Who we are

SmartPass is a fast-growing K-12 startup developing a platform to make schools more efficient. Initially, we launched with a digital hall pass system — not just bathroom and water fountain visits but managing all kinds of student movements such as counselor appointments, nurse visits, and office hours. Our solution has successfully aided over 3,000 K–12 schools in maximizing classroom time, minimizing aimless hallway wandering, and enhancing student accountability.

In the past year, we've grown our product suite to include three more offerings: Flex for adaptable scheduling, ID cards for secure student identification, and Attendance for roll-call. Each product is at a pivotal stage, and we're on a mission to make SmartPass the most delightful, easy-to-use operations tool schools have ever seen. K-12 software is typically bad, and we’re in the process of changing that.

Role overview

As our first PM, you’ll help build new features and brand-new products that maximize student instructional time for 2 million+ educators and students (~1 million WAUs today). Your role involves close collaboration with the entire EPD team — engineering (~10 engineers), design (2 designers), and cross-functional stakeholders. This role is Remote in the US (preference to EST) or Hybrid to our co-working space in NYC where a few members of our engineering, product and design teams work 1 day a week. You’ll report to our CEO & Co-founder, a former PM at Salesforce & Quip. Because of this, we are heavily prioritizing this hire being someone who has proven impact within EdTech as a Product Manager or Product Lead, or has classroom experience as a teacher and then made the transition into Product Management at leading product companies.

In the first few months, you’ll get your hands dirty right away (just a few examples):

You’ll do a listening tour: visiting schools, calling customers, reading thousands of user-submitted feedback.
You’ll spec + ship a few quick-wins from our improvements & fixes backlog.
You’ll start working with design/eng on a few features, such as notification improvements or pass comments.
You’ll help craft (and eventually own) all of the hall pass initiatives, plus work closely with the founders to explore new special projects.

We’re looking for folks with:

You have 5+ years of tech industry product management experience, specifically within EdTech.
🏫 K-12 Experience: You’ve built products for K-12 and/or have worked in a K-12 school.
Wicked prioritization skills. We serve 4 very different end-users: students, teachers, admins, and parents.
Design-oriented (or previous product design roles) i.e. you have an eye for design and are comfortable working with designers.
You have a talent for working on user-centered products that look great too.
You have a desire to constantly advance your work and care about the details.
You are an excellent communicator and team player.
You are endlessly curious with a drive to keep learning.
You are a self-starter and a doer.
You’ve worked with small, fast-paced teams before.

Nice to Haves

Hybrid B2C and B2B product sense (like Slack)
Previous work on both 0→1 and 1→n initiatives.

What you’ll do:

Understand and prioritize work so the team is always working on the most impactful initiatives.
Talk to customers, understand their problems, translate and evaluate these into opportunities for the business.
Work closely in a cross-functional team to explore ideas, discover the problem space and shape the solution.
Motivate a group of smart people to deliver products and experiences that users love.
Identify product, organizational, and process opportunities and drive these, without direction and resourcing.

The estimated salary range for this role is $180,000 - $220,000 per year. Actual compensation packages are based on a wide array of factors unique to each candidate including but not limited to demonstrated skill set, years & depth of experience, and some role dependent factors that can include certifications and software expertise. We also hope you’ll consider and be open to what else we provide outside of our base compensation. This includes our benefits, perks, equity, and other aspects of our overall employer brand including our culture which is built on our mission, vision and values. We welcome direct conversations with each candidate about compensation in all our initial calls.

Why you might be excited about us

We’re building software that reduces admin and teacher burden, making schools a better learning environment. If you’re into education and love working on tough engineering problems, you’ll love helping build our product.
Good design is one of our core values and differentiators. We won’t ship something that isn’t easy to use and doesn't looks good, even though we’re still a small startup.
A handful of us are hybrid in the NYC area, if you are too you can join us and collaborate with the founders face to face and some of the EPD team members.
We’re small, so you’ll have big responsibilities and lay the groundwork as we start scaling.
Our team has a wide range of experiences (folks from Microsoft, Salesforce, Nielsen, previous startups, and K-12 administrators/teachers).
Our culture is simple: we work hard, we’re lifelong learners, and we’re fun — at every monthly all-hands, we start with a “memes of the month” and then dive deep into the work someone is doing.
Get in at the ground-level of a fast-growing startup.
We'll mold your role to shape a career you're excited about. We care a ton about your satisfaction and job happiness, and will help prep you for whatever you're looking for in the future.

Why you might not be excited about us

We’re small (~50 people in the company right now), so if you like more established companies, it’s not (yet) the right time. You’ll help build our company’s culture.
Since we’re an early stage startup, projects and priorities may shift. We’ll expect you to bring your own experience and give input to shift these priorities, too.
Our customerslove us, and there's a lot we can improve. It's a great place to be, but that means there's some jank. (Nothing too scary! 😃)

Go Deeper

Check out oursupport site to watch some videos and see how SmartPass works!

SmartPass is committed to creating a company where all employees regardless of background can show up and feel they belong. This is an ongoing journey, and we welcome questions on where we’re at during your interview process. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or fitness level.

SmartPass jobs

Sr. Product Manager

Sr. Product Manager