VP Product Innovation

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States, +1 more country.

📋 Description

• Identify, authenticate, and introduce innovative software products that tackle emerging challenges and opportunities in the higher education sector.

• Lead customer discovery initiatives, conduct market research, and implement rapid experimentation.

• Construct and evaluate MVPs, prototypes, and pilot programs.

• Establish business models, pricing strategies, and go-to-market plans.

• Transition validated ideas into scalable businesses in collaboration with Product, Engineering, Design, Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success teams.

• Develop and oversee an innovation portfolio.

• Promote experimentation, learning, innovation, and the responsible adoption of AI.

• Define and advocate for the vision of AI-enabled and agentic product development.

• Set AI best practices throughout the product lifecycle.

• Assess emerging AI technologies and enhance product-team operations.

• Create frameworks, playbooks, governance models, and strategies for the responsible implementation of AI.

• Integrate AI-native practices into product development workflows.

• Measure and enhance the impact of AI-enabled practices on customer outcomes, delivery speed, and organizational efficiency.

• Shape company strategy through insights from innovation, customer feedback, and new market opportunities.

• Articulate vision, strategy, business cases, and results to executive leadership and stakeholders.

• Foster cross-departmental alignment for innovation initiatives and organizational transformation.

• Act as a thought leader in AI, product innovation, and emerging technology trends.

• Launch three or more new product experiments within the first 12–24 months.

• Establish a repeatable innovation pipeline from ideation to commercialization.

• Create new revenue streams while enhancing speed-to-market and customer value realization.

⛳️ Requirements

• Demonstrated experience in leading software products from conception through customer validation, commercial launch, and post-launch scaling.

• Experience in building and managing innovation portfolios, product incubators, or venture-style product development initiatives.

• Proven success in delivering revenue-generating software products, including business model creation, pricing strategy, and go-to-market execution.

• In-depth understanding of artificial intelligence technologies and their application in software product development.

• Practical experience using AI tools and agentic workflows to expedite product development and decision-making.

• Strong executive presence and communication skills with the capability to influence strategy and drive organizational change.

• Proven ability to operate effectively in fast-paced, ambiguous, and rapidly evolving environments.

• Over 10 years of progressive product leadership experience within a software organization.

• Experience in leading cross-functional teams, major product launches, and strategic initiatives.

• MBA or an advanced business degree (preferred).

• Background in higher education, educational technology, SaaS, or other complex B2B software markets (preferred).

• Experience in scaling AI-enabled product organizations (preferred).

• Proven track record of launching new businesses, platforms, or product categories (preferred).

🏝️ Benefits

• Equal opportunity employer.

• Support for interview process accommodations.

• Role available to candidates in the United States and Canada.