Portfolio Manager
About The Position
The Portfolio Manager is a Cengage School portfolio management role supporting the Gale K12 (Science) portfolio in the School market, with some crossover into Public Library markets. The role leads a portfolio of educational products, including In Context, eBooks, and supplemental curriculum. The Portfolio Manager develops product strategy by understanding audiences, analyzing market and competitive trends, testing ideas, processing data, and making evidence-based product decisions. The role leads product development and cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality learning experiences on time and within scope and budget, and articulates product features and benefits to support market messaging, campaigns, and sales efforts. The Portfolio Manager is responsible for the product line’s content strategy roadmap, long-term goals, metrics-driven milestones, strategic development plans, forecasting, and progress measurement. The role represents the portfolio and its customers, works across Digital, Marketing, Sales, Content Engineering, and other teams, and supports discipline-specific and company-wide initiatives. It also presents at internal and external meetings and academic conventions, and shares best practices across teams.
Requirements
- Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree.
- At least 5 years of experience in product management, product development, or another relevant portfolio management role.
- Understanding of the K12 educational technology and publishing industry, specifically Science.
- Cross-functional team leadership experience.
- Strong communication skills, including the ability to facilitate team meetings, presentations, focus groups, and interviews.
- Ability to clearly articulate vision and strategy and help team members understand how their work contributes to business success.
- Customer focus and ability to translate customer needs and challenges into opportunities.
- Ability to inspire change through influence and strong social skills.
- Self-discipline and a high degree of accountability.
- Strong financial analysis and modeling skills and understanding of business metrics.
- Curiosity, willingness to learn, and commitment to continuous improvement.
- Strong written and verbal abilities to prepare and present information and recommendations to diverse and senior-level audiences.
- Proficiency with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
- Expected travel of approximately 10% of the time.
Responsibilities
- Lead a profitable product line and own the content strategy roadmap for the Gale K12 (Science) suite, including In Context, eBooks, and supplemental curriculum.
- Provide product leadership and represent the portfolio and customers across audiences.
- Use data to develop market-informed business proposals, take mitigated risks, and guide strategic decisions.
- Define long-term goals and metrics-driven milestones based on research and trends; connect data and courses to address complex business challenges.
- Balance experience, market knowledge, and insights to make impactful decisions and long-term plans.
- Translate priorities into end-to-end strategic development plans with budgets, resources, performance goals, and checkpoints.
- Direct project teams, facilitate communication, and ensure timely delivery of multiple products within scope and budget.
- Foster creativity and collaboration and deliver quality learning experiences to students, instructors, and librarians.
- Develop a deep understanding of competitors and anticipate competitor activity.
- Identify and test product ideas within segments through focus groups, advisory boards, reviews, and customer meetings as appropriate.
- Regularly analyze product and portfolio plans to align forecasting and measure progress toward goals.
- Work cross-functionally with Digital, Marketing, Sales, Content Engineering, and other teams to establish and implement content strategy and successfully release products.
- Partner with colleagues in other functional areas on discipline-specific and pan-Cengage initiatives.
- Present at internal and external meetings and academic conventions in support of sales efforts and to drive sales.
- Share best practices across teams and functional groups.
Benefits
- Eligible to participate in the company’s discretionary incentive bonus program, with a 5% annual individual target; the bonus is not guaranteed.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
