Product Manager - Contractor (1099)

Requirements

• Skills we'd love to see you show off:
• Translating : Ability to translate complex market and business needs into clear product requirements.
• Technical Product Leadership: Comfort leading highly technical initiatives such as platform enhancements, internal tools, system integrations, and architectural or framework migrations; able to engage engineers in detailed discussions and understand tradeoffs.
• Systems Thinking: Ability to reason about complex systems, dependencies, data flows, and long-term scalability when defining product direction.
• Data-driven Decision Making : Strong analytical skills and inclination to use data (or proxy data) to inform decisions and prioritization
• Clear, Tailored Communication : Strong verbal and written communication across a diverse set of partners and team members; writes clearly, succinctly, and in a compelling manner
• Relationship Management : Able to build rapport and trust across stakeholder groups; strong listener who displays emotional intelligence
• Planning and Execution : Designs strong project plans, effectively mobilizes colleagues across teams, and ensures the work is completed on time and to a high standard
• 5+ years of product management or similar experience, preferably in edtech or HR tech
• Bachelor's degree or relevant work experience
• Experience with agile software development practices and experience crafting epics, user stories, building agile processes, backlog management, and roadmap planning
• Experience leading or significantly contributing to platform, infrastructure-adjacent, or internal product initiatives (e.g., APIs, internal tools, system integrations, migrations).
• Comfortable context-switching between deeply technical problem spaces and customer- or partner-facing feature development.
• Experience leading technical conversations with less technical internal and external stakeholders (e.g., corporate and/or higher education leaders)
• Understands the value of strong documentation, knowledge management, and impact measurement
• Enjoys tackling open-ended, ambiguous problems and delving into new topics, domains, and techniques; can process a large amount of information and distill into recommendations
• "No job too small" attitude / "roll up sleeves" mentality; proactive with a bias for speed and action; able to handle multiple, competing (and sometimes unexpected) demands
• How you will create impact:
• Product development and execution
• Lead end-to-end product lifecycle from discovery through launch, ensuring timely execution and high-quality delivery
• Accountable for a roadmap of features and capabilities to e

Benefits

Additional Information

At InStride, people are our purpose. We believe that investing in people is the most powerful way to drive success-for individuals and organizations alike. As a public benefit corporation, we partner with leading employers to unlock opportunities for their employees, providing access to top-tier education programs that align with their employees' career goals and the company's business goals. Our mission goes beyond skill-building; we're here to empower our partners' employees to advance their careers, elevate their expertise, and achieve meaningful personal and professional growth. No matter the team you're on, our dedication to the success of our partners and their employees is what drives us. If you're passionate about making a difference and driving educational and professional advancement, InStride is the place for you. To get a better feel for our culture, watch more here . Candidates must be located in one of the following states to be considered eligible for employment: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KS, LA, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NJ, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, TX, VA, WA, WI.

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