Director, Product Innovation Initiatives

Risepoint

About The Position

Risepoint is an education technology company that provides world-class support and trusted expertise to more than 100 universities and colleges. We primarily work with regional universities, helping them develop and grow their high-ROI, workforce-focused online degree programs in critical areas such as nursing, teaching, business, and public service. Risepoint is dedicated to increasing access to affordable education so that more students, especially working adults, can improve their careers and meet employer and community needs. The Product Innovation team supports the strategy and design of innovative learning solutions at the intersection of higher education, alternative credentials, employer markets and workforce development. This role works across all teams - market research, product marketing and other Risepoint units - to identify, design and grow scalable, skills-based, and career-connected learning solutions. Job Summary We are seeking a Director, Product Innovation Initiatives to join our Product Innovation team and play a key role in driving growth across our university partner portfolios. This role sits at the intersection of market insight, product strategy, and go-to-market execution, helping shape decisions about what programs we develop next and how we successfully bring them to market. In this role, you will turn market intelligence, competitive insights, partner goals, and portfolio performance into partner-ready recommendations, including business cases, narratives, and go-to-market and launch plans. Reporting to the Senior Director of Product Marketing and Innovation, you will work closely with cross-functional teams and directly with university and employer partners to bring high-impact, workforce-relevant offerings to life—driving meaningful outcomes for both Risepoint and the partners we serve.

Requirements

Minimum of 7 years experience in product marketing, strategy consulting, product strategy, or higher education/workforce development.
Experience working with product design and innovation for a particular learning market such as higher edu and in T&D for industry.
Knowledge higher ed, workforce education, adult learning markets
Skills/Knowledge/Abilities
Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity and apply systems thinking, design thinking, and agile methodologies to new product challenges.
Strong consultative, communication, and influence skills across stakeholder groups.
Substantive understanding of a wide range and breadth of the market of higher education, training and development trends, the market of talent, workforce and edtech trends.
Experience with higher education and/ or skills-based learning markets and/ or workforce development and learning
Experience in GTM strategy, product positioning, cross-functional activation
Highly organized project management skills
Ability to connect academic programming with learning design and talent development needs of the workforce and regional employer partners
Demonstrated success in consulting style engagements

Responsibilities

Prepare executive- and partner-ready presentations, reports, and briefs that clearly communicate recommendations, rationale, and expected outcomes for new programs and product innovations to internal stakeholders and external partners using data and a consultative approach.
Support the design and execution of trial initiatives (MVPs, pilots) to validate new concepts, applying best practices and defined success criteria.
Develop clear partner narratives that support alignment, decision-making, and launch readiness
Conduct partner-specific portfolio analysis to assess performance, market fit and competitive positioning and identity execution opportunities leveraging market research outputs and/or expertise.
Translate product design into actionable go-to-market plans, including business cases, revenue projections, and prioritization frameworks.
Build and maintain a systematic approach for monitoring market trends, competitor offerings, and emerging innovations across higher education and workforce development.
Leverage insights to recommend programs approaches and adjustments.
Conduct partner-specific portfolio analyses to assess program performance, market fit and competitive positioning to inform program and portfolio plans.
Leverage market research outputs and other forms of intelligence and data to surface growth opportunities aligned to the approved portfolio direction.
Collaborate with internal teams (central marketing, sales, and academic services) to define go-to-market plans and activation for new and optimized portfolios.
Translate product and portfolio direction into actionable go-to-market materials by providing data, audience insights and positioning analysis for the use in positioning, messaging, and value propositions that resonate with partners and learners.
Coordinate with cross-functional leaders to ensure smooth handoff from recommendations to launch to activation.
Define and monitor KPIs for new launches and PPO-driven initiatives, providing leadership with regular reporting.
Provide regular reporting on performance, outcomes, and learnings to inform adjustments and future execution efforts.
Capture insights from pilots, launches, and portfolio performance to improve future program execution and recommendations.
Perform in accordance with Risepoint Policies
Perform other duties as assigned