Platform Product Manager, BigFuture

College Board - BigFuture

100% Remote, aligned to working core EST hours

About the Team

BigFuture reaches over 7 million students each year and is the leading free online resource for College, Scholarship, and Career Exploration. Our BigFuture product team is committed to helping every student own their future. BigFuture consists of three integrated product offerings that serve both students and higher education institutions:

• BigFuture.org provides students and families with tools to explore colleges, discover scholarships, understand how to pay for college, and learn about career pathways. It empowers all students to unlock opportunities that match their aspirations and financial needs.
• BigFuture School is a privacy-forward mobile app that supports students and educators at participating K-12 schools in making critical connections between students' unique strengths and interests and future pathway opportunities. Students can connect with over 1,500 higher education institutions and receive messages tailored to their interests and goals-putting them in the driver's seat of their journey.
• College Enrollment Solutions enable higher education institutions to authentically engage in student relevant recruitment efforts to advance college access. Through tools like Search and Connections, colleges can discover and reach a broad population of students from more than 25,000 high schools nationwide.

BigFuture has a 50-person core team and collaborates deeply with other divisions including Technology, Research, College Readiness Assessments, Strategic Higher Education, State & District Partnerships, Engagement and Reach, Legal, and Finance.

About the Opportunity

As Platform Product Manager, BigFuture, you are a detail-oriented and strategic thinker with a passion for the intricacies of data systems and backend architecture. You bring deep expertise in building and managing complex data products that, like the BigFuture suite, integrate diverse data sources to power personalized user experiences and require strong data logic and governance.

You will lead the product vision and execution for backend data services that power the performance, ensure compliance, and enable scalability across multiple interconnected BigFuture applications. With a strong product management background and fluency in data logic, you will work cross-functionally with Legal, Technology, and other Product teams to ensure data is used responsibly, securely, and effectively in service of our mission.

You collaborate seamlessly across teams, translating technical concepts into clear business value, ensuring alignment on roadmap priorities, and advocating for scalable backend solutions that may be invisible to end users but are critical to delivering impact at scale. Your analytical mindset and commitment to rigorous documentation and performance metrics will ensure solutions are robust, traceable, and trusted. You lead with initiative and clarity, driving outcomes through strong cross-functional partnerships and a commitment to excellence.

In this role, you will:

Planning & Roadmap Development (50%)

• Assist with crafting compelling strategy briefs, business cases, and product roadmaps to justify product investments aligned with BigFuture's divisional goals.
• Lead the full product development lifecycle - from ideation and new feature development to enhancements and responsible sunsetting of legacy functionality.
• Identify and validate user problems and opportunities through data, user research, and analytics; ensure customer and business needs are integrated into the development process.
• Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to refine the product roadmap in response to changing customer needs, market trends, and internal priorities.
• Clearly communicate product strategy and roadmap across cross-functional teams to maintain alignment and support decision-making.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to develop launch strategies, training materials, documentation, and engagement content.
• Maintain deep industry and market knowledge while serving as a subject matter expert on BigFuture's platform, vision, and strategy internally and externally.

Execution & Delivery (50%)

• Break down features into user stories with clear acceptance criteria, developed collaboratively with technology, UX, and other stakeholders-while maintaining ownership as the Product Manager.
• Partner with technology managers to understand technical constraints and drive product needs through a technical lens.
• Maintain a well-groomed backlog of user-centered stories, prioritizing work based on the product roadmap, technical considerations, and strategic objectives.
• Drive delivery through active participation in Agile ceremonies - refinement, sprint planning, stand-ups, demos, and retrospectives - fostering continuous improvement and team alignment.
• Monitor initiatives closely to identify risks, resolve blockers, and ensure timely delivery of product milestones.
• Coordinate complex technical, legal, and data-related dependencies across multiple teams to support seamless product development execution.
• Continuously assess product performance through data and user feedback, ensuring outcomes align with defined goals and drive value.

About You

To qualify for this role, you must have:

• 5+ years of experience in Product Management, with a strong focus on data-intensive products that involve complex data structures, integrations, and logic
• A deep understanding of data logic, with demonstrated ability to work closely with architects, engineers, and legal teams to shape backend products that are scalable, compliant, and have high impact
• Exceptional attention to detail, ensuring data is applied thoughtfully and accurately across products
• Experience in K-12, Higher Ed, or educational technology is a strong plus, but not required
• A proactive, ownership-first mindset; you don't just relay messages, you take initiative, solve problems, and drive outcomes with purpose and accountability
• Hands-on experience working in an Agile product development environment, collaborating closely with cross-functional teams
• A customer-centric approach combined with strong organizational awareness; you're curious and adaptable with tremendous learning agility
• Strong analytical skills, combining quantitative data and qualitative insights with creative thinking to define problems and craft innovative, effective solutions.
• A proven track record of building trusted, productive relationships with internal teams and external stakeholders
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to clearly explain complex data concepts to a variety of technical and non-technical audiences
• The ability to travel 5-6 times a year to College Board offices or on behalf of College Board business

All roles at College Board require:

• A passion for expanding educational and career opportunities and mission-driven work
• Authorization to work in the United States for any employer
• Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging technologies, with a willingness to experiment with and adopt new AI-driven solutions and comfort learning and applying new digital tools independently and proactively.
• Clear and concise communication skills, written and verbal
• A learner's mindset and a commitment to growth: welcoming diverse perspectives, giving and receiving timely, respectful feedback, and continuously improving through iterative learning and user input.
• A drive for impact and excellence: solving complex problems, making data-informed decisions, prioritizing what matters most, and continuously improving through learning, user input, and external benchmarking.
• A collaborative and empathetic approach: working across differences, fostering trust, and contributing to a culture of shared success.

About Our Process

• Application review will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days.
• While the hiring process may vary, it generally includes: resume and application submission, recruiter phone/video screen, hiring manager interview, performance exercise such as live coding, a panel interview, a conversation with leadership and reference checks.

What We Offer

At College Board, we offer more than just a paycheck-we provide a meaningful career, a supportive team, and a comprehensive package designed to help you thrive. We're a self-sustaining nonprofit that believes in fair and competitive compensation, grounded in your qualifications, experience, impact, and the market.

A Thoughtful Approach to Compensation

• The hiring range for this role is $80,000 - $140,000.
• Your exact salary will depend on your location, experience, and how your background compares to others in similar roles at the College Board.
• We aim to make our best offer upfront-rooted in fairness, transparency, and market data.
• We adjust salaries by location to ensure fairness, no matter where you live.

You'll have open, transparent conversations about compensation, benefits, and what it's like to work at College Board throughout your hiring process. Check out our careers page for more.

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