Lead, Product Management

About the Job We embrace an SVPG-inspired Product Operating Model, empowering our product teams to solve hard problems – customer problems and business problems – in ways that our customers love, yet work for our business. Product companies depend on strong products, and strong products come from strong product teams. And we recognise that product teams are only as strong as their product managers.

Success in this role requires marrying strong product management practices with deep understanding of the certification and workforce readiness ecosystem, including how skills validation, credentials, and assessment solutions create value for learners, educators, employers, and industry partners.

Position Overview

We're seeking an innovative and experienced Lead, Product Manager, to lead a high-performing empowered product team responsible for delivering customer and business outcomes. This role is responsible for driving the customer product discovery and strategy of Pearson's Certiport portfolio, coach and develop product managers and continuously deliver to our learners, educators, academic institutions, workforce organizations, and technology industry partners through certification, assessment, and workforce readiness solutions. This role combines deep technical expertise with product management acumen, product delivery excellence, and a coaching mindset to accelerate business value.

The successful candidate is responsible for the value and viability risks and is overall accountable for the Certiport Product outcomes. Ideal candidate combines strong product sense and management leadership with a deep understanding of certification, credentialing, assessment, workforce development, and education markets to identify opportunities that drive learner outcomes, customer value, and business growth.

Key Responsibilities

Product Strategy & Vision

Partner with business leaders and stakeholders to define and evolve product vision, strategy, and priorities.

Translate company objectives into coherent product initiatives and outcome-based roadmaps.

Drive portfolio-level prioritization based on customer value, business impact, and strategic alignment.

Ensure product investments align with organizational goals and market opportunities.

Champion customer-centric decision making throughout the organization.

Product Discovery & Innovation

Establish strong product discovery practices across teams.

Ensure teams continuously validate assumptions through customer research, experimentation, and data insights.

Promote evidence-based decision making over opinion-based prioritization.

Foster a culture of innovation, learning, and rapid iteration.

Guide teams in identifying and solving high-value customer problems.

Team Leadership & Development

Lead, mentor, and develop Product Managers.

Create clear expectations, career paths, and growth opportunities for product talent.

Build a culture of accountability, ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Conduct performance management, succession planning, and talent reviews.

Recruit and retain exceptional product management talent.

Coaches Product Managers to become skilled problem solvers.

Creates empowered teams capable of making informed product decisions.

Cross-Functional Leadership

Partner closely with Engineering, Design, Data, Program to ensure product teams maintain strong product-engineering-design collaboration.

Facilitate alignment across stakeholders (Marketing, Sales, Operations, and Customer Success leaders) while protecting team focus and autonomy.

Influence executive and cross-functional decisions through strong communication and product judgment.

Navigate ambiguity and competing priorities to drive strategic outcomes.

Communicate product vision, strategy, priorities, and outcomes effectively across executive, business, and technical audiences, building alignment and advocacy for strong product management practices.

Product Delivery & Outcomes

Ensure teams are focused on delivering measurable outcomes rather than feature output.

Monitor portfolio health through customer, business, and product performance metrics.

Remove organizational obstacles that limit team effectiveness.

Establish operating mechanisms that improve speed, quality, and learning.

Balance short-term business needs with long-term product strategy.

Required Qualifications

8+ years product management experience, including leadership of multiple product teams.

5+ years leading Product Managers and developing product talent.

Proven experience defining product strategy and delivering measurable business results.

Strong understanding of modern product management practices, including discovery, experimentation, and outcome-based planning.

Experience partnering with engineering and design leaders in an empowered product model.

Demonstrated success influencing senior executives, communicating across business and technical stakeholders, and driving organizational alignment.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience leading complex product portfolios across multiple customer segments.

Background scaling product organizations through periods of growth or transformation

Experience in SaaS, platform, digital, AI, data, or technology-enabled products.

Domain expertise in learning technologies and educational product development

Strong analytical capabilities and systems thinking approach to complex technical challenges

Preferred experience in one or more of the following:

Professional certification, credentialing, or assessment programs

Education technology, learning solutions, or workforce development products

K-12, higher education, career readiness, or workforce skills markets

Developing products that serve educators, learners, employers, or industry certification sponsors

Knowledge of emerging workforce skills, career pathways, digital credentials, and skills-based hiring trends