Strategic Product Marketing Manager (Upstream & Product Strategy)

Catalyst Education•Austin, TX

9d•Remote

About The Position

This role is for a Strategic Product Marketing Manager focused on Upstream & Product Strategy within the Product department. The company aims to empower educators and shape the future of digital education. Unlike typical Product Marketing Manager roles that involve significant downstream sales support, this position emphasizes upstream strategy. Reporting directly to the Chief Product Officer (CPO), the manager will act as an internal consultant and product strategist. Key responsibilities include analyzing new academic disciplines, identifying competitive advantages against established publishers, and building business cases to guide content and engineering investments. The role is designed for someone who thrives on high-level strategy and market analysis, with a dedicated Product Engagement team handling execution-focused tasks.

Requirements

4+ years of experience in Product Marketing, Product Strategy, Management Consulting, or Product Management.
Ability to analyze ambiguous markets, perform quantitative analysis, and synthesize a coherent strategy.
Executive-level communication skills, including presenting data-heavy strategies and discussing product trade-offs, resource allocation, and business growth.
Understanding of the EdTech or specialized B2B sales landscape, particularly selling to gatekeepers like professors.
Proven track record of building human networks, managing user groups, beta cohorts, or customer advisory councils.
Ability to communicate with university department heads with peer-level credibility, understanding academic workflow and student success concerns.
Experience working at a publisher, EdTech startup, or in a high-skepticism B2B industry (e.g., Developer Tools, HealthTech) is a plus.

Nice To Haves

Experience working at a publisher, EdTech startup, or in a high-skepticism B2B industry (like Developer Tools or HealthTech) is a massive plus and highly desired.

Responsibilities

Build business cases for new market entry, including market sizing (TAM/SAM), projected ROI, and strategic entry points, for presentation to the CPO and Executive Leadership Team.
Shape the product roadmap by translating market data into product requirements, assisting the CPO in decisions regarding native feature development, technology partnerships, or content licensing.
Analyze competitor courseware platforms to identify technological weaknesses and strategize how to displace them with our platform.
Design, recruit, and manage discipline-specific Faculty Advisory Boards to foster professor advocacy and co-design product features.
Define foundational positioning blueprints and messaging architecture for new disciplines, ensuring a clear handoff to engagement and sales teams.