Technical Specialist, Platform Product Management

National Student Clearinghouse•Herndon, VA

1d•Remote

About The Position

The Technical Specialist, Platform Product Management is a senior-level technical leader responsible for end to end oversight of a highly complex enterprise technology platform that supports our products. This role translates Clearinghouse’s enterprise data platform and business strategy into a cohesive product roadmap and actionable, prioritized platform capabilities that enable secure, scalable, and reliable delivery of data products across the organization. Operating with a high degree of autonomy and latitude, this role leads research, discovery, and prototyping of platform capabilities spanning data lakehouse architectures and AWS public cloud services. The individual ensures that platform architecture and engineering roadmaps are tightly aligned with product and business objectives, and that platform capabilities are ready for enterprise-wide adoption, integration, and long-term operation. This position sits within the technology organization and is embedded with the teams responsible for designing, building, and operating the enterprise data platform. The role partners closely with platform engineering, security, data governance, and architecture leaders to define and deliver platform functionality from concept through development, release, onboarding, and ongoing operation. Acting as a technical product leader and internal customer liaison, this role represents platform capabilities and constraints to business Product Owners and works to translate business data needs into reusable, scalable platform services. As a standing product leader within Agile delivery teams, this role manages and leads multiple concurrent, high-impact platform initiatives, balancing foundational engineering needs (security, identity and access management, governance, reliability, observability, and scale) with new enablement capabilities (AI/ML enablement, data APIs, and data marketplace services). The role is accountable for product delivery, including roadmap sequencing, release readiness, and ensuring feature enhancements respond to enterprise and customer needs. Currently, this is a remote-first position, and this position may be required to periodically work on-site at our office and the frequency would depend on the department/division's requirements. Therefore, candidates must either reside within a reasonable distance to commute to our office or be willing to travel to our office in Herndon, when required.

Requirements

Bachelors degree in technology, business, or related field. A combination of education and experience including military service will also be considered.
6 years of direct and relevant experience in product management for enterprise technology platforms, shared services, or complex IT products, including work in Agile delivery models as a Product Manager, Technical Product Manager, Platform Product Manager, or Product Owner.
Experience with enterprise data platforms and modern data architectures, including a working understanding of how data is modeled, defined, validated, captured, cleansed, stored, governed, accessed, and shared across the data lifecycle.
Demonstrated experience embedding quality, security, privacy, and reliability controls into platform delivery processes to ensure compliant data use and uninterrupted operation.
Experience analyzing platform and data telemetry (e.g., usage, performance, cost, reliability) to develop targeted requirements, define measurable outcomes, and translate strategic and tactical goals into an actionable platform roadmap.
Proven experience managing mission critical platforms with significant complexity, cross functional dependencies, and multiple stakeholders, while ensuring alignment between product roadmaps, architectural direction, and engineering execution.
Expert-level understanding of enterprise data platform capabilities and the downstream impact of platform decisions on data producers, data consumers, analytics and AI/ML use cases, and business- or customer-facing products.
Proactive, demonstrated ability to operate effectively in ambiguous, complex environments, bringing structure, clarity, and direction to evolving or undefined problem spaces.
Demonstrated ability to: Lead research and discovery to solicit, define, and author complex platform requirements, incorporating stakeholder input from engineering, security, governance, and business Product Owners, and translating findings into clear, actionable user stories, technical enablers, acceptance criteria, and non functional requirements.
Re engineer and simplify business processes and application user experiences, ensuring platform functionality is intuitive, scalable, and improves upon—not replicates—legacy patterns.
Clearly and persuasively articulate platform capabilities, constraints, and usage patterns to technical and non technical audiences, including business, product, customer care, and implementation stakeholders, to support effective adoption and long term platform use.
Identify, assess, and communicate tradeoffs across competing priorities, constraints, and dependencies, and drive resolution of complex technical and product challenges across the organization.
Manage and prioritize multiple concurrent initiatives, balancing risk, dependency management, and business value to ensure timely delivery and issue resolution.
Proficient in: Applying Agile product and delivery principles to drive decision-making, align teams and stakeholders on goals and outcomes, and ensure consistent delivery of platform capabilities.
Modeling and validating platform and application solutions that balance business needs, usability, architectural integrity, and technical feasibility.
Using Microsoft Office Suite, approved AI tools, and collaboration platforms to support analysis, documentation, communication, and delivery.
Communicating and negotiating effectively with stakeholders at all organizational levels, and representing the product, department, and organization in discussions that require influence, judgment, and credibility.
Excellent written, verbal, interpersonal, and presentation skills, with the ability to tailor messaging to diverse stakeholder audiences.
Proven ability to build strong collaborative relationships and influence outcomes across engineering, security, architecture, governance, and business teams.
Strong product, technical, and project management skills, applied to large-scale, enterprise platform initiatives.
Demonstrates the Clearinghouse’s core competencies: customer focus, optimizes work processes, communicates effectively, collaborates, and is open and authentic.
Must live within a commutable distance to Herndon, VA or in one of the Clearinghouse's approved States for hiring purposes.
Must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.
Must be at least 18 years old.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree or PhD in technology, business, or related field.
Experience with Enterprise data platforms and lakehouse concepts (e.g., data ingestion, storage/compute separation, catalog/metadata, governance, and self-service analytics).
AWS data and analytics services and patterns (e.g., IAM, encryption/key management, data lake storage, orchestration, and monitoring/observability).
Software development management tools (Rally, JIRA, Confluence).
CRM and enterprise tools.
Performing complex data analysis using analytic tools and database queries.
SIS vendor solutions.
Knowledge of Clearinghouse services and applications, and how they produce and consume data across the enterprise.
Education related data standards, such as IMS Comprehensive Learner Record or Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) or other industry-based or government-based data exchange standards.
Higher education institution processes.
Expertise in Data exchange such as REST-XML-EDI.

