Senior Digital Project Manager K-12 Products

Senior Digital Project Manager K-12 Products

Job ID: 2013-17274

# of Positions: 1
Job Location: US-TX-Austin
Position Type: Regular Full Time
Category: Product Management

Overview

Pearson has one defining goal: to help people progress in their lives through learning. We champion innovation and we invest in models for education that deliver on our promise for effective, accessible, and personal learning from early literacy, college and career readiness to professional education, through data informed instruction and inventive applications for mobile and digital learning.

Pearson, the world's leading learning company, has global-reach and market leading businesses in education, business, and consumer publishing and is listed on the London and New York stock exchanges (UK: PSON; NYSE: PSO).

Pearson is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer, and a member of E-Verify. All qualified applicants, including minorities, women, veterans, and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Responsibilities

Position Summary

The Sr. Product Delivery Manager is a senior-level position in the Learning Assessment (LA) organization with primary responsibilities for managing the Product Delivery organization in developing all products for LA. This position has accountability for 1) ensuring all products are delivered to the market on time, within budget, and with expected quality and 2) ensuring the effectiveness of the LA supply chain.

Key Job Responsibilities

Leadership/Management
- Lead a multi-million dollar portfolio of product development initiatives and investments
- Plan and manage the effectiveness of LA Product Delivery in establishing a top-notch center of expertise - eg, on-time product delivery; on-target product investment spend; customer product feedback; shared services feedback
- Establish and sustain highly collaborative relationships with senior leadership of shared services groups that provide Product Delivery services (eg, Content/Psychometrics, Technology, Operations)
- Manage the overall quality of proposal responses to RFPs and identify common capabilities that should be potential additions to the product portfolio
- Provide leadership and related administrative responsibilities for junior Product Delivery Managers
- Set goals/objectives for the LA Product Delivery and plan, manage, report on current and future resource requirements and budget
- Manage frequent communications to LA senior stakeholders
- Regularly collect and infuse external perspectives into the Product Delivery processes and practices, particularly around automation

Product Delivery
- Help define and lead the complete product development life cycle for all initiatives - initiation/planning (ie, scoping, financial/resource planning, authorization), execution, launch and lessons learned
- Oversee the LA supply chain to ensure a high level of collaboration, effectiveness and efficiencies and resolve any supply chain conflicts
- Lead the scoping and resource planning on multi-million dollar, large-scale initiatives
- Track the investment spend and manage risks on individual product development initiatives to ensure financial stewardship
- Ensure senior stakeholders are engaged and in alignment at key points throughout the product development process
- Manage the development of product financial models for understanding cost drivers and managing detailed product costs during implementation as well as for ongoing product management
- Resolve escalated Product Delivery issues
- Manage the implementation of product development best practices

Strategic Planning/Portfolio Management
- Develop and maintain high-level roadmap of future product delivery activities for each product
- Make trade-off/reprioritization decisions across the product portfolio collaboratively with LA leadership and Product Management
- Collaborate with LA management in the development of product strategies
- Manage ongoing process for officially decommissioning products per direction from Product Management - eg, removing materials
- Take an active role, within and outside the company, in understanding LA market needs and trends

Capability Building
- Identify opportunities to improve Product Delivery processes/practices
- Lead high-impact special projects to implement Product Management and Delivery improvements
- Provide leadership in establishing the LA Product Delivery group's credibility and influence as the single point of accountability for delivering products
- Identify and implement metrics to measure the performance and improvement of key LA processes
- Help develop and manage the implementation of the LA product development supply chain across all shared services groups
- Establish and implement standard, formal processes/mechanisms for managing interfaces with shared services groups - eg, Governance, service level agreements, performance and relationship management

