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Western Governors University

Senior Product Manager

Western Governors University, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, 84193


If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

Job Profile Summary: As a Senior Product Manager at WGU Academy, you are someone who excels at planning and executing a product portfolio and is passionate about technology and the impact well-designed products can make on people’s lives. You will work with Academy business unit owners across the organization, as well as product and program management peers in EdTech to define and execute on a leaner platform roadmap, designing technology experiences that drive conversion, retention, and completion. You will guide product development for the technologies that support our Onramp and Certificate products from inception through launch and evaluation.

Academy’s Senior Product Manager exhibits the highest level of expertise and knowledge in the design, development, and continuous improvement of products as well as how agile principles and practices can improve team effectiveness. The position is responsible for bringing the software product vision to life and delivering business value through Academy’s learner platform roadmap. You are expected to understand your product, both from a technical and user perspective, and work collaboratively with design, engineering, customers, and stakeholders to deliver iterative value through product releases. You will closely monitor product health and outcome metrics to drive prioritization decisions and passionately evangelize the benefits and value Academy’s products provide. Working with the Head of Product and Program Innovation and other core team members, you will be responsible for planning, implementing, and evaluating ongoing activities to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of personalized service to students and staff.

We look for mission-driven, learner-obsessed candidates who can demonstrate a history of delivering outcomes that result in customer success. Someone who, as an excellent storyteller, can represent the interests of the learners they serve and influence teams to generate the outcomes that resolve their most pressing problems. We look for candidates who are collaborative by nature, empathetic to Academy’s unique learner population, and are most likely to garner the trust of WGU stakeholders.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities

Works closely with cross-functional teams of stakeholders, end-users, engineers, UX designers, and product leaders to understand the problems to solve, inform the product vision, and define requirements.

Works towards creating shared outcomes with multiple teams to deliver impact for customers.

Defines product release strategies, ensuring the readiness of the various business partners.

Becomes the expert for their product, demonstrating mastery of the current platform with an understanding of gaps that inform their near-term product roadmap and contribute to long-term strategy.

Manages expectations by understanding when initiatives are at risk and proactively communicating with stakeholders.

Participates and presents in quarterly planning activities.

Ensures product quality by testing software features to ensure they satisfy the acceptance criteria and work with stakeholders and end users to coordinate user acceptance testing activities.

Builds mentorship relationships and initiates guidance of newer Product Managers.

Leads research efforts to distill clarity from ambiguity and develops data collection strategies that identify the right outcomes for measuring success.

Knowledge, Skill and Abilities

Understands the landscape of problems and quickly zeros in on the best strategy to achieve business outcomes.

Excellent storyteller.

Demonstrates expertise in a variety of product discovery techniques.

Looks beyond the obvious and doesn't stop at the first solution proposed.

Makes choices about priorities that clearly demonstrate an understanding of the business goals, market demand, and user needs.

Ability to measure product health and use data to inform prioritization decisions, to ensure product quality and service levels, and meet defined goals and success metrics.

Inspires new ways of working and product practice techniques.

Can effectively cope with change and can shift gears comfortably.

Qualifications Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree.

4+ years of demonstrated experience working as a software Product Manager.

Experience working in Agile environments.

Excellent presentation, written and verbal communication skills.

Strong passion for exploring and understanding customer needs.

Natural leadership instincts, with a positive team-building approach.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience in Education technology.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:

Pay Range: $106,700.00 - $165,400.00

WGU will accept applications for this position until 12:00 AM ET, 12/16/2024.

How to apply: apply online.

Full-time Regular Positions

(FT classification, standard working hours = 40)

This is a full-time, regular position that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.

The University is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.

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