Sr Product Manager

We believe in the power and joy of learning

At Cengage, our employees have a direct impact in helping students around the world discover the power and joy of learning. We are bonded by our shared purpose – driving innovation that helps millions of learners improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.   

Cengage's portfolio of businesses supports student choice by providing a range of pathways that help learners achieve their goals and lead a choice-filled life.  

Our culture values inclusion, engagement, and discovery

Our business is driven by our strong culture, and we know that creating an inclusive workplace is absolutely essential to the success of our company and our learners, as well as our individual well-being. We recognize the value of diverse perspectives in everything we do, and strive to ensure employees of all levels and backgrounds feel empowered to voice their ideas and bring their authentic selves to work. We achieve these priorities through programs, benefits, and initiatives that are integrated into the fabric of how we work every day. To learn more, please see https://www.cengagegroup.com/about/inclusion-and-belonging/.  

As a Senior Product Manager, you will play a vital role in crafting our product strategy, driving innovation, and delivering excellent customer-centric digital products. We work in the Silicon Valley Product Group's Product Operating Model (POM), and focus on outcomes over outputs. As a Product Manager you will be empowered to make decisions that impact the product for which you are responsible, spending time with the customers that experience our products in order to identify the real problem and craft the best solutions.   

You will be accountable for deeply understanding our users—educators, students, and institutions—and working with the product director, translating insights into strategic product decisions. You will steer your cross-functional team towards continual discovery, prioritization informed by data, and frequent Agile delivery, all in alignment with broader business goals and market dynamics.  

The POM is designed to:

• Shift from delivering outputs to delivering outcomes.

• Align teams around enduring product areas with clear accountability.

• Accelerate delivery through empowered, cross-functional squads.

• Develop innovation through continuous discovery and learning.

• Empower teams to solve relevant problems with autonomy and purpose.  

What you'll do

• Collaborate with product and editorial leadership to define and communicate the product vision, strategy, and objectives and then create and improve products with your product team that includes technology and design.

• Drive continuous discovery by synthesizing customer insights, market research, and data analytics to identify unmet needs and emerging trends.

• Champion innovation by guiding rapid prototyping, experimentation, and iterative development with design and engineering.

• Develop and maintain a release roadmap that aligns with business goals and customer needs.

• Collaborate with engineering, design, marketing, sales, and customer success to deliver cohesive and impactful solutions. Use Agile methodologies and the principles of a customer-centric product model to drive iterative development, continuous improvement, and rapid time-to-market.

• Work closely with engineering teams to define user stories, prioritize backlog items, and ensure timely and high-quality iterative releases.

• Establish success metrics and supervise product performance and customer feedback after release to help drive future enhancements and strategic pivots.

• Partner with product marketing and sales teams to develop go-to-market strategies, messaging, and sales enablement materials.  

We want to provide a more relevant and engaging experience for students where learning usually requires longer narrative and text. We believe that incorporating any solution as part of a learning platform will be the best experience for all. To get there you'll: 

• Align with product leaders on the key problems to solve

• Gather and synthesize data such as usage patterns, key market differentiators, and persona most likely to adopt

• Move quickly to develop prototypes with your team and test with the market to validate the direction or pivot as needed, so that the majority of relevant customers are adopting this vision over the next year.  

What you bring

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.

• Proven understanding of the techniques and methods of modern product discovery and product delivery.

• 5-7 years of experience in product management or related roles, with a strong track record of leading digital strategy and delivering successful products with frequent releases.

• Solid understanding of multiple functional areas of business – engineering, design, finance, sales, or marketing.

• Demonstrated skill in leading cross-functional teams and influencing senior collaborators.

• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills, with the ability to make data-informed decisions in complex environments.

• Proven ability to partner with engineers, designers, related contributors as well as company leaders to accomplish your product goals.  

Cengage is committed to working with broad talent pools to attract and hire strong and most qualified individuals. Our job applicants are considered regardless of any classification protected by applicable federal, state, provincial or local laws.  

Cengage is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities including during our job application process. If you are an applicant with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in our job application process, please contact us at [email protected]. 

About Cengage

Cengage, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job ready. For more than 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms. We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. Through our scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education. 

Compensation

At Cengage Group, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees. Click here to learn more about our Total Rewards Philosophy.

The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location.  Sales roles often incorporate a significant incentive compensation program beyond this base pay range.

In this position,  you will be eligible to participate in the company’s discretionary incentive bonus program.  This position's bonus target amount, which is not guaranteed and is dependent on individual performance and overall company results among other factors, is provided below.