Product Manager, Higher Education Discipline Product

Cengage is an education technology company focused on helping learners gain skills and achieve their goals through digital learning products and services. The Product Manager will lead strategy, discovery, roadmap prioritization, and delivery for discipline-specialized higher education products in Careers and Skills, using customer insights, data, experimentation, and cross-functional collaboration to improve adoption, retention, learner success, and instructor satisfaction.

Responsibilities:

• Own product strategy, discovery, and roadmap priorities for Professional Careers and Skills’ Higher Education discipline cluster
• Develop deep understanding of instructors, students, and institutional needs within the assigned market
• Translate customer insights, business priorities, market trends, and platform capabilities into clear product opportunities and prioritized solutions
• Champion Cengage’s Digital Product pillars of Career Readiness, Learning Outcomes, and Radical Simplicity in all product decisions
• Lead continuous product discovery through user research, usability testing, analytics, experimentation, and collaborator feedback
• Partner cross-functionally to deliver high-impact product improvements
• Prioritize initiatives that improve adoption, engagement, success, and retention across Cengage Learning Platforms
• Define and monitor success metrics, using data to guide prioritization, iteration, and product performance decisions
• Deliver simple, intuitive, and scalable product experiences that balance customer value, business impact, speed, and technical feasibility
• Represent the voice of the customer in planning, prioritization, and delivery discussions
• Support successful go-to-market execution through collaboration with marketing, sales, and customer-facing teams
• Drive fast, iterative delivery and continuous improvement using modern product management practices and GenAI-enabled ways of working where appropriate
• Build strong collaborative relationships across teams and contribute to a culture of innovation, accountability, and measurable outcomes
• Increase adoption and active usage of Cengage Learning Platforms within the assigned discipline cluster
• Reduce customer churn by addressing key instructor and student pain points
• Improve instructor satisfaction and student engagement through simpler, more effective learning experiences
• Strengthen evidence of learner success and career readiness through measurable product and usage outcomes
• Deliver high-impact outcomes for our customers and for Cengage
• Increase speed and effectiveness of product delivery through iterative releases, experimentation, and cross-functional alignment
• Use product analytics, customer feedback, and market insights to validate opportunities and create outstanding experiences
• Improve usability, accessibility, and workflow simplicity across core platform experiences
• Strengthen collaboration across product, engineering, design, content, marketing, sales, and customer success teams
• Contribute to a culture of continuous learning, innovation, and data-driven decision-making
• Apply GenAI and operational standards to improve team efficiency, product quality, and customer impact

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
• Proven experience working on technology-powered products, digital learning products, or product-adjacent roles such as product management, product operations, UX, analytics, content strategy, engineering, or business analysis
• Evidence of understanding of contemporary approaches to product management
• Experience using customer insights, market research, and data analysis to inform product decisions
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills with a data-informed approach to prioritization and trade-offs
• Ability to lead execution for a product feature area, capability set, or market-specific initiative
• Strong communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to explain customer problems, product decisions, and business impact clearly
• Curiosity, adaptability, and a commitment to continuous learning
• Experience in higher education, edtech, digital learning platforms, courseware, assessment, or instructional technology
• Experience working with instructors, students, academic departments, institutions, or education-focused sales and customer success teams
• Familiarity with Higher Education market: career-connected learning
• Experience with product analytics, experimentation, adoption metrics, retention analysis, or churn reduction
• Familiarity with agile methodologies and product operating models
• Experience working on platform-based products, learning management integrations, content-enabled software, or data-driven digital experiences
• Understanding of accessibility, inclusive design, and usability best practices
• Experience applying GenAI or automation to improve product workflows, discovery, delivery, or customer experiences