Global Industry Lead, Higher Education

Snap•Palo Alto, CA

22h•Onsite

About The Position

Snap Inc. is seeking a Global Industry Lead, Higher Education for the SPECS team. This manager-level individual contributor role will be responsible for the higher education industry strategy, customer engagement, partner ecosystem, and go-to-market execution for augmented reality glasses. The role involves defining the industry strategy, leading client engagements, building a partner ecosystem, identifying key use cases, managing customer pipelines, and building relationships with stakeholders across educational institutions. The position also requires cross-functional collaboration with product, design, engineering, marketing, business development, and sales teams to ensure the strategy aligns with platform capabilities and market needs. Responsibilities include driving enablement through workshops and content, managing presence at industry events, curating thought leadership, and hosting customer/partner engagements. The role also involves tracking market feedback and competitive dynamics to influence product direction and the long-term roadmap.

Requirements

10+ years leading strategy, business development, sales, partnerships or GTM across customers in higher education.
Experience applying industrial technology, enterprise software, spatial computing, XR, AR, or an adjacent field tech in higher education.
Deep understanding of the higher education landscape, including the needs of academic leadership, IT, digital learning, research, campus operations, and institutional innovation teams
Strong strategic thinking with the ability to translate industry insight into market priorities, use case focus, ecosystem strategy, and commercial plans
Ability to build credibility with senior customer stakeholders and guide complex, consultative sales cycles in emerging technology categories
Strong cross-functional leadership skills with the ability to align partner, technical, product, and go-to-market teams around a shared industry strategy
Ability to turn early market demand into repeatable motions, including solution packaging, enablement, demand generation, and pipeline development
Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills, with the ability to develop compelling customer narratives and thought leadership content
Comfort operating in an evolving market where customer education, partner influence, and strategic selling are critical to success
Willingness to travel frequently for customer meetings, partner engagements, onsite events, and industry conferences
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
Significant experience in industry leadership, business development, strategic sales, partnerships, go-to-market, or solution development roles serving higher education or closely related enterprise sectors
Experience owning complex customer engagements and commercial opportunities from early-stage discovery through deal progression
Experience working with partners, integrators, software providers, or ecosystem collaborators to bring solutions to market
Experience developing market-facing content, presentations, or thought leadership for external audiences

Nice To Haves

Experience in augmented reality, mixed reality, spatial computing, smart glasses, wearable computing, or adjacent emerging technologies
Experience selling into or partnering with higher education institutions at scale
Experience building solutions or go-to-market motions around enterprise technology platforms, developer ecosystems, or new categories of hardware and software
Previous experience at HoloLens, Magic Leap, or a comparable company in the augmented reality or smart glasses ecosystem
Experience working with institutions or partners on immersive learning, simulation, remote assistance, digital instruction, collaboration, or other hands-free workflow solutions that align with the value proposition of augmented reality glasses.

Responsibilities

Own the higher education industry strategy for SPECS, defining where we play, the priority use cases we pursue, and the offerings we bring to market in service of adoption and scaled growth.
Lead all industry-related engagements for higher education clients, positioning augmented reality glasses as a practical, scalable solution for teaching, learning, research, simulation, training, campus operations, and student engagement.
Build and grow a partner ecosystem aligned to higher education, including services partners, solution providers, systems integrators, and other ecosystem collaborators that can help design, deploy, and scale solutions on our platform.
Work cross-functionally with Partner Development Managers and Technical Partner Managers to develop repeatable partner-led solutions, shape industry-ready offerings, and accelerate partner onboarding, enablement, and technical readiness.
Identify, validate, and prioritize the primary higher education use cases that will drive customer value and create repeatable commercial momentum, with an emphasis on strong business cases, scalable deployment potential, and partner support from the outset.
Own higher education customer pipeline development and sales cycles from market education and early discovery through solution shaping, commercial progression, and deployment planning.
Build trusted relationships with executive, academic, innovation, technology, operations, and procurement stakeholders across colleges, universities, research institutions, and adjacent higher education organizations.
Partner with cross-functional teams across product, design, engineering, marketing, business development, and sales to ensure our higher education strategy is grounded in platform capabilities, market needs, and clear paths to scale.
Drive partner and customer enablement through workshops, demonstrations, solution narratives, and educational content that help institutions understand the practical value of augmented reality glasses and the path from pilot to broader deployment.
Own our presence at higher education industry events, including strategy, participation, messaging, partner coordination, and follow-up plans that convert awareness into pipeline and partnerships.
Curate external-facing thought leadership for the sector, including white papers, knowledge base articles, customer-facing guidance, and demand generation programs tailored to higher education audiences.
Help shape and host higher education-focused customer and partner engagements on the SPECS campuses, including executive briefings, workshops, summits, and demand generation events that accelerate education, trust, and adoption.
Track market feedback, competitive dynamics, and customer requirements to influence product direction, ecosystem priorities, and the long-term higher education roadmap.