Responsibilities

Lead platform product discovery, research, and analysis to define platform strategy, roadmaps, and priorities aligned with enterprise and business objectives.
Act as the primary product authority for enterprise data platform capabilities, standards, and shared services.
Partner with Product Owners and business leaders across domains to understand complex data needs and translate them into scalable, reusable platform products and services.
Serve as a technical consultant and liaison between platform engineering teams and internal customers on platform architecture, integration, and usage patterns.
Own and continuously refine the end to end platform product backlog, including stories, technical enablers, and non-functional requirements that support security, privacy, reliability, performance, cost efficiency, and scalability.
Lead major platform and feature releases, coordinating scope, dependencies, timelines, and release readiness across engineering, security, governance, and delivery teams.
Define and maintain platform-level non-functional requirements (NFRs) and definitions of done, ensuring operational readiness (monitoring, alerting, logging, runbooks, access patterns, and support processes).
Ensure the platform’s technology and architectural roadmap supports current and future product and business roadmaps.
Establish and document enterprise platform standards, reference architectures, integration patterns, and onboarding guidance.
Collaborate with security and governance partners to design and embed controls for data protection, privacy, compliance, and auditability that scale across the platform.
Analyze platform telemetry (usage, performance, cost, reliability, incidents) to evaluate product performance and drive continuous improvement.
Manage dependencies and risks across upstream data producers, downstream consumers, and existing applications.
Work with Agile delivery and project leadership to align priorities, schedules, dependencies, and release milestones.
Communicate platform capabilities, constraints, and adoption guidance clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
May provide matrixed leadership, mentoring, and coaching to other Product Managers or Product Owners contributing to enterprise platform initiatives.
Position may be required to perform other duties as required.

Benefits

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance
Life and disability insurance benefits
Health care, dependent care, and limited purpose flexible spending accounts
Health savings account with annual employer contributions of $300 for employees and $600 for employees who are enrolled with their spouse and/or dependents
Voluntary supplemental health plans for Accident and Hospital Indemnity coverage
Infertility coverage
401k matching contribution program with the opportunity to defer pre-tax and Roth contributions, as well as catch-up contributions
Competitive paid leave program consisting of vacation, sick, and personal time
Paid holidays
Up to 3 weeks of paid parental leave during a 12-month period
Up to 5 days of paid military leave per calendar year
Reimbursed for basic wholesale company and roadside assistance memberships
Option to request a buy back on portions of unused accrued vacation
Employee Education Assistance Program
LinkedIn Learning subscription
Mental health with up to eight free therapy sessions for employees and their family members
Well-being reward benefits
Eligibility for service credit towards the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF)