RESUME AND COVER LETTER REQUIRED TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THIS POSITION
Deadline to apply is August 13, 2026
Salary: $85,000 - $100,000 annually. Salary is dependent on experience and qualifications.
SUMMARY
Own the evolution, operation, and member experience of EDUCAUSE’s benchmarking products, ensuring benchmarking delivers decision-ready insights, credible peer comparisons, and clear storytelling for institutions. This role is responsible for moving EDUCAUSE benchmarking from data delivery to interpretation, planning, and narrative value to deliver clear, decision-ready benchmarking products that support institutional planning and decision-making.
This role ensures end-user satisfaction and program impact by developing benchmarking tools that campus technology leaders use to plan, manage, and deliver IT services. The Product Manager partners with community and stakeholders to design and deliver these products, define priorities across matrixed teams, guide stakeholders on use cases and product evolution, and track metrics and KPIs to ensure quality and engagement.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Product Design and Enhancement/ Benchmarking Product Ownership
- Own and execute the roadmap for EDUCAUSE benchmarking offerings (current and future), in partnership with the director and matrixed technical teams, ensuring alignment with association priorities and the broader decision-support ecosystem.
- Partner with the Director of Benchmarking and Portfolio Operations to ensure benchmarking products are cohesive, intentional, and integrated across EDUCAUSE products and services
- Lead cross-functional engagements with internal staff, campus technology leaders, and community members to identify user needs, define benchmarking requirements, and deliver end-to-end solutions that reflect institutional priorities and real-world practice.
- In partnership with the EDUCAUSE research team, define and coordinate the full benchmarking lifecycle, including survey/instrument design, peer group definition, and data collection
- including: relevant benchmarking inputs such as institutional characteristics, peer segmentation, and survey responses.
- Facilitate benchmarking product design processes, including survey instruments, data outputs, visualizations, guidance, and usability validation
- Define product objectives, outcomes, and KPIs to measure benchmarking product quality, usability, and impact.
- Maintain an awareness of competing and complementary products and conduct competitive market analyses to identify new risks and opportunities.
Product Engagement
- Assess KPIs, user inquiries, community discussion, and product evaluation information to implement strategies for reaching engagement targets.
- Ensure benchmarking products deliver clear value to members through usability, guidance, and actionable insights.
- With the EDUCAUSE marketing team, establish and execute marketing, promotion, and communication strategies, including leading ongoing improvements to our public-facing web presence.
- Educate members and stakeholders on how to use benchmarking products and interpret outputs using a variety of channels including recorded video tutorials, webinars, virtual community meetings, and other outreach mechanisms.
Service Administration Leadership
- Own the end-to-end benchmarking experience, including platform functionality, releases, and continuous improvement.
- Lead governance group and work with group members from across the organization to plan a future release roadmap for longer-term development and execute service releases accordingly.
- Establish and maintain policies and practices supporting benchmarking data integrity, access, and appropriate use.
- Oversee the platform’s tier-based support workflow and work with IT to ensure timely issue resolution.
- Partner with the IT department to conduct system administrative-related tasks and serve as the team lead on all integration implementation, feature testing, and technical troubleshooting.
Product Operations
- Coordinate the work of internal staff and third-party contractors to successfully produce benchmarking products, including the coordination and facilitation of regular product meetings and communications.
- Maximize product value by maintaining product backlogs and continuously prioritizing product enhancements based on stakeholder needs.
- Collaborate with the EDUCAUSE technical team to establish and maintain development backlogs and plan work sprints.
- Communicate with technical development team/contractors and website operations team to ensure development is happening on time and on budget and the website is always fully functional
- Train membership and tier-1 support staff on new and existing products.
- Provide second-level end-user support as needed.
- Oversee preparation, validation, and quality of benchmarking data inputs and outputs to ensure accuracy and reliability.
Product Evaluation and Improvement
- Monitor KPIs, user inquiries, community discussions, and product evaluation data to inform and coordinate the ongoing product improvements, including enhancements to benchmarking methodology, outputs, guidance, and user experience
- Generate internal reports and stakeholder communications summarizing the results of product evaluations and the status of KPIs, outlining recommendations for product improvements.
- Remain current in higher education benchmarking practices, data standards, and emerging member needs.
Association Service and Support
- Represent EDUCAUSE in a professional manner at all times; engage with co-workers, volunteers, and members in a civil, caring, respectful way.
- Act as a departmental liaison with employees, members, volunteers, volunteer groups, and clients.
- Participate in EDUCAUSE events and activities as needed.
- Support members in a manner that facilitates their growth, engagement, and enhances their EDUCAUSE experience.
