Director Technical Product Platform

Ascend Learning • Full-time • Remote (United States) • 3w ago

We Impact Lives Through Purpose-Driven Work in A People First Culture

Ascend Learning is the connection between a powerful portfolio of brands serving students, educators, and employers with outcomes-based, data driven solutions across the lifecycle of learning.

Our values-driven culture unifies our teams and inspires a mindset of action, innovation, and collaboration, with a relentless focus on customers.

We're always looking for talented, passionate professionals to join us in our mission to help change lives. If this sounds like an environment where you'd thrive, read on to learn more.

Ascend Learning leads the way in innovation and solution creation to improve outcomes and deliver results for students, educators, and healthcare workers in the ever-changing field of healthcare. We offer advanced resources that drive nursing success, empower front-line certified allied health workers, help physicians pass boards and stay current, and provide education management tools for medical education programs.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

The Director Technical Product Platform is critical to achieving a strategic, effective, and streamlined approach to end-to-end customer experience. This role is dedicated and accountable for developing and managing the long-term platform strategy and roadmap for multiple strategic categories of business within Ascend. This role is designed to simplify technology prioritization and minimize hand-offs across product and tech teams, as well as ensure seamless transition of business requirements into the development phase of the lifecycle.

WHERE YOU’LL WORK

This position offers the flexibility of remote work within the United States.

HOW YOU’LL SPEND YOUR TIME

Developing and executing long-term strategic platform roadmap in alignment with overall Ascend and category strategy, and objectives and market trends. Effectively communicating, educating, influencing and driving alignment to platform vision.
Critically thinking to question, analyze and synthesize data points to make decisions about overall platform direction. Identify, perform and oversee research to achieve high value platform roadmap vision in partnership with product managers.
Establishing trusted deep partnerships and credibility as a technical SME with a deep understanding of competitive landscape for customer platform experience.
Influencing and driving thoughtful advancement to platform in partnership with product and technical leadership. Collaborating with product, user experience, content and development teams to define platform requirements, and make informed, data-driven trade-offs between product and core platform enhancements. Drive all work with an eye to implementation and at scale customer usage. Ensure training, documentation and overall alignment to value are at the forefront of every collaboration.
Drive the overall approach and relationship for platform TPMs across product delivery teams serving as bridge between technology teams and other stakeholders; responsible for conveying product requirements effectively to development teams and providing regular updates to Product teams on platform health and development.
Provide technical guidance to development teams responsible for platform build and maintenance. Orchestrate implementation of tracking mechanisms to gather insights related to platform usage, user behavior and effectiveness. Plan, manage and prioritize features and PIs for agile development, as needed.
Lead the practice and overall development of platform roadmaps from a process and oversite perspective across all categories.
Provide leadership and guidance to a team of technical product managers. Foster a collaborative and high-performing culture, promoting professional development and knowledge sharing.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

Bachelor’s degree required in related field. MBA or Master’s degree is preferred.
Minimum 10+ years of combined experience in product management, business management, or consulting, preferably in a technical or software-related environment. Leading E-Learning product experience preferred.
Familiarity with data analysis, market research related to SaaS/technology trends, and customer feedback methodologies to inform platform decisions.
Proven ability in managing a complex strategic roadmap with multiple dependencies ensuring alignment with product requirements and overall business objectives.
Strong understanding of software development principles, technologies and agile methodologies. Experience working in an agile environment is strongly preferred.
Proven expertise in making critical technology-related decisions and trade-offs to drive overall business value and platform effectiveness.
Ability to derive insights from technical trends/capabilities to champion improvements to user platform experience.
Strong technical acumen and project management skills with knowledge of UX principles and ability to advocate for user-centric design.
Demonstrated leadership to provide technical leadership and guidance to platform development teams.
Direct management experience leading, developing, and managing successful teams.

BENEFITS

Flexible and generous paid time off
Competitive medical, dental, vision and life insurance
401(k) employer matching program
Parental leave
Wellness resources
Charitable matching program
Hybrid work
On-site workout facilities (Leawood, Gilbert, Burlington)
Community outreach groups
Tuition reimbursement

Fostering A Sense of Belonging

We seek out and celebrate all people and perspectives and cultivate an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive, feel valued and be their authentic selves. Our culture is firmly rooted in the belief that by embracing our differences and drawing on diverse perspectives, we are a stronger, more innovative, and more successful organization where employees experience a sense of belonging.

About Ascend Learning

As a tech-enabled services company, Ascend Learning is a national leader in developing and delivering data-driven online educational content, software, assessments, analytics, and simulations serving institutions, students and employers across healthcare, fitness and wellness, public and workplace safety, skilled trades, insurance, financial services, cybersecurity, and higher education. We're committed to accelerating the learning pathways that can move people into careers where they have the knowledge and skills to have an impact and help change lives in the communities they serve. Headquartered in Burlington, MA with additional office locations and hybrid and remote workers in cities across the U.S., Ascend Learning was recognized by Newsweek and Plant-A Insights Group as one of America's 2023 Greatest Workplaces for Diversity.

Ascend Learning, LLC is proud to be an equal opportunity employer (M/F/Vets/Disabled). No agency or search firm submissions will be accepted. Applications for U.S. based positions with Ascend Learning, LLC must be legally authorized to work in the United States and verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire.

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