Partnering
- Partner closely with LA Product Management to: 1) ensure understanding of product requirements and communication of these requirements to key shared services groups; 2) adjust product delivery priorities or timelines as necessary; 3) effectively launch new products into the market; and 4) manage timing of updates/enhancements to products
- Partner closely with LA Research and Design and the Content and Psychometrics shared services group to translate product requirements into content, test design, and reporting specifications
- Work collaboratively with Content/Psychometrics, Technology Software and Services, Quality Assurance, Operations, and other shared services to define product specifications, execute product delivery activities, and deliver products on time, on budget and with quality
- Partner closely with LA Sales to: 1) understand potential customer timelines that may affect product delivery schedules; and 2) identify timing for the Sales team to begin sales efforts and set customer expectations
- Partner closely with LA Implementation Services to: 1) define implementation strategies and tactics; and 2) ensure Implementation Services resources are prepared with the appropriate information to effectively implement products in the customer environment

Qualifications

Responsibility-based
- Ability to set direction, obtain buy-in and effectively plan over short- and long-term horizons (including key initiatives, financial impacts, risks) and for large-scale initiatives
- Ability to oversee large-scale initiatives and manage the product development life cycle
- Ability to effectively lead a complete supply chain across LA and shared services functions
- Ability to create, leverage and maintain shared services and/or external vendor interfaces - eg, governance, service level agreements, performance management
- Business Management/Financial skills:
- Ability to analyze and make decisions related to new product development initiative budgets
- Ability to synthesize disparate information to establish high impact recommendations
- Ability to manage the development of sophisticated and accurate financial plans based on a robust set of viable assumptions
- Ability to run a large, zero-based budget across key product development initiatives
- Ability to establish and manage by key business and operational metrics
- Ability to manage the definition, design and implementation of standard practices (eg, product development prioritization framework) and business process improvements across the internal LA and shared services supply chain (includes change management component of motivating the change within the organization)

Leadership-based
- Ability to build, maintain, and direct senior-level relationships
- Ability to lead, motivate, inspire, and actively develop the careers of staff within Product Delivery
- Ability to make, communicate, and execute decisions (sometimes unpopular) about product features, functions, and timelines based on constrained resources and re-prioritization
- Ability to help the LA organization structure and adapt to a frequently changing environment
- Excellent consensus-building, negotiation and interpersonal skills to resolve conflict without escalation
- Ability to influence senior-level stakeholders and exhibit leadership presence without direct line authority
- High-level of discretion, independent action and judgment
- Strong communication skills - informal (for regular interactions with key constituents) and formal (for developing documented materials and presenting summary information to senior LA stakeholders)
- Initiative, time management and organization skills to be able to set expectations, multi-task, meet aggressive deadlines, prioritize appropriately, and apply top-down/80-20 approach to problem solving
- Strong skills in PowerPoint (for developing presentations of plans/strategies/findings to key stakeholders) and Excel (for Financial analysis, modelling, and planning)

Experience/Education Requirements
- 5+ years in senior Product Delivery-related or Management-type roles; prefer delivery or program management of digital product or solution
- Significant experience in independently owning large-scale budgets and a track record of fiscal results
- Experience in leading complex, large-scale initiatives
- Extremely strong financial and business acumen and discipline
- Experience with effectively leveraging technology and operations to improve business
- Experience in process and supply chain techniques and disciplines and/or working with Shared Services organizations
- Experience in developing project methodologies
- Bachelor's Degree in Business or Education-related; MBA highly preferred
- Education industry experience preferred
- PMP Certification a plus

Key Attributes
- Leadership - executive presence; influence; consensus-building; change management; motivator
- Accountability - own the work; resolve conflicts; decisiveness; consistency in follow through
- Teamwork - unify and motivate groups; collaborate with others on problem solving; actively listen to others and respect individual talents and differences; go above and beyond own area of responsibility
- Customer Focus - passion for understanding customer needs and providing better solutions to our end-customers' toughest issues
- Outstanding interpersonal and relationship management skills
- Brave - takes personal risks and is prepared to challenge and make a stand
- Imaginative - innovates by turning good ideas into action
- Decent - shows integrity and does the right thing

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