Product Manager – Contractor (1099)

About InStride

At InStride, our purpose is people. We believe investing in people drives success for individuals and organizations. As a public benefit corporation, we partner with leading employers to unlock opportunities for their employees through top-tier education programs aligned with career and business goals. Our mission is to empower employees for advancement, expertise, and personal/professional growth.

About the Role

Working closely with the Sr. Manager, Product, the Product Manager will be accountable for a roadmap of capabilities to scale InStride's innovative workforce education solutions for corporate partners, academic partners, working adult learners, and internal teams. The ideal candidate will seamlessly collaborate across product lines and partners, driving solutions for business growth. This role requires strategic problem-solving, analytical prowess, and cross-functional leadership, with a strong emphasis on operating deeply in technical problem spaces.

Location

Candidates must be located in one of the following states: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KS, LA, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NJ, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, TX, VA, WA, WI.

Skills We Value

• Translating Needs: Ability to translate complex market and business needs into clear product requirements.
• Technical Product Leadership: Comfort leading highly technical initiatives (platform enhancements, internal tools, integrations, architectural migrations) and engaging engineers in detailed discussions.
• Systems Thinking: Ability to reason about complex systems, dependencies, and data flows for product direction.
• Data-driven Decision Making: Strong analytical skills to inform decisions and prioritization using data.
• Clear, Tailored Communication: Strong verbal and written communication across diverse stakeholders.
• Relationship Management: Ability to build rapport and trust, with strong listening skills and emotional intelligence.
• Cross-functional Leadership: Experience partnering effectively with engineering and other teams to shape solutions and balance technical health with business outcomes.
• Planning and Execution: Designing strong project plans and ensuring timely, high-standard completion of work.

Who You Are

• 5+ years of product management or similar experience, preferably in edtech or HR tech.
• Bachelor’s degree or relevant work experience.
• Experience with agile software development practices (epics, user stories, backlog management, roadmap planning).
• Experience leading or significantly contributing to platform, infrastructure-adjacent, or internal product initiatives (e.g., APIs, internal tools, system integrations).
• Comfortable context-switching between technical problem spaces and feature development.
• Experience leading technical conversations with less technical stakeholders.
• Understands the value of strong documentation, knowledge management, and impact measurement.
• Enjoys tackling open-ended, ambiguous problems and distilling information into recommendations.
• Possesses a “no job too small” / “roll up sleeves” mentality; proactive with a bias for speed and action.

How You Will Create Impact

Product Development and Execution

• Lead the end-to-end product lifecycle from discovery through launch, ensuring timely execution and quality delivery.
• Accountable for a roadmap of features and capabilities for a scalable and high-quality experience for learners and partners.
• Lead product work for pods focused on technical initiatives (internal tools, partner eligibility, platform/API evolution, framework migration).
• Partner closely with engineering to define scope, sequence work, manage dependencies, and make informed tradeoffs.
• Ensure technical initiatives are clearly tied to business outcomes, operational efficiency, or future capabilities.
• Lead partnership with other departments for feature/bug request triage and prioritization.
• Define, track, and report on key product metrics, using data analytics and user research to guide decisions.
• Support exploration and go-to-market of new business solutions in collaboration with other teams.

Understanding of the Market and Business

• Maintain a solid understanding of the needs of working adult learners and employer partners through market and internal data analysis.
• Translate market and business needs into product solutions and features.

Compensation

Target base compensation range: $80—$95 USD. Final offer amounts are determined by factors including candidate experience and expertise.

Benefits @ InStride

• Eligible to enroll in 2,800+ online certificate and degree programs through the Step Forward program (tuition covered upfront).
• 401(k) plan with company match.
• Flexible vacation policy.
• Paid family leave.
• Best-in-class health care benefits.
• And more!

Diversity and Inclusion

InStride fosters a culture of belonging, authenticity, and celebrates differences. We are committed to building a diverse pipeline of talent and ensuring equitable access to opportunities. If you are excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification, we encourage you to apply.