Product Manager – Student Acquisition at American College of Education in Remote (United States)

Job description

• You are passionate about helping students achieve their educational goals. You thrive in a competitive and collaborative team environment. You are comfortable working remotely and have experience collaborating with others in a virtual environment. You possess a strong attention to detail.
• The Product Manager, Student Acquisition owns the strategy, roadmap, and measurable outcomes for the end-to-end student acquisition journey/value stream from prospective student through started student. This role serves as the strategic bridge among Marketing, Enrollment, Admissions, Student Services, and IT, translating institutional growth goals and student needs into a prioritized, outcome-based product roadmap. The Product Manager aligns people, processes, data, and technology across the student acquisition technology ecosystem. Success is measured through improved funnel conversion, faster decision-making and delivery, stronger operational efficiency, better prospective student experience, and clear accountability for the value delivered by technology investments.

Responsibilities

• In this role you will wear different hats, but your skills will be especially essential in the following areas:
• •Define and communicate the product vision, strategy, roadmap, and success measures for the Student Acquisition value stream, aligned with institutional enrollment, revenue, and student experience goals.
• •Own the end-to-end prospect-to-started-student journey; use research, journey mapping, funnel data, and stakeholder feedback to identify friction, unmet needs, and improvement opportunities.
• •Establish and monitor product objectives and key performance indicators, including speed-to-lead, stage conversion, application completion, yield, cycle time, adoption, data quality, and operational efficiency.
• •Prioritize initiatives across the product ecosystem based on expected business value, student impact, risk, cost, effort, dependencies, and strategic alignment; make transparent trade-off recommendations.
• •Translate business problems and desired outcomes into clear product requirements, acceptance criteria, and decision context for Product Owners, delivery teams, vendors, and implementation partners.
• •Partner with Product Owners and technology teams to sequence delivery, manage cross-platform dependencies, validate releases, and confirm that delivered capabilities achieve intended outcomes.
• •Guide product discovery, experimentation, usability testing, and continuous optimization; apply quantitative and qualitative evidence to product decisions.
• •Ensure consistent funnel definitions, lead qualification rules, attribution, consent, and data flow across channels and platforms in partnership with data and business owners.
• •Own the integrated product roadmap across CRM, marketing automation, digital experience, inquiry and application, communications, workflow, integration, analytics, and reporting capabilities.
• •Evaluate platform capabilities, vendors, and investment options; develop business cases and recommendations that address value, total cost, scalability, reliability, integration, and technical debt.
• •Align Marketing, Enrollment, Admissions, Student Services, IT, and executive stakeholders around priorities, decisions, risks, timelines, and measurable outcomes.
• •Partner with operational leaders on process design, service levels, adoption, training, change management, and readiness for peak enrollment cycles.
• •Ensure product decisions support FERPA, privacy, consent, accessibility, security, data governance, responsible AI, and other applicable institutional requirements.
• •Communicate roadmap progress, product performance, financial impact, risks, dependencies, and decisions to executive and operational audiences.

Requirements

• •Demonstrates self-reliance by meeting/exceeding workflow needs.
• •Demonstrates positive attitude and motivation, concern for students, teamwork, and excellent time management skills.
• •Follows established processes as outlined by organization and leadership.
• •Completes assigned duties based on daily business needs and individual skill set.
• •Consistently produces a high volume of quality work.
• •Capable, adapts as needed, to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines.
• •Proven ability to work independently with limited supervision and with other department personnel.
• •Must support and embrace the College’s Impact mission to improve the people and communities we serve through our civic engagement initiatives.
• •Must have exceptional communication, organization, and time management skills.
• •Must be "self-motivated" as well as creative and efficient in proposing solutions to complex, time-critical problems.
• •Must be collaborative in driving decisions and a team-player.
• •Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a high attention to detail.
• •Builds and maintains student satisfaction.
• •Recognizes and anticipates student needs.
• •Bachelor's degree in business, technology, marketing, analytics, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• •Five or more years of experience in product management, digital product strategy, business technology, CRM, enrollment technology, or a related discipline.
• •Demonstrated experience owning a product strategy and roadmap across multiple platforms, business functions, and stakeholder groups.
• •Experience using product discovery, customer research, journey mapping, experimentation, and data analysis to prioritize work and improve measurable outcomes.
• •Strong working knowledge of CRM and lead management, marketing automation, digital experience, workflow, integration, analytics, and reporting capabilities.
• •Proven ability to define meaningful product metrics, interpret funnel and operational data, build business cases, and evaluate value, cost, risk, and trade-offs.
• •Experience partnering with Product Owners and Agile delivery teams; ability to translate strategy and business problems into outcome-based requirements without prescribing technical solutions.
• •Executive-level communication, facilitation, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to drive decisions across competing priorities.
• •Experience with vendor evaluation, contract or service performance, implementation partners, and third-party platform dependencies.
• •Knowledge of privacy, accessibility, security, data governance, and responsible AI considerations for digital products.
• •Experience in higher education, student recruitment, enrollment, admissions, or a regulated consumer journey is strongly preferred.
• •Product management certification is preferred but not required.

Skills

Required

• Product management
• Product strategy and roadmap ownership
• Product discovery and customer research
• Journey mapping
• Experimentation
• Data analysis
• CRM and lead management
• Marketing automation
• Digital experience
• Workflow and integration
• Analytics and reporting
• Product metrics and KPIs

Preferred

• Higher education domain knowledge
• Student recruitment and enrollment
• Product management certification

Benefits

• Just as we strive to empower our students for success, we also aim to enrich the lives of our employees. For 6 consecutive years, ACE was recognized as one of Indiana’s Best Places to Work, winning the #1 spot for medium-sized companies in 2020. In addition, ACE has earned national recognition since 2022 for being a USA Today Top Workplace. As a virtual first organization, we celebrate diversity and are committed to creating a family-like inclusive work environment. For our full-time employees, we offer the following benefits:
• •Medical, dental, & vision Insurance
• •HSA and FSA options
• •Paid parental leave
• •Paid volunteer time
• •Tuition reimbursement & reduction programs
• •Generous PTO
• •401k and employer match
• •Full-service wellness and EAP program
• •Employee recognition and awards programs
• •Employer paid life & AD&D insurance
• •Short-term disability
• •Employer paid long-term disability
• •And more…
• ACE is committed to paying a competitive wage while staying true to our mission of maintaining high quality, affordable programs for our students. The starting salary range for this position is $145,000 plus all full-time employees are eligible for an annual bonus. Offers vary depending on education, prior experience, and expertise being applied to the role.