Director, Product Owner, CSS Profile

College Board•Remote - Virginia, VA

1d•$80,000 - $135,000•Remote

About The Position

The Director of CSS Profile is the product owner for a critical financial aid tool that helps over 400,000 students access need-based financial aid each year. This role is responsible for driving product innovation to exceed customer expectations (students, parents, and colleges). The position owns and manages the yearly release and ongoing product operations, with a focus on innovation, stability, and efficiency. The Director will drive student access and support institutions by listening closely to users, collaborating across teams, implementing improvements, and ensuring reliable systems that guide students through the financial aid process. The role involves collecting inputs, analyzing user needs, and developing business requirements for CSS Profile through user interviews, focus groups, and cross-functional collaboration. It also includes documenting requirements using business use cases, specifications, mock-ups, workflow charts, and diagrams, providing guidance and subject matter expertise to support others in developing requirements documentation, and completing user acceptance testing and supporting release testing. The Director will own, plan, and maintain the full product backlog, including enhancement requests, and groom and prioritize the backlog to support yearly improvements aligned with the overall product strategy. Collaboration with other product owners, IT, and external partners is essential for successful planning and on-time delivery. The role also contributes to long-term product roadmaps, including technical transformation, positions the product for future success by staying ahead of higher education and technology trends, develops a deep understanding of customer needs to anticipate future demands, and monitors and interprets shifting federal regulations to translate insights into product improvements. In-market product operations involve driving processes and procedures to meet key operational metrics (uptime, customer satisfaction, contact rate, completion rates, SLAs), responding to system outages and high-priority customer escalations, and representing the product in webinars, conferences, user group sessions, and direct customer engagements.

Requirements

5–7 years of direct, on-campus Financial Aid experience
Bachelor’s degree
Strong knowledge of postsecondary financial aid administration, including federal requirements, institutional practices, delivery systems, and software products
Experience in product ownership, product management, or project management
Ability to understand customer needs and translate them into effective, scalable solutions
Strong organizational and prioritization skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously
Strong problem-solving skills, including data-informed decision-making
Excellent writing skills with the ability to clearly document complex information
Excellent communication skills, including presenting to groups (15+) in both virtual and in-person settings
Experience managing relationships with third-party vendors, IT teams, or external partners
A passion for expanding educational and career opportunities and mission-driven work
Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging technologies, with a willingness to experiment with and adopt new AI-driven solutions and comfort with learning and applying new digital tools independently and proactively.
Clear and concise communication skills, written and verbal
A learner's mindset and a commitment to growth: welcoming diverse perspectives, giving and receiving timely, respectful feedback, and continuously improving through iterative learning and user input.
A drive for impact and excellence: solving complex problems, making data-informed decisions, prioritizing what matters most, and continuously improving through learning, user input, and external benchmarking.
A collaborative and empathetic approach: working across differences, fostering trust, and contributing to a culture of shared success
Authorization to work in the United States

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of Institutional Methodology, CSS Profile, and/or PowerFAIDS
Experience with digital product development, cloud computing, or SaaS
Experience working in agile software development environments
Experience translating customer needs into product vision and requirements
Ability to travel 3-5 times per year

Responsibilities

Collect inputs, analyze user needs, and develop business requirements for CSS Profile through user interviews, focus groups, and cross-functional collaboration
Document requirements using business use cases, specifications, mock-ups, workflow charts, and diagrams
Provide guidance and subject matter expertise to support others in developing requirements documentation
Complete user acceptance testing and support release testing
Own, plan, and maintain the full product backlog, including enhancement requests
Groom and prioritize the backlog to support yearly improvements aligned with the overall product strategy
Collaborate with other product owners, IT, and external partners to ensure successful planning and on-time delivery
Contribute to long-term product roadmaps, including technical transformation
Position the product for future success by staying ahead of higher education and technology trends
Develop a deep understanding of customer needs to anticipate future demands
Monitor and interpret shifting federal regulations and translate insights into product improvements
Drive processes and procedures to meet key operational metrics (uptime, customer satisfaction, contact rate, completion rates, SLAs)
Respond to system outages and high-priority customer escalations
Represent the product in webinars, conferences, user group sessions, and direct customer engagements