Product Manager - PEAK Learning Platform

PEAK is a custom-built operational and learning platform that supports every stage of the learner journey, including:

• learner admissions and onboarding
• learner assessments
• individualized learning plans
• instructor workflows
• scheduling and operations
• family communication
• learner progress monitoring

• AI-assisted educational support

Purpose of the Position

The Product Manager serves as the bridge between educators, operational teams, software engineers, and organizational leadership. You will lead product discovery, roadmap development, prioritization, release planning, and continuous improvement while ensuring every investment in PEAK creates measurable value for learners, educators, and the organization.

Working closely with the Senior Manager, Technology, developers, operational leaders, and frontline educators and admissions team, the Product Manager will translate organizational needs into clear product direction, guide prioritization and planning, coordinate implementation and rollout, and lead the measurement of whether new features achieve their intended value.

This is not solely a project management role. The Product Manager will be responsible for helping ensure that PEAK remains coherent, useful, scalable, and closely connected to both our mission and organizational workflows. The successful candidate will be an exceptional communicator and systems thinker who can navigate ambiguity, build trust across technical and non-technical teams, and balance immediate operational needs with long-term product direction.

The Product Manager will also have an understanding the landscape of competing and complementary products in the market, defining our position, and identifying opportunities to partner.

Success in Your First Year You will know you are succeeding when you have:

• Built trusted relationships across the organization
• Established a structured product discovery process
• Created a prioritized product roadmap
• Improved communication between operational teams and developers
• Successfully launched multiple major PEAK releases
• Introduced measurable product metrics
• Increased user adoption and satisfaction
• Helped define the long-term vision of PEAK

Principal Roles and Responsibilities

Product Discovery and Requirements Development

• Act as the primary bridge between operational teams, program teams, organizational leadership, and PEAK development.
• Gather and document workflows, user needs, operational pain points, and opportunities for improvement.
• Distinguish root operational problems from isolated feature requests or proposed solutions.
• Translate complex needs into clear product requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, process maps, and implementation guidance.
• Facilitate discovery conversations, workshops, interviews, and feedback sessions with staff and other users.
• Continuously validate assumptions through user interviews, observation, experimentation, and data.

Product Strategy and Ecosystem Stewardship

• Develop and continuously refine the PEAK product vision.
• Develop and maintain a deep understanding of PEAK's current capabilities, operational workflows, active development streams, technical dependencies, and future opportunities.
• Define measurable product outcomes
• Help leadership assess the operational value, organizational impact, complexity, urgency, and cost-benefit of potential initiatives.
• Ensure that individual features contribute to a coherent and sustainable platform rather than a collection of disconnected solutions.
• Balance short-term operational priorities with longer-term platform scalability, maintainability, and user experience.

Planning, Prioritization, and Roadmap Management

• Organize, maintain, and refine the product backlog in collaboration with technical leadership.
• Consolidate requests from across the organization into clear, structured product initiatives.
• Evaluate and prioritize work based on user impact, organizational value, urgency, effort, technical dependencies, risk, and strategic alignment.
• Break large concepts into manageable phases, releases, and minimum viable product requirements.
• Coordinate roadmap priorities with organizational leadership and development team capacity.
• Support release planning, sequencing, sprint preparation, and longer-term product planning.

Development Coordination and Execution

• Provide ongoing coordination among developers, operational stakeholders, and organizational leaders throughout implementation.
• Ensure that developers have timely access to the context, decisions, information, and user input required to move work forward.
• Identify blockers, unresolved questions, scope concerns, and potential misalignment early.
• Monitor whether development remains aligned with approved requirements and intended outcomes.
• Support decisions when requirements need to be clarified, adjusted, or reduced during implementation.
• Maintain visibility into development progress and communicate relevant updates to stakeholders.
• Foster efficient communications across Teams, Github, email, and other collaboration tools.

Testing, Rollout, and Adoption

• Coordinate user acceptance testing and structured feedback collection before releases.
• Develop testing plans, scenarios, success criteria, and processes for documenting feedback.
• Work with developers and stakeholders to assess and prioritize issues identified through testing.
• Ensure operational teams are informed and prepared before significant product or workflow changes.
• Coordinate rollout plans, release communications, documentation, training materials, and adoption support.
• Monitor early adoption and help resolve issues that arise following release.

