Portfolio Manager- Advanced Placement & Electives (Remote)

Cengage Group; Huntsville (AL); Remote; USD 77,000 - 101,000; Full time

Job summary

A global education technology company in Huntsville, AL is seeking a Portfolio Manager to lead product strategy for the Social Sciences portfolio. Ideal candidates will have over 5 years of experience in product management, with strong skills in problem solving and communication. This role involves developing strategic business plans, using data to guide decisions, and collaborating across various teams to deliver high-quality educational products. Compensation ranges from $77,100 to $100,200 annually.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years in product management or relevant portfolio management role.
• Demonstration of strong communication skills with ability to facilitate meetings.
• Proven written and verbal abilities for preparing and presenting information.

Responsibilities

• Lead a profitable product line and develop strategic business plans.
• Use data to make market-informed business proposals.
• Cultivate an environment of creativity and collaboration.

Skills

Creative problem solving

Understanding of educational technology

Customer focus

Strong communication skills

Cross-functional team leadership

Financial analysis skills

Education

BA or BS Degree

Tools

Word

Excel

PowerPoint

Job description

Overview

We believe in the power and joy of learning. At Cengage Group, our employees have a direct impact in helping students around the world discover the power and joy of learning. We are bonded by our shared purpose – driving innovation that helps millions of learners improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

Our culture values inclusion, engagement, and discovery. Our business is driven by a strong culture, and we know that creating an inclusive workplace is essential to the success of our company and our learners, as well as our individual well-being. We recognize the value of diverse perspectives in everything we do, and strive to ensure employees of all levels and backgrounds feel empowered to voice their ideas and bring their authentic selves to work. We achieve these priorities through programs, benefits, and initiatives that are integrated into the fabric of how we work every day. To learn more, please see https://www.cengagegroup.com/about/inclusion-and-belonging/ .

The Portfolio Manager (PM) is a Cengage School Portfolio Management Role at Cengage. The PM creates product strategy by understanding the audience, analyzing the market and competitive trends, developing hypotheses, testing ideas in the market, processing data, and ultimately making product design decisions based on these insights and evidence. The PM leads product development, collaborating with team members to ensure on-time delivery of high-quality learning experiences. The PM clearly articulates the features and benefits of a product to the market, enabling the creation and delivery of compelling messaging for target audiences through measurable campaigns and programs.

This particular PM role will support the Social Sciences Advanced Placement and Electives portfolio in the School market.

What you'll do here

• Lead a profitable product line and develop strategic business plans.
• Provide product leadership, representing the portfolio and customers across audiences.
• Use data to make market-informed business proposals, take mitigated risks, and guide strategic decisions.
• Define long-term goals based on research and trends, and set metrics-driven milestones, making connections across datasets and courses to devise solutions to complex business challenges.
• Balance experience, market knowledge, and insights to make impactful decisions and long-term plans.
• Translate priorities into organized end-to-end development plans with budgets, resources, performance goals, and key checkpoints.
• Provide project team direction, facilitating effective communication, and ensuring timely delivery of multiple products simultaneously within scope and budget.
• Cultivate an environment of creativity and collaboration.
• Deliver quality learning experiences to students and instructors.
• Establish and maintain relationships with key authors and adoption decision makers to gain customer insights, strengthen adoptions, and identify new talent.
• Develop a deep understanding of competitors and an ability to anticipate competitor activity.
• Identify and test product ideas within segments, including the administration of focus groups, advisory boards, reviews, and customer meetings as appropriate.
• Regularly analyze product and portfolio plans to align forecasting and measurement of progress towards goals.
• Partner closely with Marketing and Sales teams to seed and secure adoptions.
• Work closely with colleagues in other functional areas (Learning Design, Content Production, Marketing, Sales, Technology, etc.) on discipline-specific and pan-Cengage initiatives.
• Create compelling needs-based discipline, course, and product positioning and customer segments as inputs for campaign and sales enablement efforts.
• Make presentations at internal and external meetings, campus visits, and academic conventions in support of sales efforts and to drive sales.
• Share best practices across teams and functional groups.

Skills you will need here

• Creative and curious problem solving and collaboration
• Understanding of the educational technology and publishing industry
• Ability to clearly articulate vision and strategy and help team members understand how their work impacts business success
• Customer focus; understanding of how customer needs and challenges translate into opportunities
• Demonstration of strong communication skills with keen ability to facilitate team meetings, presentations, focus groups, and interviews
• BA or BS Degree
• Minimum 5 years in product management, product development, or other relevant portfolio management role
• Cross-functional team leadership experience
• Ability to inspire change through influence; honed interpersonal skills
• Self-discipline with a high degree of accountability
• Strong financial analysis and modeling skills and an understanding of business metrics
• Natural curiosity and willingness to learn paired with a desire for continuous improvement
• Proven written and verbal abilities enabling the preparation and presentation of information and recommendations to a diverse and senior level audience
• Expected travel ~10% of time
• Proficiency with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

About Cengage Group

Cengage Group, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job ready. For more than 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms. We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. Through our scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

Cengage Group is committed to working with broad talent pools to attract and hire strong and most qualified individuals. Our job applicants are considered regardless of race, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, disability, age, veteran status, and any other classification protected by applicable federal, state, provincial or local laws.

Cengage is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities including during our job application process. If you are an applicant with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in our job application process, please contact us at [e-mail] or at [phone].

Compensation

At Cengage Group, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees. Click here (https://www.cengagegroup.com/news/perspectives/2024/cengage-group-total-rewards-philosophy/) to learn more about our Total Rewards Philosophy.

The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location. Sales roles often incorporate a significant incentive compensation program beyond this base pay range.

$77,100.00 - $100,200.00 USD

Cengage Group, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job ready. For more than 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms.

We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. Through our scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

Warning: Be aware, there has been an increase of targeted recruitment scams perpetrated by bad actors falsely providing job offers on behalf Cengage Group to candidates as a means of obtaining personal information. Note that Cengage will always interview candidates via live in-person meetings, phone calls and video calls before an offer would be extended. Also, be sure to check that communication is coming from an @cengage.com email address.