Technical Product Manager

We Impact Lives Through Purpose-Driven Work in A People First Culture

Ascend Learning is the connection between a powerful portfolio of brands serving students, educators, and employers with outcomes-based, data driven solutions across the lifecycle of learning.

Our values-driven culture unifies our teams and inspires a mindset of action, innovation, and collaboration, with a relentless focus on customers.

We're always looking for talented, passionate professionals to join us in our mission to help change lives. If this sounds like an environment where you'd thrive, read on to learn more.

Ascend Learning leads the way in innovation and solution creation to improve outcomes and deliver results for students, educators, and healthcare workers in the ever-changing field of healthcare. We offer advanced resources that drive nursing success, empower front-line certified allied health workers, help physicians pass boards and stay current, and provide education management tools for medical education programs.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

The Technical Product Manager (TPM) role is required to help Ascend achieve a more strategic, effective, and streamlined approach to capability management, by having a dedicated role accountable for developing and managing the long-term capability strategy and roadmap. This role is designed to simplify technology prioritization and minimize hand-offs across Product and Tech teams.

WHERE YOU’LL WORK

This position will work a hybrid schedule from our Leawood, KS office location preferred. Remote will be considered within the United States.

HOW YOU’LL SPEND YOUR TIME

•  Integration Strategy: Proven ability to develop and own the integration roadmap, ensuring alignment with the company’s overall product and business objectives.
• Customer Requirements Gathering: Engage directly with clients to understand integration needs and define user stories, focusing on creating a seamless experience between LMS and client platforms.
• Maintain Documentation: Ensure thorough documentation for all integration touchpoints, including setup guides, best practices, and troubleshooting.
• Track and Analyze Metrics: Measure integration success, track adoption, and work to improve customer satisfaction with integration features.
•  Security first mindset: A candidate who inherently prioritizes security, understanding it as a value driver.
• Ensure roadmap is inclusive of and enables clear implementation.  
• Bring deep expertise in capability to the enterprise. Act as SME for Ascend. Leverage market data trends and customer feedback to improve overall capability maturity and effectiveness as part of long-term roadmap, making data-driven trade-offs between product and core capability enhancements. Support efforts to ensure accurate and deeply connected integrated roadmaps.  
• Work closely with Senior TPM and Platform TPMs and Product Delivery Teams to review, rationalize, and prioritize capability requirements from different categories. Guide. Educate and support Product Delivery Teams as needed to ensure alignment to customer and strategic value/priorities.  
• Own, oversee, and provide regular updates to relevant stakeholders on capability development.  
• Provide guidance to development teams responsible for capabilities build and maintenance. 
• Plan, manage and prioritize features and product increment cycles (PIs) for agile development, as needed.  

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

•  Bachelor’s degree in related fields, such as Computer Science, Engineering, Business Administration or other areas combined with relevant work experience (relevant work experience alone may provide sufficient experience) 
•  5+ years of combined experience in product management, technical product management, business management, or consulting, preferably in a technical or software-related environment 
•  Experience working in an agile environment is strongly preferred 
• Strong understanding of APIs, data integrations, and platform interoperability. Familiarity with LMS architecture and integration best practices is a plus.
• Experience in managing customer requirements, translating these into technical specifications, and working with engineering teams to execute on them.
• Strong understanding of LTI and SAML standards (preferably LTI 1.3 and 1.1), how they facilitate integrations between LMS and external tools, and the ability to design solutions that leverage these standards to enhance the customer experience.

•  Familiarity with data analysis, market research related to SaaS/technology trends, and customer feedback methodologies to inform capability decisions 
•  Proven communication skills, both verbal and written, to effectively collaborate with product teams, engineers, content teams, and other stakeholders 
•  Combines strong technical acumen with deep understanding of the customer/markets being served 
•  Strong understanding of software development principles, technologies and agile methodologies  
•  Proven expertise in making critical technology-related decisions and trade-offs to drive overall business value and capability effectiveness 
•  Ability to align capability roadmap with product requirements and overall business objectives  
•  Ability to derive insights from technical trends/capabilities to champion improvements to the capability 
•  Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to work effectively with cross-functional teams
•  Strong project management skills to oversee development of capability requirements.   
•  Proven expertise in capability area for which he/she is responsible (e.g., Assessment, Instructional Content) 
•  Demonstrated leadership to provide technical leadership and guidance to capability development teams

BENEFITS

• Flexible and generous paid time off
• Competitive medical, dental, vision and life insurance
• 401(k) employer matching program
• Parental leave
• Wellness resources
• Charitable matching program
• Hybrid work
• On-site workout facilities (Leawood, Gilbert, Burlington)
• Community outreach groups
• Tuition reimbursement

Fostering A Sense of Belonging

We seek out and celebrate all people and perspectives and cultivate an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive, feel valued and be their authentic selves. Our culture is firmly rooted in the belief that by embracing our differences and drawing on diverse perspectives, we are a stronger, more innovative, and more successful organization where employees experience a sense of belonging.

About Ascend Learning

As a tech-enabled services company, Ascend Learning is a national leader in developing and delivering data-driven online educational content, software, assessments, analytics, and simulations serving institutions, students and employers across healthcare, fitness and wellness, public and workplace safety, skilled trades, insurance, financial services, cybersecurity, and higher education. We're committed to accelerating the learning pathways that can move people into careers where they have the knowledge and skills to have an impact and help change lives in the communities they serve. Headquartered in Burlington, MA with additional office locations and hybrid and remote workers in cities across the U.S., Ascend Learning was recognized by Newsweek and Plant-A Insights Group as one of America's 2023 Greatest Workplaces for Diversity.

Ascend Learning, LLC is proud to be an equal opportunity employer (M/F/Vets/Disabled). No agency or search firm submissions will be accepted. Applications for U.S. based positions with Ascend Learning, LLC must be legally authorized to work in the United States and verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire.

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