Product Manager

PowerSchool; Plano (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

PowerSchool, a global leader in cloud-based K-12 education software, is seeking a Product-focused professional to join our Product team in Plano, TX. You will work closely with the Lead Product Manager to define features for the Scrum team, write user stories, develop acceptance criteria, and refine the product backlog.

You will drive value through incremental delivery and provide timely reporting to Senior Management.

Qualifications

• Minimum 2 years of relevant work experience.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent, or equivalent years of relevant work experience.
• Willingness to travel up to 10% for team events and customer meetings.
• On-call work hours outside normal day as needed.

Responsibilities

• Help define product vision, goals, themes and features.
• Translate directives into backlog items with clear customer value.
• Collaborate with Engineering to guide direction and focus in daily scrums.
• Refine product backlog and develop acceptance criteria.
• Create user stories and communicate scope to Scrum teams.
• Review QA test plans for alignment with acceptance criteria.
• Communicate product release contents to stakeholders.
• Coordinate products across departments for global visibility.
• Provide weekly project status updates to Senior Management.
• Identify impediments to releases and recommend corrective actions.

Skills

Agile/Scrum knowledge

Prioritization

Stakeholder collaboration

Communication

Problem solving

Adaptability

SDLC understanding

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Job description

Overview

At PowerSchool, we are a dedicated team of innovators guided by our shared purpose of powering personalized education for students around the world. From the central office to the classroom to the home, PowerSchool supports the entire educational ecosystem as the global leader of cloud-based software for K-12 education. Our employees make it all possible, and a career with us means you’re joining a successful team committed to engaging, empowering, and improving the K-12 education experience everywhere.

Team Overview

Our Product team leads the direction, coordination, output, quality, and enhancements to PowerSchool’s product portfolio. This dynamic, multi-functional team ensures the effective rollout of new products across the platform, packages and positions products to appeal to consumers, and helps set the future direction and pace of innovation in our organization.

This position will work closely with the Lead Product Manager to define and write product features to be implemented by the Scrum Team. You are responsible to assist in the definition of high-value extensions and enhancements to PowerSchool’s Administration product portfolio. This position will follow the Agile development process, to define the scope of work for the Scrum team by creating user stories, developing acceptance criteria and refining the product backlog. Working with product management and subject matter experts, you will apply incremental delivery principles to working practices, driving the delivery of value through your teams; communicating progress, eliciting feedback and enabling stakeholder reviews for validation in the process. This position will also use their skills to advance the progress of the Agile maturity model and provide timely reporting to Senior Management to ensure corporate objectives are being met.

Responsibilities

Essential duties and responsibilities include the following. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Improve organizations performance on delivering products by managing the cross functional development scope with Product Managers, Product Owners and Scrum teams.
• Support the product manager in the development of product vision, goals, themes and features. This translates into a product roadmap and long-term product strategy and feature development
• Participate and help lead daily scrum ceremonies, leading refinement sessions, and engaging with your Engineering team, guiding direction and focus
• Translate product directives into backlog items, effectively representing customer needs. Serve as the primary source of external information for the Scrum teams, offering clear definitions of the targeted capability, the intended value to the customer, and functional/non-functional requirements framing the scope of the capability – independent of implementation.
• Work closely with Development on implementation issues
• Review QA test plans to align with acceptance criteria
• Review relevant documentation for technical accuracy
• Effectively communicate product release contents and expected product capabilities/behavior to stakeholders including external and internal customers
• Coordinates products between departments for global visibility
• Communicate the product vision to the technical teams as well as to other teams within the company
• Ensuring the correct features are being development, considering the value being delivered against the cost of delivery
• Provide weekly reports on project status to Senior Management
• Monitor and identify impediments to release objective and suggest corrective actions as necessary
• All other duties as assigned

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Minimum of 2 years of relevant and related work experience.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent, or equivalent years of relevant work experience.
• Travel occasionally, up to 10%, for key moments such as team summits, training, customer meetings, company events, etc., with increased frequency during peak periods based on business demands.
• This position is subject to company on call policies which constitutes working hours outside of the normal workday as needed.

Preferred Qualifications

• Excellent understanding of Agile Values and Scrum Methodology
• Excellent ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment
• Excellent ability to elicit cooperation from a wide variety of sources, including upper management, clients, and other departments
• Excellent ability to handle a heavy workload with multiple projects and frequent interruptions
• Excellent ability to work in a changing, dynamic environment
• Excellent understanding of the software development life cycle (SDLC)
• Strong attention to accuracy and detail, while still results oriented
• Strong knowledge of Agile/Scrum methodology practices
• Strong problem solving, conflict resolution, interpersonal and presentation skills.
• Experience with business analysis, documenting use cases or requirements gathering

Compensation & Benefits

Along with our highly market competitive base compensation, PowerSchool offers the following benefits:

• Comprehensive Insurance Coverage (including Medical, Dental, Vision, Pharmacy benefits, Life Insurance and AD&D)
• Flexible Spending Accounts and Health Savings Accounts
• Short-Term Disability and Long-Term Disability
• Comprehensive 401(k) plan
• Generous Parental Leave
• Unrestricted paid time off (known as Discretionary Time Off - DTO)
• Wellness Program, including ClassPass & Employee Assistance Program
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Optional Benefits: Pet Insurance, Identity Theft Protection, Student Debt Repayment Program and Prepaid Legal coverage

EEO Commitment

PowerSchool is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. PowerSchool is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status. Our inclusive culture empowers PowerSchoolers to deliver the best results for our customers. We not only celebrate the diversity of our workforce, we celebrate the diverse ways we work. If you have a disability and need an accommodation regarding our recruiting process, please let us know by emailing [e-mail].