Director of Product Strategy & Growth

Job Description

Summary

Stride is seeking a visionary and data-driven Director of Product Strategy & Growth to lead the development, launch, and scaling of innovative, community-focused products. This role will be instrumental in defining and executing our growth strategy by identifying high-impact market opportunities, optimizing customer acquisition and retention, and driving revenue growth.

As a key strategic leader, you will apply lean principles, experimentation, and data analytics to refine product-market fit and maximize adoption. You will collaborate cross-functionally to ensure our product roadmap aligns with business objectives, market trends, and evolving customer needs.

This role is ideal for an innovative and customer-obsessed leader who thrives on driving growth through product innovation, strategic decision-making, and performance optimization. If you excel at blending strategy, execution, and analytics to bring high-impact products to market, we’d love to hear from you.

Essential Functions:

Lead Growth-Focused Product Strategy

• Develop and execute a data-driven growth strategy to drive user acquisition, engagement, and retention.
• Define and validate market opportunities, customer segments, and monetization strategies through experimentation and analytics.
• Oversee customer discovery, validation, and iteration processes using lean and growth-hacking methodologies to refine product concepts.
• Develop go-to-market strategies and optimize pricing, positioning, and distribution models to accelerate growth.

Drive Product-Led Growth & Market Expansion

• Identify and prioritize high-leverage growth opportunities, including new product initiatives, feature enhancements, and market expansions.
• Develop data-backed roadmaps, balancing long-term strategic bets with short-term growth levers.
• Leverage A/B testing, funnel analysis, and user behavior insights to refine the product experience for increased adoption and retention.
• Establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) such as activation rates, conversion, and customer lifetime value (LTV).

Customer-Centric & Data-Driven Decision Making

• Conduct quantitative and qualitative research to uncover deep insights into customer behavior, pain points, and growth barriers.
• Use data-driven experimentation to refine onboarding, engagement, and retention strategies.
• Advocate for customer-centric solutions and act as the voice of the user in strategic decision-making.

Cross-Functional Leadership & Execution

• Partner with product, design, engineering, marketing, and operations teams to align on growth goals and execute effectively.
• Lead cross-functional growth initiatives, ensuring seamless collaboration between product development, marketing, and customer acquisition teams.
• Champion agile, iterative experimentation, ensuring that insights from testing drive continuous optimization.

Measure, Optimize & Scale Growth

• Track and analyze product performance against growth KPIs, making data-driven decisions for continuous optimization.
• Foster a culture of experimentation and learning, leveraging insights from both successes and failures.
• Communicate key growth insights, opportunities, and performance trends to senior leadership, influencing business strategy.

Supervisory Responsibilities: Directly supervises 2 - 7 Full-time Equivalent (FTE) regular employees and/or contractors.  Carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization's policies and applicable laws. Responsibilities include interviewing, hiring, and training employees; planning, assigning, and directing work; appraising performance; rewarding and disciplining employees; addressing complaints and resolving problems.

MINIMUM REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:   

• Proven experience as a Lean Startup Strategist, Product Manager, or in a similar leadership role in a fast-paced startup environment.
• Strong knowledge and hands-on experience with Lean Startup methodologies, including customer discovery, MVP development, and rapid iteration.
• Experience in launching and scaling new products from scratch, ideally in a tech-focused, high-growth environment.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams, including product, engineering, marketing, and design, in a collaborative and fast-paced setting.
• Strong understanding of agile methodologies and ability to run sprints, manage backlogs, and prioritize features.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence, inspire, and engage teams at all levels of the organization.
• Analytical mindset with the ability to leverage data, metrics, and customer insights to make informed decisions.
• Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, Visio, etc.); Web proficiency.
• Ability to travel 40% of the time.
• Ability to clear required background check.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Familiarity with product management tools (e.g., JIRA, Trello, ProductBoard, Aha!).

• Track record of successfully leading early-stage product launches and achieving product-market fit.
• Background in growth hacking, user experience (UX) design, or digital marketing.
   

WORK ENVIRONMENT:  The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• This position is virtual and open to residents of the 50 states, D.C.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS: Stride, Inc. considers a person’s education, experience, and qualifications, as well as the position’s work location, expected quality and quantity of work, required travel (if any), external market and internal value when determining a new employee’s salary level.  Salaries will differ based on these factors, the position’s level and expected contribution, and the employee’s benefits elections.  

Offers will typically be in the bottom half of the range. We anticipate the salary range to be $139,295.25 - $222,872.40.  Eligible employees may receive a bonus. This salary is not guaranteed, as an individual’s compensation can vary based on several factors.  These factors include, but are not limited to, geographic location, experience, training, education, and local market conditions. Stride offers a robust benefits package for eligible employees that can include health benefits, retirement contributions, and paid time off. 

The above job is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. Incumbents will follow any other instructions, and perform any other related duties, as assigned by their supervisor.  All employment is “at-will” as governed by the law of the state where the employee works.  It is further understood that the “at-will” nature of employment is one aspect of employment that cannot be changed except in writing and signed by an authorized officer. 

Job Type

The above job is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. Incumbents will follow any other instructions, and perform any other related duties, as assigned by their supervisor. All employment is “at-will” as governed by the law of the state where the employee works.  It is further understood that the “at-will” nature of employment is one aspect of employment that cannot be changed except in writing and signed by an authorized officer.

If you are a job seeker with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to apply for one of our jobs, you can request the appropriate accommodation by contacting stridecareers@k12.com.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

Stride, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants receive consideration for employment based on merit without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by federal, state, or local law. Stride, Inc. complies with all legally required affirmative action obligations. Applicants will not be discriminated against because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant.