Director of Product

About this role

Today, 67% of students and 82% of low-income students can’t read at grade level by the end of third grade. That’s when students are supposed to go from learning to read to reading to learn. It’s America’s number one education crisis and we know how to fix it.

Ignite Reading delivers one-to-one virtual tutoring that teaches every student the foundational skills they need to become a confident, fluent reader. We pair students who need extra support with expert reading tutors who provide daily, 15-minute, Science of Reading-based instruction that rapidly closes their decoding gaps. We focus on the foundational reading skills—phonics, phonemic awareness, and sight words—kids need to master so they can decode a sentence. Students in Ignite Reading’s program achieve over 2 weeks of reading skills growth per week of instruction, and notably all students achieve the same outstanding results including students with IEPs, multilingual learners, students of color and those receiving free or reduced-price lunch.

Ignite Reading is a mission-driven public benefit corporation. We believe we can do well for our team members and shareholders while we solve one of the nation’s biggest challenges. We believe we will be more successful with a diverse team and are seeking candidates who have lived experience related to social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Your Role

We are seeking a visionary and results-driven Director of Product to lead our product strategy, product development, and user experience initiatives. Reporting to the VP of Product, the Director of Product for Ignite Reading plays a crucial role in delivering on our mission of ensuring that every child learns to read by the end of first grade. This position requires a strategic thinker, a collaborative leader, and someone passionate about leveraging technology to transform how students learn to read. You'll partner closely and directly with our VP of Product and Senior Leadership Team, translating fast-moving strategic conversations into a clear roadmap — this suits someone who thrives on ambiguity and building infrastructure from scratch, not just optimizing an existing one. You will harness AI tools to drive product efficiency, using rapid prototyping and AI-enhanced documentation to reduce development friction and accelerate time-to-market. The Director will pioneer AI-enabled research methods and leverage AI for rapid experimentation to validate product hypotheses and improve outcomes.

The Product

Ignite Reading uses technology to deliver our virtual tutoring services, maximize student learning, and accelerate our ability to scale. To this end, the product is focused on four key technology needs:

1. A tutoring logistics platform, which enables us to schedule, conduct, and report on our tutoring sessions.

2. A tutor workflow platform that lets tutors know exactly what to teach each student every day.

3. An extended learning application, which enables students to practice what they learn in their tutoring sessions after they return to the classroom or go home at night.

4. An AI/ML implementation, which will enable us to ensure lesson fidelity as we scale.

Key Responsibilities

Product Strategy and Roadmap

- Develop and articulate a comprehensive product strategy aligned with the company's mission and goals. Product strategy will encompass both the SaaS platform we run our business on and our approach to maximizing student outcomes.

- Identify optimization opportunities and user needs assisted by AI-powered research tools as needed.

- Create and maintain a dynamic product roadmap that reflects market trends, user needs, and business priorities.

- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure product alignment with overall company objectives.

- Leverage AI tools to streamline work processes and maximize efficiency.

Leadership and Team Management

- Lead and inspire a high-performing product management and UX design organization.

- Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement within the product team.

- Model and support team members in experimenting with and leveraging AI tools in their workflows.

- Contribute to bi-weekly AI learning sessions by sharing AI use cases and wins

- Provide mentorship and professional development opportunities to team members.

Product Development

- Oversee the end-to-end product development process, from ideation to launch, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, user-centric products.

- Utilize AI-powered tools for rapid prototyping before engineering handoff

- Work closely with engineering and other stakeholders to prioritize and execute product initiatives.

- Analyze performance data to inform product decisions, leveraging AI when it’s beneficial.

- Conduct market research and competitor analysis to identify opportunities and stay ahead of industry trends.

User Experience (UX) Design

- Drive the creation of seamless and intuitive user experiences that enhance student engagement and learning outcomes.

- Collaborate with UX designers to ensure the alignment of design principles with user needs and business objectives.

Stakeholder Collaboration

- Collaborate with key stakeholders, including educators, administrators, and technology partners, to gather feedback and insights that inform product development.

- Build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders to foster a collaborative and customer-centric approach.

Qualifications

- Comfortable operating with high autonomy and limited process, and energized by building systems and structure where none currently exist

- Track record of direct, high-trust collaboration with senior leadership on ambiguous, high-stakes decisions

- Proven experience in product management, including successful development, launch, and scaling of enterprise-tier SaaS platforms

- Working knowledge of utilizing AI prototyping tools and LLMs

- Strong leadership skills

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