Senior Educational Product Specialist

🇺🇸Hybrid - Carson, CA3w ago

K-12 Product Product Management Custom Product Development Vendor Management Project Management Educational Materials

Role Snapshot

Lead end-to-end development of custom educational products at Lakeshore Learning Materials, translating customer vision into production-ready concepts that directly impact educators and students. Own the complete project lifecycle from ideation through delivery, managing vendor relationships, timelines, and cross-functional collaboration.

Key Responsibilities: Develop custom educational products by translating customer needs and budgets into compelling concepts; manage vendor relationships including sourcing, quoting, and procurement coordination. Review prototypes and samples for quality assurance, represent projects in customer meetings, and drive decisions across internal and external partners to keep projects on schedule.

Skills & Tools: Strong project management and vendor negotiation abilities; excellent communication and presentation skills for customer-facing interactions. Product development expertise, attention to detail, and cross-functional collaboration capability required.

Qualifications: Typically requires 5+ years of product development, project management, or related experience in a manufacturing or custom solutions environment. Bachelor's degree in business, product management, education, or related field preferred.

Location: Hybrid - Carson, CA

Compensation: Not provided by employer. Typical compensation for this role is $65,000 – $85,000/year based on title, seniority, and location.

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Job Description

At Lakeshore, we create learning materials that teachers trust and children love — and our Custom Product Solutions team is where some of our most exciting, one-of-a-kind ideas come to life. As a Senior Product Solutions Specialist, you'll own the full journey of custom educational products from first concept to finished item, working hand in hand with customers, internal creative teams, and vendors to bring each vision to reality. Your work directly shapes the tools that educators rely on every day — and no two projects are exactly alike.

A day on the job looks like this:

Lead the end-to-end development of custom educational products — translating customer needs and budget parameters into compelling, production-ready concepts.
Own vendor relationships throughout each project: sourcing, quoting, negotiating, and coordinating with procurement to keep quality high and costs on target.
Keep multiple overlapping projects moving on schedule by proactively managing timelines, flagging risks early, and driving decisions across internal and external partners.
Review artwork, prototypes, and production samples against customer specifications, catching issues before they become problems and holding quality standards at every stage.
Represent projects in customer-facing meetings — presenting ideas, fielding feedback, and turning complex details into clear, confident recommendations.
Partner cross-functionally with creative, operations, and sales teams to align on scope, timelines, and outcomes that work for the customer and for Lakeshore.