Senior Product Manager, Rori (Remote)
The context:
More kids than ever are attending school in the developing countries, yet they are not learning. According to a recent survey, fewer than 1% of schoolchildren in Sub-Saharan Africa are enrolled in institutions where the instruction satisfies minimal requirements for quality. We’re changing that at Rising Academies, and we need your support.
What we do:
We are a West African network of inspiring schools that is expanding. Our goal is to help every student reach their full potential by giving them the knowledge, skills, and character they need to excel in their daily lives and in their future academic and professional endeavours. Through a combination of low cost private schools we administer directly and partnership schools we manage in association with governments, we provide help to more than 250,000 students in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ghana. Independent assessments have revealed that Rising students achieve learning gains that are two to three times greater than those of their peers in similar institutions.
Our recent Series A investment round has come to an end, and we have recently been awarded a multi-year, multi-million dollar grant to hasten the development of our digital ed-tech solutions for low-income students around the world. A school information system, a tool for observing schools, a chatbot tutor, an accelerated learning programme, and an app for teacher coaching are already part of our “Bambai” suite of digital tools. This is only the beginning. To enable millions of students throughout the world receive higher-quality education, we want to widen our selection of digital products. We are the perfect destination for you if you want to improve the lives of educators, students, and parents.
Describe the role:
To manage the discovery, design, and development of Rori products that offer engaging experiences for students, teachers, and administrators, we are looking for a Senior Product Manager with extraordinary ability. For engineering teams to effectively design, construct, release, and monitor technological solutions, the senior product manager will be in charge of identifying and articulating product challenges or opportunities, setting target metrics, and creating well-formed epics or user stories.
The Senior Product Manager will guide the group in developing ideas, creating a road map, and actualizing services and solutions for schools. Our objective is to increase the amount of time spent teaching and learning in order to accelerate student outcomes. In addition to leading cross-functional implementation coordination, this role also entails product ownership of the product team(s) and fostering trust among engineering teams, business stakeholders, and customer-facing personnel.
According to the Senior Product Manager:
• In low-connectivity environments, be in charge of the entire product experience for a learner, instructor, school administrator, and HQ personnel of a school or school chain.
• Take the helm of the product team while collaborating closely with the engineering team to develop services and solutions primarily targeted at schools.
• Hold yourself accountable for the product(s) you’ve produced, present the product model, and let stakeholders know what it requires.
• Create prioritised agile epics and stories with the input of all stakeholders, making sure that all impacted teams are aware of the release objectives and obligations.
• Work together with the engineering leadership, impact team, and country managers to produce a manageable scope on schedule, within budget, and with high quality.
• Create a vision, strategy, and prioritised feature backlog for the digital product(s)/platform in collaboration with the product leadership and business.
The place and reporting: This job is remote and full-time. Candidates should reside in the USA or India. The Senior Product Manager will work closely with the Chief Technology Officer of Rising while reporting directly to the VP of Product.
Requirements
Qualifications and Experience:
• Seven to nine years of experience managing agile software product development teams.
• At least two to three years of experience supervising junior product managers.
• Successful product management experience, with a preference for managing ed-tech products
• Effective at leading and working with teams of technologists and customer-facing teams distributed across various time zones and nations.
• Able to write API-based solution requirements and love working collaboratively with engineering.
• Knowledge of user research, user experience, product road planning, and product development.
• Product/market fit building expertise.
• Working knowledge of Asana or equivalent project management applications.
• Knowledge of Scrum and JIRA.
• Expertise in creating products that operate without internet or with spotty coverage.
• PWA and Android mobile development expertise.
• Proven expertise in data analytics and the use of data to boost sales and customer satisfaction.
About You:
• Your interpersonal, writing, and communication skills are all top-notch.
• You possess the ability to effectively communicate with technical teams and business stakeholders in a multicultural setting.
• You exhibit people skills; you must be able to work well with people who have different personalities and skill sets and you must embrace healthy conflict.
• You have a proven track record of dependability and professionalism.
• You are skilled at working in a team and communicating effectively.
• You have a proven track record of working closely with engineers and developers to manage them.
• You are accustomed to interacting with senior leadership and providing updates on data and results. • You can take the initiative and come up with solutions when problems emerge.
• You are excellent at keeping a team on task.
• You’re not afraid to attempt new things, take chances, fail, and learn from them.
• You are committed to raising the standard of education in Africa.
Benefits We offer a competitive salary and benefits package. We regularly benchmark our compensation against comparable businesses, social ventures and non-profits. Rising’s goal is to be transparent about salaries at all levels of the organisation and have a standard, global pay scale for all positions that is non-negotiable. The benefits we offer are built to have a strong added value on our staff’s well-being and we are excited to discuss this further with you in the process. Rising is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to providing a work environment that is inclusive and free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions are based on individual qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender identity and expression, national origin, family or parental status, veteran or disability status. Rising is committed to creating a culture within the organisation, and its schools, that recognises the importance of safeguarding children and prioritising their rights and needs. We strive to uphold international safeguarding standards, and keep the safety and well-being of our students at the heart of what we do. All Rising employees are expected to abide by the Child Protection Policy, and to have the same level of commitment to protect children from harm. Safeguarding questions are part of every interview process and all Rising employees undergo reference checks before joining the organisation