Director, Platform Product Management - Sophia Learning

Sophia Learning exists to expand access to affordable, high-quality college-level learning through engaging, flexible, and academically rigorous online courses. As we enter our next chapter of growth, we are transforming our portfolio, reinventing our learning experiences, and scaling our ability to deliver outcomes for the thousands of learners who rely on Sophia every day.

The Director of Platform Product Management will oversee the product management and UX org responsible for both in-course and out-of-course learner experiences spanning navigation, assessments, learning flow, progress tracking, onboarding, engagement, and more. This role will also be responsible for owning and defining Sophia's portfolio of offerings. This is a highly cross-functional role that requires exceptional product craft, user-centered thinking, and the ability to lead teams in delivering experiences that meaningfully improve student success, satisfaction, and retention.

Product Strategy & Execution

• Own the platform experience for Sophia’s learning environment including course interactions, assessment experience, progress visualizations, onboarding, discovery, and student support touchpoints.

• Develop and manage a multi-quarter roadmap aligned to learner needs, business goals, and overall product strategy.

• Lead product discovery and define clear problems, metrics, and hypotheses for improvement.

• Drive execution in partnership with engineering to deliver high-quality, impactful features.

• Define and own Sophia's offering portfolio of courses and pathways.

User Insight, Research & Experience Quality

• Build and operationalize the infrastructure required for deep user understanding: behavioral analytics, event tracking, usability testing, journey mapping, and feedback loops.

• Ensure user insights directly inform product prioritization, UX design decisions, and business strategy.

• Maintain high standards for accessibility, intuitiveness, and user delight across the learner experience.

Team Leadership & Management

• Lead, coach, and grow a team of product managers and UX designers, fostering strong product craft, collaboration, and accountability for outcomes.

• Create clarity around roles, decision-making, and execution rhythms across product and UX teams.

• Cultivate a culture of experimentation, evidence-based decision-making, and continuous improvement.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner closely with the Content, Engineering, Academic Operations, and Marketing teams to ensure a coherent and seamless learner journey.

• Collaborate with stakeholders to identify friction points, growth opportunities, and experience gaps across the student lifecycle.

• Represent the platform product strategy with senior leadership, institutional partners, and key external stakeholders as needed.

Product Leadership

• Strong product management expertise, with the ability to define strategy, synthesize insights, structure ambiguous problems, and lead teams through execution.

• Proven success building and evolving digital learning experiences, ideally within an education technology context.

User-Centered Design & UX Collaboration

• Deep familiarity with UX principles, design processes, and usability best practices.

• Ability to guide UX work and ensure design decisions are grounded in learner insights and measurable outcomes.

User Understanding & Insights Infrastructure

• Skilled at establishing research practices, user feedback systems, analytics frameworks, and other mechanisms for uncovering learner pain points and behaviors.

• Ability to translate qualitative and quantitative insights into clear product direction.

Operational & Execution Excellence

• Strong ability to manage roadmaps, balance competing priorities, and deliver impact through agile, cross-functional teams.

• Fluent in metrics, experimentation, and outcome-driven product development.

Leadership & Communication

• Strong people leadership skills with experience developing product managers and designers.

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to align stakeholders and present ideas compellingly at all levels.

• Work Experience: 10+ years of experience in…