Product Owner, Item Development Platform

Shape the Future of Digital Assessment: Director, Item Cloud Digital Product Owner (Project Proteus)

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About the Role

Are you a visionary Product Owner passionate about transforming educational assessment through innovative digital solutions? Do you thrive at the intersection of technology, strategy, and user impact? Join us as the Director, Item Cloud Digital Product Owner for Project Proteus, a critical initiative focused on enhancing the scale, efficiency, and quality of assessment development. In this pivotal role, you will be instrumental in shaping the tools and processes used to create tests like the SAT, PSAT/NMSQT, PSAT 10, and PSAT 8/9 ELA, while also serving as a thought leader for innovation across other programs.

What You’ll Do

As the leader of the digital product strategy for our Item Cloud, you will drive key outcomes through a blend of strategic planning, execution, user focus, and communication. Your responsibilities will include:

• Defining the Vision & Strategy: Develop and champion a compelling product vision and strategic product roadmap. You’ll build and manage prioritized product backlogs, ensuring alignment with both long-term product goals and immediate organizational priorities, integrating input from stakeholders in Assessment Development & Design (AD&D) and Engineering.
• Driving Prioritization & Clarity: Cut through complexity and diverse stakeholder inputs to propose and advocate for a clear, prioritized roadmap that effectively balances technical feasibility, user needs, and business impact.
• Leading Agile Execution: Collaborate closely with Engineering and Design Leads to define sprint goals and develop well-defined stories. You will ensure stories have clear, comprehensive requirements and acceptance criteria documented ahead of grooming sessions.
• Fostering Innovation: Actively investigate and experiment with emerging technologies, including generative AI and other solutions, exploring their potential application in assessment development to drive future efficiency and quality improvements.
• Ensuring Quality Delivery: Validate completed stories against defined acceptance criteria. Facilitate seamless integration and timely releases of new features, ensuring continuous value delivery to our users.
• Championing User Needs: Work with AD&D and team members on user research activities such as interviews, focus groups, and usability tests. Your insights will directly inform the design and development of new features and help evaluate the effectiveness of existing ones.
• Leveraging Data: Collaborate on gathering and monitoring key data points on user behavior and feature usage to inform prioritization decisions and ensure the roadmap is data-driven.
• Communicating & Aligning: Skillfully navigate differing perspectives across various disciplines and stakeholder groups. Ensure product decisions are clearly communicated, reflect shared goals, and account for necessary trade-offs. Report on initiative health, manage risks, triage issues, and maintain a regular, transparent communication cadence with stakeholders and end-users.

Who You Are

We are looking for an experienced and dynamic Digital Product Owner with a proven track record in leading and delivering successful digital products, particularly within the EdTech sector. Specifically, you should possess:

• A minimum of 5+ years of relevant experience as a Product Owner for digital product(s).
• Deep expertise in Agile methodologies, including extensive experience building and managing product roadmaps and backlogs, and collaborating effectively with engineering and design teams.
• Demonstrated ability to build strong, trusted relationships across functions and confidently guide teams toward user-centered, well-reasoned product decisions, even when faced with diverging priorities.
• Robust experience in clearly defining user needs and documenting appropriate and precise product requirements.
• Proficiency with various tools and techniques for sequencing and breaking down large, complex pieces of work.
• Strong experience deriving actionable insights from data, including survey research and usability testing.
• Experience researching and thoughtfully experimenting with emerging or innovative technologies, such as generative AI.
• Excellent analytical thinking and structured problem-solving capabilities.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills, including expertise in facilitating meetings and presenting effectively in both remote and in-person settings.
• A proven ability to successfully complete complex tasks within tight deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
• A Bachelor’s degree.
• The ability to travel 4–5 times annually for College Board business.
• Authorization to work in the United States for any employer.

While not required, a background in English Language Arts (ELA), such as teaching or content development, is a plus.

Why You’ll Love Working Here

• Mission-Driven Impact: Contribute to a workplace deeply committed to expanding educational and career opportunities for students. Your work directly supports this vital mission.
• Growth & Development: Join a team that is invested in your professional development, offering opportunities for merit-based raises, promotions, and annual bonuses.
• Innovative Environment: Engage with and experiment with emerging technologies, particularly AI-driven solutions, in a thoughtful and responsible manner.
• Collaborative Team: Be part of a supportive team that values clear and concise communication and proactive learning.

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