- Duties, responsibilities and activities may change or new ones may be assigned at any time with or without notice.
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES
- None at this time.
- May supervise staff if overseeing grant work.
- May supervise contractors or consultants.
QUALIFICATIONS
Education and Experience
- A bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., business, information systems, evaluation, data, or higher education) required
- At least eight years of working experience as a product manager, product owner, or similar role supporting data, benchmarking, or analytical products, or any combination of education, training, and experience that demonstrates the ability to perform the duties of the position required.
- 3+ years of work experience in higher education technology preferred.
- Experience working with campus technology leaders and/or higher education stakeholders preferred
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- Experience developing or guiding the creation of benchmarking outputs and data visualizations (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, or similar tools) based on user needs, preferred.
- Experience with benchmarking, survey research, peer group analysis, or data-driven decision-support products, along with familiarity with survey design and administration tools (e.g., Alchemer) and benchmarking data collection methodologies, is strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated ability to establish, prioritize, and communicate business and product requirements.
- Experience with product management practices, agile delivery, and continuous improvement methodologies
- Ability to sustain collaborative relationships, forge partnerships, and build consensus within a diverse community of practice.
- Ability to communicate effectively, tactfully and proactively, in both oral and written form, with a variety of groups including technical, professional, and executive audiences.
- Demonstrated initiative with the ability to manage multiple short-range and long-term projects simultaneously and meet all deadlines.
- Ability to work well independently and to know when to include others.
- Ability to handle both broad and detail-oriented work, achieving tangible results.
Competencies
- Leadership - Exhibits confidence in self and others; Inspires and motivates others to perform well; Effectively influences actions and opinions of others; Accepts feedback from others; Gives appropriate recognition to others.
- Managing People - Includes staff in planning, decision-making, facilitating and process improvement; Takes responsibility for subordinates' activities; Makes self-available to staff; Provides regular performance feedback; Develops subordinates' skills and encourages growth; Solicits and applies customer feedback (internal and external); Fosters quality focus in others; Improves processes, products and services.; Continually works to improve supervisory skills.
- Delegation - Delegates work assignments; Matches the responsibility to the person; Gives authority to work independently; Sets expectations and monitors delegated activities; Provides recognition for results.
- Motivation - Sets and achieves challenging goals; Demonstrates persistence and overcomes obstacles; Measures self against standard of excellence; Takes calculated risks to accomplish goals.
- Project Management - Develops project plans; Coordinates projects; Communicates changes and progress; Completes projects on time and budget; Manages project team activities.
PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT
- Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
- Physical demands of travel such as sitting for long periods, handling luggage, time zone changes, and adjusting to new environments.
Remote Work Requirements
- Scheduled working hours either in the employees time zone or EDUCAUSE core working hours or core working hours to be determined with the supervisor.
- Be available and responsive during scheduled work hours.
- Any time off or change in working hours must be pre-arranged according to department guidelines and consistent with the rules applicable to employment (e.g., vacation, sick, personal, leave of absence).
TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS:
- 10-15% of time for internal work meetings, representing EDUCAUSE externally, and speaking engagements, varies depending on the time of year, work priorities, and budget.
Total Compensation
EDUCAUSE not only offers meaningful work and dedicated colleagues; we also have a robust benefit package that includes:
- Medical, Dental, and Vision
- 2-for-1 employer match to your 403(b) retirement plan; up to 10% of your base salary
- Employer-paid Life and AD&D, Short‐Term Disability, and Long‐Term Disability
- 15 days of vacation and 6 days of personal time annually
- 9 paid holidays
- One week of paid time off when offices are closed between Christmas and New Year’s Day
- 36-hour work week (without any reduction in pay) amounting to 26 additional days of paid time off each year
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Emergency Travel Assistance
- Professional development assistance
- Monthly connectivity reimbursement
EEO Statement
EDUCAUSE is committed to an equal opportunity workplace and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. EDUCAUSE provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.
EDUCAUSE recognizes that the unique backgrounds, talents, skills, and contributions of every individual improve and enhance the quality of the association. Creating an environment of equal opportunity is an EDUCAUSE organizational goal, which includes, but is not limited to:
- Treating everyone with dignity, respect, and fairness
- Creating a welcoming, supportive, and knowledgeable community that thrives on diverse voices and perspectives
- Providing insights and input as a work contributor
- Listening to and acknowledging others' contributions
- Contributing to an open and welcoming environment across demographic categories and physical locations
- Meeting others at their point of need to advance organizational achievement
- For supervisors, ensuring everyone's input is heard and considered
