We believe in the power and joy of learning

At Cengage, our employees have a direct impact in helping students around the world discover the power and joy of learning. We are bonded by our shared purpose – driving innovation that helps millions of learners improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

Cengage's Higher Education business, Cengage, supports learning and student success by providing materials and digital solutions to faculty and students enrolled in two-year, four-year and vocational programs. We currently serve more than 10 million of the 18 million students in US higher ed. Setting a new standard of service for our customers, we deliver quality, easy-to-use course materials from textbooks and eBooks to courseware such as MindTap and WebAssign. In the US, we offer Cengage Unlimited and Cengage Unlimited for Institutions. We help instructors be better teachers, we help institutions solve problems and we empower students to leverage the power and joy of learning to transform lives.

Our culture values inclusion, engagement, and discovery

Our business is driven by our strong culture, and we know that creating an inclusive workplace is absolutely essential to the success of our company and our learners, as well as our individual well-being. We recognize the value of diverse perspectives in everything we do, and strive to ensure employees of all levels and backgrounds feel empowered to voice their ideas and bring their authentic selves to work. We achieve these priorities through programs, benefits, and initiatives that are integrated into the fabric of how we work every day. To learn more, please see https://www.cengagegroup.com/about/inclusion-and-belonging/.

The Director, Product Solutions leads a national team of discipline specific experts who support the most strategic, high value new business opportunities across Cengage. This leader is responsible for developing, scaling, and optimizing the Product Consulting function to improve win rates, increase digital adoption, and support attainment of discipline level sales targets.

Operating as a key member of the Sales Leadership Team, the Director, Product Solutions sets national strategy for how and when Product Consultants engage on the largest opportunities, ensures excellence in technical and discipline expertise, and drives alignment across Sales, Customer Success, Product, Technology, and Marketing. This role requires a visionary leader who can balance forward-looking planning with hands-on operational leadership, all while developing a high performing team of senior specialists ‑on operational leadership‑.

What you'll do here:

1. Leadership & Team Development

• Lead, mentor, and develop a group of approximately 10 Product Consultants representing various academic fields, nationally.
• Build a strong culture centered on expertise, excellence in presentation, and consultative selling impact.
• Establish performance expectations and coaching frameworks to elevate both individual and collective capabilities.
• Recruit, onboard, and retain top talent, with a focus on deep disciplinary knowledge and strong customer facing skills.

2. Strategic Alignment & Coverage Model

• Develop and implement the national strategy for how Product Consultants are deployed into the field to improve new business performance.
• Partner closely with the VP Solution Sales, Solutions Leaders, and Sales leadership to align on coverage, prioritization, and discipline level revenue goals.
• Ensure Product Consultants meaningfully contribute to pipeline growth and strategic opportunities.

3. Revenue Impact & Opportunity Support

• Be responsible for the team’s involvement in high stakes national opportunities, competitive takeaways, and sophisticated multi partner deals.
• Guide the team in delivering discovery, solution consulting, demonstrations, and presentations.
• Analyze opportunity trends and pipeline data to ensure the team is deployed where they have the greatest revenue impact.

4. Cross Functional Collaboration & Internal Influence

• Partner across Sales, Product, Technology, CX, and Marketing to ensure alignment on customer needs and product strategy.
• Partner with Product to ensure customer insights and discipline specific needs inform roadmap decisions.
• Collaborate with Marketing to shape discipline specific messaging, events, and advocacy programs.
• Ensure internal teams have clear access to customer insights, competitive dynamics, and instructional shifts.

5. Operational Excellence & Enablement

• Build repeatable frameworks, guideline playbooks, demo standards, and sales processes that elevate the entire Solutions Sales organization.
• Drive consistency and quality in how Product Consultants show up for field teams and customers.
• Monitor performance data, customer feedback, and sales outcomes to continuously optimize deployment and effectiveness.
• Manage budgets, prioritisation, and national travel planning for maximum return on investment.

6. External Engagement & Thought Leadership

• Ensure the team represents Cengage at national conferences, academic events, webinars, and large‑scale presentations.
• Strengthen Cengage’s credibility and influence by cultivating a network of discipline ‑specific faculty advocates across the country.

Skills you will need here:

(Required)

• 8–12+ years of experience in education, EdTech, product consulting, sales leadership, academic technology, or related fields.
• Proven experience leading high ‑performing customer facing‑ teams, ideally in a matrixed and national environment.
• Demonstrated success in roles tied to sales performance, revenue outcomes, or consultative selling motions.
• Strong coaching, leadership, and talent development capabilities with a track record of mentoring senior level specialists.
• Deep understanding of higher education, academic disciplines, instructional trends, or digital learning solutions.
• Outstanding communication and presentation skills; comfortable influencing senior academic and executive collaborators.
• Strong digital competency and the ability to guide teams in demonstrating complex platforms and technology solutions.
• Ability to travel nationally (up to 30%).

Preferred

• Direct experience managing presales, product consulting, or technical consulting teams.
• Teaching experience or advanced discipline knowledge within higher education.
• Experience partnering with Product and Technology teams to drive roadmap discussion and solution enhancements.
• Familiarity with Salesforce and data driven sales operations.

Cengage is committed to working with broad talent pools to attract and hire strong and most qualified individuals. Our job applicants are considered regardless of any classification protected by applicable federal, state, provincial or local laws.

Cengage is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities including during our job application process. If you are an applicant with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in our job application process, please contact us at accommodations.ta@cengage.com.

About Cengage

Cengage, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job ready. For more than 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms. We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. Through our scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

Compensation

At Cengage Group, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees. Click here to learn more about our Total Rewards Philosophy.

The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location.  Sales roles often incorporate a significant incentive compensation program beyond this base pay range.