Director, Product and Market Research

At 2U, we are all in on purpose. We are motivated by our mission – to eliminate the back row in education – and connected by our shared passion to deliver world-class digital education at scale. As the parent company of edX, the world’s leading online learning platform, 2U powers more than 4,000 online higher education offerings – from free courses to full degrees. Together with more than 230 colleges, universities, and corporate partners, we are helping to unlock human potential.

What We’re Looking For:

The Director of Product and Market Research will be responsible for designing, researching and providing strategies to improve revenue across 2U business lines. This individual will own the market research function for the business, focusing on the research and analysis of the company's markets, competition, and product mix. This individual will be responsible for conducting primary and secondary research and data analysis to provide insights on customer sentiment and trends in the broader education industry. This individual will also be accountable for measuring the efficacy of marketing and financial strategies tested, building reporting mechanisms to report findings, and ensuring that high value strategies are scaled across the portfolio. This position will require significant collaboration with leadership across the organization.

Responsibilities Include, But Are Not Limited To:

• Conduct Research: Quantify consumer sentiment with respect to potential opportunities for new programs (pipeline development) and opportunities to improve existing programs, (portfolio management), by conducting both primary and secondary research. Monitor industry trends, macro economic environment impacts, and lead the creation of reports to help 2U be a leading voice in higher education. 
• Internal Insights: Lead development of internal research processes for performance of existing programs, learner sentiment and personas of enrolled students as well as lost leads.  Create executive-facing dashboards and standard reporting. Responsible for the design, execution, analysis and reporting of consumer insight projects to drive marketing and enhancement strategies. 
• Cross-functional collaboration: Work closely with Business Intelligence and Data Science to take existing data and turn it into meaningful insights and recommendations for marketing, GMs, and sales. Use these data-backed recommendations to drive policy and strategy change across relevant the organization
• Ad-Hoc Support: Other needs that arise for product marketing and the larger partnership team, such as being the research representative in external conversations or being the product marketing leader on cross-team initiatives like Yield Enhancement
• Operations: Manage efforts involving other employees, outside contractors, or independent market research organizations, including budget responsibility for vendors 

Things That Should Be In Your Background:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience; Master’s degree a plus
• At least 7 - 10 years of relevant work experience
• A clear understanding of the higher education landscape
• 7+ years’ experience utilizing data and analytics to formulate sound program objectives, solve business problems, and drive business strategy
• Proven ability to work in cross-functional teams, communicate with colleagues in both business and technical roles, and develop trusting relationships at all levels
• Demonstrated organizational skills, and ability to work independently and autonomously
• Outstanding tendency and ability to communicate (written, verbal, presentation) with all stakeholders
• Strategic and tactical problem solver including facility with using a variety of survey tools, data and analytics
• Meticulous attention to detail
• Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams without formal authority
• Ability to thrive in an environment of constant change 
• Self-starter attitude; ability to self-serve, investigate and get the information needed for the project at hand through to completion
• Ability to thrive in a complex and often ambiguous environment, to build recommendations to team members and management
• Ability to work independently with credibility in a complex and often ambiguous environment, to build rigorous, fact-bases that support recommendations to team members and management
• Self-starter attitude; ability to self-serve, investigate and get the information needed for the project at hand

While this position is open to remote candidates across the U.S., we will prioritize those who live in the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area and who are available t