Lead Specialist, Product Management

Lead Specialist, Product Manager

Description: This role aligns to a Sr. Product Manager on the Future-State Learning Platform

The Role

At Pearson, our purpose is simple: to add life to a lifetime of learning. For more than 20 years, Pearson Virtual Schools has helped reimagine K–12 education through virtual learning that empowers students to thrive in a personalized and flexible environment. Our programs include Connections Academy, Pearson Online Academy, and Pearson Connexus.

Pearson is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer and a member of E-Verify. All qualified applicants, including minorities, women, protected veterans, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. 

What You'll Own

• Manage an outcome-based product roadmap with a strong focus on user experience, balancing customer needs, technical feasibility, and business realities to shape product direction.

• Clearly communicate product vision, strategy, and progress to leadership, internal teams, and customers.

• Partner with Design, Engineering, Research, and customer-facing teams to discover, define, and launch new product features.

• Explore and validate opportunities to apply AI/ML to address meaningful customer needs.

• Collaborate with Product Marketing and support teams to create and execute go-to-market strategies that drive adoption and engagement.

• Define, track, and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs), using data and experimentation to inform product and business decisions.

• Ensure effective execution by keeping roadmap initiatives on track, managing dependencies, and driving progress from discovery through delivery.

• Conduct market research and competitive analysis to identify opportunities for innovation and differentiation.

• Produce clear, effective product requirement artifacts (PRDs, opportunity solution trees, etc.) that align teams at all levels.

• Develop and present enterprise business cases that clearly articulate customer value, market opportunity, investment requirements, and expected business outcomes to guide executive decision-making.

• Ensure regulatory, compliance, and privacy considerations are factored into product decision-making.

• Foster a culture of collaboration, shared ownership, and continuous improvement across teams.

• Perform other duties as assigned.

About You

• 5+ years of Product Management experience, with proven success owning initiatives throughout the product lifecycle from concept to launch and iteration.

• Ability to lead cross-functional teams without direct authority and align diverse stakeholders.

• Hands‑on experience using AI tools for prototyping, automation, and content creation to accelerate design, development, and delivery. 

• Comfort operating in ambiguous environments, with the ability to bring clarity to executive stakeholders through strong communication and storytelling skills.

• Strong intuition for high-quality design and user experiences.

• Cross-disciplinary literacy across UX Design, Engineering, Finance, and Product Marketing functions.

• Expertise in modern Product Management and product development methodologies (Agile, Lean, Continuous Discovery, Multivariate Testing, Opportunity Mapping, etc.).

• Strong strategic thinking skills, capable of connecting market trends, customer needs, and business goals.

• Experience creating enterprise business cases to inform product investment decisions.

• Experience managing third-party vendor relationships or ecosystem partnerships.

• Bachelor's degree (Education, Engineering, Product Management, or business background preferred) 

Ideal candidates would also have

• Prior experience