THECB - Project Manager III (Product Manager)

THECB is seeking an empathetic, inquisitive, and analytical Product Manager to join a product team that is setting the standard for state education digital tools - helping educators, families, and students reach their goals. This role will help ensure THECB products are informed by user research, fit the agency’s strategic plan, and delight with quality design. 

General Description:
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) is committed to delivering and managing a suite of high-quality public-facing digital products that contribute to the state’s strategic goals around student outcomes. The Product Manager will join an agency-wide product team that helps ensure that all THECB mass-market products are informed by user and market research, meet user needs, fit strategically within the agency’s offerings and technical infrastructure, and ultimately delight with quality design. The Product Manager will manage products within the mass-market portfolio and contribute towards the development of new products and their adoption within different market segments. THECB product team is setting a new standard for state agency digital products and helping educators, families, and students reach their goals. Work is performed under limited supervision with latitude for the use of initiative and independent judgement. This position reports to the Senior Director of Product Management.

General Duties and Responsibilities:
•    Ensure THECB digital products are high quality and designed and developed to serve the needs of the target end-users 
•    Lead customer/user discovery and research efforts; outlining objectives and key questions, sourcing candidates, leading interview and user testing sessions, collecting data, documenting and synthesizing feedback
•    Contribute to the product vision and manage product road map(s), in collaboration with stakeholders, to ensure systematic implementation of user feedback and learning in new development 
•    Foster stakeholder relationships that inform the product vision and road map 
•    Work to uncover business and technical requirements to help inform the user stories
•    Collaborate with data analysts and engineers on data pipelines that power visual analytics
•    Demonstrate flexibility and creativity in effectively addressing both internal and external barriers to implementation
•    Provide support addressing dependencies and blockers for engineering and other efforts
•    Act as the product lead within THECB and connect with cross functional teams to provide timely updates and gather insights to inform discovery and delivery efforts
•    Participate in developing and reporting product analytics to internal teams
•    Participate in developing go-to-market strategies with cross-functional teams 
•    Support successful product implementation by providing QA support for new products and features, bug reporting for issues identified by THECB product users, and providing customer support solutions to THECB product users

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
•    Strong ability to execute. Understands the value of learning quickly, leading the team to build and test light solutions in quick iterative cycles, providing incremental value to our users and a deeper understanding within our organization
•    Proven experience working on agile teams in software development - writing detailed user stories and enabling shared understanding of customer/user issues
•    Great communication skills. Very capable of communicating customer discovery insights, priorities, and trade-offs to a diverse group of co-workers and external parties
•    Technical acumen. Experience working closing with UX design and software engineering teams. Ability to understand and discuss technical concepts, make trade-offs, and evaluate new ideas
•    Organized and can anticipate risks, gaps, or impediments in potential design and development. Takes initiative and helps the team determine whether they can be addressed differently or resolved prior to committing for design and development
•    Product taste. Has an intuitive feel for customer needs and provides valuable insights to support design and development for the team
•    Skilled in time management, communication, collaboration and organization 
•    Ability to communicate clearly, both verbally and in writing
•    Ability to demonstrate flexibility and effectiveness in dealing with ambiguity

Military Crosswalk:

• Required Minimum Education and Experience:
• •    Graduation from an accredited 4 year college or university 
• •    1+ year in product management, software development, or related role
• •    Experience supporting product on teams utilizing agile methodologies

Preferred:
•    Track record of innovating, building, and releasing successful products within the education sector
•    Knowledge of statewide and national education policies, trends and innovations

• Physical Requirements and/or Working Conditions:
• Work is currently performed remotely but will return to a standard office environment for a set number of days per week in the future. We require:
• •    Regular, reliable, and punctual attendance at work;
• •    Frequent use of personal computer;
• •    Frequent sitting;
• •    Frequently works under deadlines, as a team member, and in direct contact with others
• •    If/when working from home, a strong, reliable internet connection and a dedicated workspace 
• Workforce: 
• Must be able to: 
• •    Demonstrate knowledge of customer service deliverables
• •    Show flexibility and adaptability toward changes in assignments and work schedules, working extended hours as necessary
• •    Adhere to the organization’s internal management policies and procedures
• •    Contribute to the agency’s performance measures and mission

Application Requirements:
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is an Equal Opportunity Employer. A State of Texas application is required to apply. For more information on how to apply for this position, go to the Coordinating Board’s employment opportunities website at  http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/about-us/human-resources/career-opportunities/.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board participates in E-Verify for each new employees’ Form I-9 to confirm work authorization. For questions, please call the HR Department at 512-427-6190. For vocal and/or hearing assistance call 7-1-1.

Notes to Applicant:
If you require any reasonable accommodation for the interview process, please inform the hiring representative who calls to schedule your interview. This position has been designated as a security sensitive position. A criminal background investigation will be conducted on the final candidate for this position.

Your job application must be completely filled out. Your application must contain dates of employment, job titles, name of employer and a description of duties performed in a way that demonstrates you meet the minimum qualifications for the position for which you are applying. Resumes do not take the place of the requirement to include this information on the application. If this information is not submitted, your application may be rejected because it is incomplete.

Veterans Information: THECB is committed to hiring Veterans. To receive Veteran’s Preference, a copy of the FORM DD214 -member #4, must be attached when submitting your application.

AN EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER: THECB does not discriminate on the basis, of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability in employment or the provision of services.

Job offer and continuation of employment with THECB is contingent upon:
•    Proof of education and experience listed on the application.
•    Eligibility/authorization to work in the U.S.
•    Satisfactory results from a pre-employment criminal history background check.
•    Compliance with the Selective Service Law for males ages 18-25. Please be advised that under Texas law, names and other information concerning applicants or nominees may be subject to disclosure upon request.

THECB does not allow dual employment with other state of Texas agencies or institutions.

Skills assessment may be conducted at time of interview

No phone calls or emails, please. Due to the high volume of applications, we do not accept telephone calls and cannot reply to all email inquiries. Only candidates selected for interview will be contacted.