VP of Product and Partnerships

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• Product Strategy & Roadmap: Collaborate closely with the CEO to transform the product vision into a well-defined, sequenced roadmap featuring clear milestones, priorities, and success metrics. Take ownership of developing and refining specific product requirements while effectively communicating the roadmap direction to the ELT, engineering, and customer-facing teams.

• Market & Customer Intelligence: Enhance the roadmap by acquiring a profound understanding of customer needs and market trends. Conduct focus groups, user interviews, customer testing, and structured beta programs. Integrate direct customer engagement with insights into the higher education and workforce ecosystem, strategic buyers, and technology trends to make informed and precise prioritization choices.

• Strategic Partnerships: Manage all facets of uConnect's partnership strategy, including content collaborations and platform integrations. Identify, assess, and cultivate relationships with content providers, technology partners, and integration vendors whose services improve the student and career services experience within the Virtual Career Center.

• Internal Enablement & GTM Alignment: Act as a robust internal communicator and product advocate. Assist Customer Success, Marketing, and Sales with product messaging, value pitch development, and internal enablement, ensuring that every customer-facing team can confidently articulate what uConnect creates and why.

• Engineering Collaboration: Possess adequate technical knowledge to collaborate productively with engineering leadership on planning, scope, sequencing, and delivery. Clearly define requirements and communicate priorities to guarantee seamless transitions throughout the development lifecycle.

• Product Monetization: Showcase a history of executing monetization strategies and innovative ideas for enhancing revenue within the Virtual Career Center. Partner with Finance and the CEO on packaging, pricing, and tiering features, which may include usage-based, outcomes-based, and add-on models, ensuring that the roadmap aligns with customer value and commercial potential.

• AI & Innovation: Oversee the product roadmap for AI-driven features and create a clear vision for integrating AI internally across product and design operations to enhance team capacity and expedite delivery. Foster a framework for responsible, customer-informed AI product development within the higher education sector.

• Data Architecture & Strategy: Present a strong perspective on how to advance uConnect's Virtual Career Center into a data-driven platform. Spearhead the product vision for outcomes data, engagement analytics, and institutional reporting that positions uConnect as a vital infrastructure rather than a non-essential tool.

• Thought Leadership: Establish and maintain a presence in the higher education, career services, and edtech sectors. Bring a network, a voice, and the credibility to represent uConnect externally and attract suitable partners, customers, and talent.

• Team Leadership: Build and mentor a high-achieving product team. As uConnect expands, you will create the organizational practices, documentation standards, and cross-functional workflows necessary to uphold product excellence.

⛳️ Requirements

• 7+ years of product management experience, including at least 3 years in a senior or leadership position at a SaaS company.

• Proven ability to convert executive vision into a structured, sequenced product roadmap with clear priorities and measurable outcomes.

• Documented history of managing product requirements from discovery and grooming to delivery and adoption.

• Experience executing customer research initiatives, including focus groups, user interviews, surveys, and beta testing, with a proven ability to translate customer and market insights into roadmap decisions.

• Solid technical understanding sufficient to effectively contribute to roadmap planning and engage credibly with engineering teams in agile or lean development contexts.

• Data-driven approach to prioritization and decision-making, comfortable utilizing both qualitative and quantitative data.

• Executive presence and strong internal communication skills, capable of aligning cross-functional teams and influencing stakeholders at all organizational levels.

• Experience in a fast-paced startup or scale-up environment where adaptability and ownership are critical.

• Familiarity with contemporary product tools (e.g., Jira, Linear, Productboard, Figma, Notion, or equivalents).

• Proven experience in implementing product monetization strategies, with sophisticated ideas regarding packaging, pricing, and increasing revenue within an existing customer base.

• Experience in building or managing content partnerships and technology integrations, including the evaluation of partners, negotiation of agreements, and management of ongoing relationships with content providers and platform vendors.

• A clear vision for applying AI to both product features and internal product and design operations to enhance team capacity.

• Strong viewpoint on data architecture and strategies for evolving a SaaS platform into a data-driven solution that delivers defensible long-term value.

• Demonstrated thought leadership, network, or external influence in the higher education, edtech, or career services fields.

• A background in higher education, edtech, career services, or workforce development is highly preferred. Candidates with direct experience in developing products for universities, community colleges, or workforce development organizations are strongly encouraged to apply.

🏝️ Benefits

• Remote work and flexible schedule

• Gold PPO health insurance with nationwide networks covered at 100% for employee premiums and 60% for dependents

• Dental insurance covered at 75% for employee premiums and 50% for dependents

• Vision insurance covered at 75% for employee premiums

• Optional Health and Dependent Care FSAs

• One Medical Primary Care Membership

• 100% vested 401(k) with 100% of employee contributions matched up to the first 3% of pay and 50% of employee contributions matched on the next 2% of pay, after a 90-day waiting period

• Employer-paid $50,000 basic life insurance policy

• Unlimited paid vacation time

• Quarterly mental health days

• 12 weeks paid parental leave after one year of employment

• Home office stipend

• Equity participation in uConnect’s stock option program