Staff Software Product Manager

Western Governors University•Salt Lake City, UT

1d•Remote

About The Position

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career. Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families. The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is: Grade: Technical 411 Pay Range: $157,000.00 - $243,400.00 The Staff Software Product Manager at WGU is an individual contributor role for an experienced and technical product professional. They play a key role in the software development process, bridging the gap between technical expertise and product strategy. They should possess a holistic understanding of both technology and business to lead successful software product initiatives. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, including product peers, UX design, engineers and architects to develop strategic product roadmaps that address the needs our students and stakeholders. You will build business cases, articulate strategy, and evangelize the product vision to internal and external stakeholders and cross-functional team members. You will measure and report on the efficacy of your initiatives and develop action plans accordingly. You will make hard, high-stakes trade-offs between features, choosing those that are most likely to ensure that both business goals and user needs are met. We are looking for candidates who can demonstrate a history of delivering high impact outcomes through a partnership with design, engineering, architecture, and stakeholders. Someone who, as an excellent storyteller, can represent the interests of the users they serve and influence teams to generate the outcomes that resolve their most pressing problems. We look for candidates who are collaborative by nature, empathetic to users, and are most likely to garner the trust of the stakeholders they serve.

Requirements

Ability to think strategically about product, align it with business goals, and make decisions that have long-term impact on product development and success.
Proven track record of delivering impactful outcomes
Ability to deliver compelling narratives though presentations, documents, and verbal communications
Leadership instincts with a positive team building approach
Strong problem-solving skills to address technical challenges and make critical decisions regarding software architecture and development.
Ability to communicate with parties within and outside of the university (e.g., customers, partners, vendors, etc.)
Bachelor's Degree or Equivalent, relevant experience performing the essential functions of this job may substitute for education degree requirements. Generally, equivalent relevant experience is defined as 1 year of experience for 1 year of education and is the discretion of the hiring manager.
8 years of experience as a Software Product Manager
Experience working in agile environments

Nice To Haves

Master's Degree
Professional Product Certification (e.g., Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Pragmatic Marketing)
Experience in Education Technology

Responsibilities

Works closely with cross functional team of stakeholders, end-users, UX designers, engineers, architects, and product leaders to understand the problems to solve, help drive the product vision and define requirements.
Creates, manages, and regularly presents a strategic roadmap to both stakeholders and delivery teams.
Creates compelling strategic presentations that tell a story to drive alignment with business stakeholders
Recognized expert for their product, demonstrating mastery of the current platform with a deep understanding of gaps that inform their near-term product roadmap and helps to establish long-term strategy.
Is accountable for delivering outcomes and can identify unique opportunities across multiple areas of the product to do so.
Manages expectations by understanding when initiatives are at risk and proactively communicates with stakeholders.
Models' best practices and shares learned insights across the product organization
Ensures product quality by testing software features to ensure the satisfy the acceptance criteria and works with stakeholders and end users to coordinate user acceptance testing activities.
Leads research efforts to provide clarity from ambiguity and develops data collection strategies that identify the right outcomes for measuring success.
Defines a plan for capturing success metrics for their products and projects and consistently monitors the metrics, pivoting when the data suggests a need to do so.
Writes business cases and conducts ROI and other value analyses and presents in planning activities.