Head Product Strategy & Learning Innovation

Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 9,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani seeks a senior leader to shape online learning products. You will identify learner needs, define programmes, and drive product lifecycle from concept to launch, refresh, or discontinuation.

You will lead design across curricula, digital content, and experiential learning while partnering with faculty, SMEs, and industry to ensure relevance and rigor. A cross-functional, leadership role awaits.

Qualifications

• Engineering degree mandatory for leadership in technology-enabled learning products.
• MBA or equivalent is desirable but not mandatory.
• Minimum 15–20 years of overall professional experience with 5+ years in product strategy/learning design.

Responsibilities

• Identify learner needs and market opportunities for new online degree, diploma, and certificate programmes.
• Own end-to-end lifecycle from concept to launch, refresh, or discontinuation.
• Define design principles balancing academic rigor, industry relevance, and learner engagement.
• Embed experiential learning through projects, labs, simulations, and capstones.
• Lead digital content strategy and development across formats and platforms.
• Collaborate with faculty and SMEs for rigorous, market-relevant curricula.
• Build partnerships with tech companies and industry players to strengthen relevance.
• Work with Marketing/Sales to refine audience, positioning and differentiation.
• Support delivery teams to translate design into effective learner experiences.

Skills

Product strategy

Lifecycle management

Learning design

Digital learning

Experiential learning

Digital content

Curriculum development

Stakeholder management

Team leadership

Industry partnerships

Education

Engineering degree

MBA or equivalent

Job description

Job Type: Full-Time

Reporting to: CEO

No of Positions:1

Role Overview: The role will be responsible for identifying emerging learner needs and market opportunities, conceptualising new programmes, continuously strengthening existing offerings, and ensuring that programmes remain relevant, differentiated, academically rigorous, industry-connected, and compelling to learners. This is a cross-functional leadership role at the intersection of higher education, product strategy, learning design, technology, industry, and digital content. The incumbent will work closely with Institute faculty, external subject matter experts, technology partners, marketing, sales, and programme delivery teams to translate market opportunities into high-quality learning products and learner experiences.

The role will lead three specialist teams:

1. Product Strategy & Programme Design

Each team will be led by a Team Lead reporting to the Head of Product Strategy & Learning Innovation.

Principal Accountabilities & Responsibilities

New Programme Strategy & Portfolio Development - Identify and conceptualise new online degree, diploma, and certificate programmes across technology and techno-management domains. Design offerings for high-school graduates, college students, fresh graduates, and working professionals. Define target audience, learner need, value proposition, programme structure, and differentiation. Build and maintain a forward-looking programme portfolio and roadmap.

Programme Lifecycle Management - Own the end-to-end lifecycle of programmes from concept and launch to refresh, repositioning, or discontinuation. Track programme performance, learner demand, market trends, and competition. Continuously refresh programmes to maintain relevance and competitiveness.

Programme Design & Learning Innovation - Define programme design principles that balance academic rigour, industry relevance, and learner engagement. Collaborate with faculty and SMEs to shape curriculum, learning outcomes, assessments, and learner journeys. Introduce innovative models for online and digitally enabled learning.

Experiential Learning - Embed projects, labs, simulations, case studies, capstones, and other applied learning experiences into programmes. Ensure learners can apply concepts in practical and industry-relevant contexts. Identify tools, platforms, and partners that enable experiential learning at scale.

Digital Content Strategy & Development - Define the strategy and standards for digital learning content. Lead development of engaging learning assets across video, interactive, assessment, and practice formats. Drive adoption of new technologies and content formats that improve engagement and learning effectiveness.

Faculty & SME Collaboration - Partner with BITS Pilani faculty and external SMEs to design academically rigorous and market-relevant programmes. Translate learner and market insights into actionable inputs for curriculum and course design. Enable effective collaboration across faculty, learning design, content, and industry experts.

Industry & Technology Partnerships - Build partnerships with technology companies, product vendors, and industry ecosystem players. Enable partner participation through tools, labs, certifications, content, projects, experts, and industry exposure. Ensure partnerships strengthen programme relevance and learner outcomes.

Market Intelligence, Audience Strategy & Differentiation - Work with Marketing and Sales to refine target audiences, positioning, value propositions, and programme differentiation. Track competitors, industry trends, and alternative learning offerings. Use market intelligence to strengthen product strategy and programme positioning.

Programme Translation & Delivery Enablement - Support faculty and delivery teams in translating programme design into effective learner experiences. Ensure consistency across curriculum, assessments, experiential learning, content, and learner engagement. Identify delivery gaps and drive continuous programme improvement.

Skill and Ability Requirements

• Strong product strategy and product lifecycle management orientation.
• Deep understanding of learner needs, learning design, digital learning, and emerging models of education and capability development.
• Ability to identify technology, workforce, industry, and learner trends and translate them into new programme and product opportunities.
• Strong understanding of the technology and techno-management talent landscape.
• Ability to combine market insight with academic and learning-design considerations.
• Strong appreciation of experiential learning, digital content, assessments, and learner engagement.
• Ability to work effectively with faculty, senior subject-matter experts, business leaders, technology partners, and commercial teams.
• Strong strategic, analytical, communication, influencing, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Demonstrated ability to build and lead high-performing multidisciplinary teams.

Key Stakeholders

• Institute leadership and BITS Pilani faculty.
• Academic departments and programme leadership.
• External subject matter experts.
• Industry and technology partners.
• Marketing, Sales and Admissions.
• Programme delivery and learner-success teams.
• Technology and platform teams.
• Content production partners and agencies.

Qualification & Experience

Qualification

• Engineering degree is mandatory.
• MBA or equivalent postgraduate qualification in management is desirable, but not mandatory.

Experience

• Minimum 15–20 years of overall professional experience.
• At least 5 years of experience in Product Strategy & Management and/or Learning Design & Development, preferably in a leading EdTech company, digital education organisation, or global learning services company.
• Senior leaders from leading and large technology companies who have been responsible for the design and development of Talent Development, Learning Transformation, Capability Building, or Workforce Transformation strategies will also be considered.
• Demonstrated experience in conceptualising, designing, launching, and managing products, programmes, learning solutions, or capability-building initiatives.
• Experience managing multidisciplinary teams and senior functional leaders.
• Strong track record of working across academic, product, technology, commercial, content, and delivery stakeholders.
• Experience working with external partners, technology companies, subject-matter experts, or industry ecosystems will be an advantage.