Principal, Product Management, New Products

Principal, Product Management

Role Overview

Pearson Virtual Schools is seeking an experienced Principal Product Manager to pioneer new product offerings in emerging and adjacent markets, applying strong product judgment to turn opportunities into measurable business outcomes.

Within Pearson Virtual Schools, Pearson's fastest growing line of business, you will incubate new AI-powered digital products in the K-12 market by uncovering unmet customer needs, validating opportunities through experimentation, and informing investment priorities with supporting evidence. This role requires strong product leadership, a bias toward action, and the ability to continually evaluate when to persevere or pivot based on supporting evidence and a strong sense of product strategy.

You will be expected to lead and collaborate with cross-functional teams across the enterprise, driving alignment by inspiring trust, clarity, and confidence in an evolving product vision.

The ideal candidate thrives in evolving environments continuously adapting to new information through analytics and customer feedback to inform decision-making with a bias toward action.

This is a primarily remote role, with occasional travel for in-person collaboration with colleagues and customers.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead a discovery-led product roadmap for new offerings, guiding investment decisions through rapid experimentation and evidence-based validation of customer, technical, and business assumptions.

• Shape the product incubator operating model and stage-gating process, calibrating investment levels based on evidence, confidence, and validated data.

• Explore mergers, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships to accelerate product strategy as an alternative to internal development.

• Lead the adoption of AI-powered tools and automation to enhance product discovery, decision-making, and efficiency across the product lifecycle.

• Thoughtfully apply AI/ML to solve meaningful customer problems, creating differentiated products that deliver sustained outcomes.

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

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

• Define, track, and analyze product KPIs that drive financial outcomes.

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

• Establish clarity and alignment across teams by shaping and evolving product narratives, requirements, and decision frameworks (e.g., PRDs, opportunity solution trees, AI Evals, etc.).

• Develop and present large-scale 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.

Requirements

• 8+ years of Product Management experience, with at least 3 years in a senior role.

• Repeated success leading 0 to 1 product initiatives, from early discovery and validation through initial launch and adoption.

• Ability to lead cross-functional teams across a large organization without direct authority.

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

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

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

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

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

• Experience defining AI evaluation criteria and metrics to validate model performance.

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

Ideal candidates would also have

• Prior experience in teaching, education, or EdTech

• Experience with Jira, Jira Product Discovery, Confluence, AWS, and Figma

• Experience with eCommerce and related analytics tools and platforms (Mixpanel, Google Analytics, Statsig, Grafana, etc.)

• Advanced degree or certifications (MBA or equivalent).

Ready to make an Impact?

Apply now and help shape the future of learning.

Compensation at Pearson is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, and specific location. As required by the California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York State, New York City, Vermont, Washington State, and Washington DC laws, the pay range for this position is as follows:

The minimum full-time salary range is between $150,000 - $180,000.

This position is eligible to participate in an annual incentive program, and information on benefits offered is here .

Applications will be accepted through 26th March. This window may be extended depending on business needs.

Pearson is an Equal Opportunity Employer and a member of E-Verify. Employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit and business need. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status or any other group protected by law. We actively seek qualified candidates who are protected veterans and individuals with disabilities as defined under VEVRAA and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act.

If you are an individual with a disability and are unable or limited in your ability to use or access our career site as a result of your disability, you may request reasonable accommodations by emailing TalentExperienceGlobalTeam@grp.pearson.com.

Job:

Product Management

Job Family: PRODUCT