direct report to the VP, Product but will have a strong dotted line to the VP of Education.
Specific roles and responsibilities:
- Drive the detailed definition of digital product functionality and experiences to support the articulation of strategy and roadmap established by the VP, Education
- Stay abreast of evolving market and customer needs to guide product strategy and roadmap decisions as a thought partner to the VP, Education and the VP of Product.
- Serve as a voice of the customer for SmartTeach and our ecosystem of teaching and curricular tools, continuously looking at the product from an end-user’s perspective; driving the complete experience to best outcome possible for customers and the business.
- Partner with product leadership and cross-functional stakeholders to develop a vision, strategy and prioritized feature backlog to inform and support the product roadmap
- Ensure cohesion across all product lines by compellingly communicating your ideas to a wide range of key stakeholders including the development teams, the product and business teams, and the broader organization.
- Partner with a cross-functional “Pod” of UX / design, technology, and other subject-matter experts to take ideas from concept to launch
- Engage in customer research and discovery to validate new product concepts and maintain strong empathy for customer and end-user jobs-to-be-done
- Establish and track product KPIs across the Teach product pillar
- Ensure the customer experience is represented as a top priority throughout all stages of the software development lifecycle
- Partner with customer support and partner success teams to serve as a go-to-resource for prioritizing strategic feedback and engaging in continuous discovery
- Maintain a weekly pulse on customer feedback and bugs affecting any teacher workflows across the ecosystem to help drive internal dev prioritization, appropriate customer response, and product evolution
- Partner with delivery managers and engineering leadership to ensure a manageable scope that can be delivered on-time, on-budget, on-quality.
- Oversee the care and feeding of the SmartTeach and digital library products, as well as the core teacher workflows across Assess, ensuring all features and functionality receive attention, including technical debt and infrastructure as well as new features.
- Lead the ideation and implementation of new features from ideation to launch.
- Function as a bridge across disciplines, including Product, Engineering, Customer Success and Marketing
Qualifications:
- 5+ years of relevant work experience designing and delivering digital software products in cross-functional teams
- Experience working alongside software developers and solid understanding of the software development process
- Ability to step back and see the whole ecosystem and provide solutions that better the entire user flow not only discrete features
- Experience working within a digital SaaS platform company (not necessarily in the education space)
- Specific experience within early education assessment and curriculum is a plus
- The ability to thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative, agile environment
- The ability to produce results independently as well as collaboratively in a cross-functional team
- BA/BS in CS, engineering, or equivalent experience
Why Teaching Strategies:
At Teaching Strategies, our solutions and services are only as strong as the teams that create them. By bringing passion, dedication, and creativity to your job every day, there’s no telling what you can do and where you can go! We provide a competitive compensation and benefits package, flexible work schedules, opportunities to engage with co-workers, access to career advancement and professional development opportunities, and the chance to make a difference in the communities we serve.
Let’s open the door to your career at Teaching Strategies!
Some additional benefits & perks while working with Teaching Strategies:
Teaching Strategies offers our employees a robust suite of benefits and other perks which include:
- Company-sponsored events
- Professional development and growth opportunities
- Tuition assistance
- Competitive compensation package
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage for spouses, domestic partners, and children
- Pre-tax medical and dependent care flexible spending accounts (FSA)
- Health savings accounts with employer contributions
- 401(k) plan with employer match
- Company-sponsored life, short and long term disability insurance
- Voluntary life and critical illness insurance
- Paid parental leave programs
- Flexible paid time off
Teaching Strategies, LLC is committed to creating a diverse workplace and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer of Minorities, all Genders, Protected Veterans, and Individuals with Disabilities.