Product Measurement and Continuous Improvement

• Establish feedback and evaluation processes following product releases.
• Define key product metrics including user adoption, engagement, workflow efficiency, satisfaction, and educational outcomes.
• Define measurable indicators of success for significant features and initiatives.
• Assess whether product changes have improved workflows, reduced staff time, increased consistency, enhanced service quality, or achieved other intended outcomes.
• Monitor whether features are being used as intended and identify barriers to adoption.
• Use evidence, feedback, and product data to inform future prioritization and improvements.
• Help shift the organization's focus from completing implementation to achieving meaningful and measurable impact.

Communication and Organizational Alignment

• Translate effectively between technical and non-technical audiences.
• Provide clear, concise updates about product priorities, decisions, timelines, dependencies, and risks.
• Build trusted relationships with developers, frontline staff, managers, leadership, and other stakeholders.
• Facilitate productive conversations when stakeholders have competing needs or expectations.
• Contribute to a collaborative, respectful, neuroaffirming, and learning-oriented workplace culture.
• Tasks outside those explicitly outlined may be expected during periods of increased organizational need.

Competencies

• Exceptional product planning, prioritization, and organizational skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong strategic thinker that can also own operational details; has the ability to understand how workflows, features, teams, and organizational priorities interconnect.
• Demonstrated ability to translate between technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong judgment and comfort making recommendations in ambiguous or evolving situations.
• Ability to distinguish high-impact needs from lower-priority requests.
• Thoughtful, structured, and user-centred approach to problem-solving.
• Genuine empathy for frontline staff and the day-to-day realities of operational and program teams.
• Strong relationship-building, facilitation, and interpersonal skills.
• Clear sense of ownership and pride in delivering excellent work.
• Strong product judgment and customer empathy
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with practical execution
• Outcome-oriented product mindset
• Alignment with LDS' mission, values, and commitment to inclusion.

Qualifications and Experience

• Advanced university degree in product management, business, technology, education, design, information systems, or another relevant field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 5-8+ years of directly related product management experience.
• Demonstrated experience managing or contributing to the development of complex software products or digital platforms.
• Experience conducting product discovery, gathering requirements, developing user stories, and managing product backlogs.
• Experience working closely with software developers including those using AI-enabled and agentic coding, technical leaders, and non-technical stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience prioritizing competing needs and making clear product trade-offs.
• Experience coordinating testing, product releases, rollout communications, and user adoption.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with excellent attention to detail.
• Ability to thrive when managing multiple priorities, deadlines, and evolving requirements.
• Exceptional ability to work both independently and collaboratively.
• Sufficient technical fluency to communicate effectively with developers and understand software constraints, dependencies, and development processes.
• Eligibility to work in Canada.
• Ability to complete a criminal record check with vulnerable sector screening.

Considered Assets

• Experience working in education, educational technology, nonprofit organizations, or another mission-driven environment.
• Experience with AI-enabled products, workflow automation, data-informed tools, or custom organizational software.
• Experience with accessibility, inclusive design, universal design, or neuroaffirming practices.
• Experience supporting organizational change and the adoption of new technology.
• Experience working with platforms such as GitHub, Jira, Azure DevOps, Linear, Asana, or similar product and development tools.
• Experience working in an Agile or iterative software development environment.
• Product management, Agile, Scrum, or PMP certification.
• Familiarity with user experience research, service design, business analysis, or process improvement.

Startdate: September 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter

Reports to: Executive Director

Hours of work: 40 working hours per week, Monday to Friday

• Approximate schedule from 8:30am to 5:00pm Pacific time Ability to work flexible hours including occasional evenings or weekends

What We Offer

• Salary range: $75,000 - $110,000 per year, commensurate with experience and a forty (40) hour work week. While our compensation may differ from that offered by larger technology companies, this role provides exceptional opportunity to build a nationally significant product with meaningful ownership and lasting social impact. The top of the pay range is for a successful candidate who is a product manager expert with a combination of experience and competencies to perform these job duties at an expert level.
• Opportunities for team-wide and individual professional learning throughout the year
• Inclusive culture and innovative workplace with opportunity for new approaches and growth
• Neuroaffirming and inclusive workplace
• Financial support for relocation available.
• Paid vacation commensurate with experience (starting at 5-6%), plus paid office closure from December 25 - Jan 1 each year, which does not count toward your vacation entitlement
• Benefits entitlement after three months, which includes Extended Health and Dental, and Travel as w