Senior Director, Product Developer

Job description

This is a full time position located from a remote office anywhere in the country with a requirement of up to 50% national travel in accordance with public health guidelines.

Position Description:

We are searching for a Senior Director, Middle School Math Initiative to support leading an ambitious effort to help 25-30 high-poverty schools achieve proficiency in math for at least 50% of students and to strengthen the students’ learning experiences and mathematics identity, with no gaps for students of color, students experiencing poverty, and multilingual learners. With math proficiency results starting in the single digits for many student groups across states, our team is piloting extraordinary efforts to help our partners achieve dramatically outsized growth in students’ math proficiency and learning experiences, year-over-year. We expect this effort will allow us to have significant immediate impact for students, develop repeatable services that can scale to many more schools and districts in the future, learn how to build deep-impact, product-specific services in a way that can translate to other products, and identify clearly how state departments of education can support conditions to enable these rates of progress for more schools.

What You’ll Do:

As Senior Director, Middle School Math Initiative, you will lead the development of scalable, curriculum-based professional learning (PL) products designed to transform middle school math instruction. You will play a leadership role in the PL product development lifecycle—from vision and early design through testing, refinement, and readiness for scale—ensuring each offering is high-quality, equity-focused, and grounded in research and classroom realities.

In this role, you will translate a long-term instructional vision into practical, usable product solutions that drive educator practice change and student outcomes, particularly for multilingual learners, students of color, and students experiencing poverty. You’ll ensure coherence across delivery models and district contexts while balancing rapid iteration with strategic foundation-building.

You’ll also lead early-stage go-to-market strategy: identifying strategic pilot partners, shaping product messaging in collaboration with marketing, and supporting early business development efforts to position products for long-term scale, sustainability, and impact.

Internally, you’ll guide cross-functional teams, manage product roadmaps and execution cycles, and codify learning to continuously improve both design and delivery. As a senior leader, you’ll build team capacity, foster a culture of clarity and shared ownership, and ensure alignment between day-to-day operations and long-term strategic goals.

Responsibilities:

Product Development & Learning Design

• Ensure Professional Learning (PL)  products build toward the initiative’s goal: 50%+ of students proficient in math by the end of middle school, with no gaps by race, income, or language in how students identify as mathematicians.
• Co-lead the design and development of research-informed, high-impact professional learning (PL) products that improve middle school math instruction and student learning experiences. Products should be responsive to the needs of instructional leaders and grounded in equity-focused, affirming, and rigorous instruction for multilingual learners, students of color, and students experiencing poverty.
• Translate the long-term vision of the Middle School Math Initiative into practical product solutions that can be tested, iterated, and scaled. Ensure product coherence across multiple formats, delivery models, and district contexts.
• Manage the full product development lifecycle, from vision to pilot to refinement, integrating input from classroom experience, academic research, and user feedback.
• Collaborate with the Executive Director and R&D team to design learning experiences that reflect best practices in middle school math instruction, emphasizing collective teacher efficacy, belonging, and identity-affirming learning environments.

Execution & Continuous Improvement

• Lead the execution of product roadmaps, managing development sprints, timelines, and deliverables to ensure PL products are usable, high-quality, and aligned with both short- and long-term goals.
• Guide product testing and improvement cycles, balancing rapid iteration with long-term service coherence and readiness for scale.
• Codify lessons learned through pilots and implementation to inform team learning and product refinements.
• Partner with the R&D team to define success metrics for both educator practice and student outcomes, and use data to improve both design and delivery of services.

Engagement & Partnership Management

• Partner with district and school system leaders to co-design, test, and refine PL products in pilot settings; ensure engagements are aligned with strategic priorities and complement broader organizational goals.
• Build and sustain strong relationships with pilot partners, ensuring continuous feedback loops and meaningful collaboration that improve product relevance and efficacy.
• Collaborate with Marketing and Communications to ensure service messaging communicates the vision, design, and intended impact of the PL products.
• Support the Executive Director in maintaining alignment across the organization’s partnership strategy and contributing to fund development efforts as needed.

Team Leadership & Organizational Development

• Lead and mentor team members in both product development and strategic execution, fostering a culture of shared ownership, clarity, and accountability as the team works toward both short-term outcomes and long-term PL product and impact outcomes.
• Cultivate a learning-driven environment within the team, balancing day-to-day operational needs with the integration of long-term strategic goals, ensuring the team is both flexible and aligned with the broader vision.
• Build shared ownership and clarity around goals, team roles, and performance expectations through consistent coaching, communication, and collaborative decision-making.
• Provide guidance on change management, supporting the adoption of new tools and processes that help drive product development and team learning.

Evaluation & Impact

• In partnership with the Executive Director and R&D team, co-lead the development of an evaluation strategy that tracks educator practice change and student outcomes.
• Ensure data systems are in place to assess product efficacy, including implementation quality and student outcomes by subgroup.
• Use evaluation insights to inform iterative design and help the team maintain a clear line of sight between product development decisions and long-term learning goals.

Strategy & Scale

• Lead the strategic codification of PL models, tools, and resources to ensure they are scalable and adaptable, balancing both immediate district needs and the broader vision for long-term growth.
• Support management of the financial planning and operational modeling for scaling products, ensuring that cost-efficiency, quality, and long-term sustainability are prioritized in product development and delivery.

Drive efforts to ensure that the PL model is sustainable and scalable, balancing the immediate needs of partner districts with long-term organizational capacity and growth.

Required Candidate Qualifications:

1. 10+ years of experience in K–12 education, including successful leadership of large-scale or multi-site professional learning efforts that drive instructional improvement and equity in outcomes—particularly in middle school math.
2. Proven track record in designing, developing, and scaling curriculum-based professional learning services, with demonstrated expertise in product development, iterative design, and codification of tools and routines for consistent delivery across diverse contexts.
3. Deep knowledge of secondary math content and pedagogy, with expertise in practices that support multilingual learners, foster students’ positive math identity, and center meaningful student learning experiences.
4. Experience managing team members and cross-functional initiatives, with a demonstrated ability to build team capacity, drive collaboration, and support strong execution across content, delivery, and partner-facing roles.
5. Ability to navigate both “balcony-level” strategy and “dance floor” execution—aligning long-term vision with near-term decision-making, product quality, and user impact.
6. Skilled at using data and research to drive product design and improvement cycles, with a learning mindset and commitment to evidence-based decision-making.
7. Experience leading through change and supporting teams through ambiguity, complexity, and continuous improvement.
8. Strong relationship-building and partnership management skills; able to collaborate across internal teams and external partners to support early-stage marketing, co-design, and sustainable scaling efforts.
9. Compelling communicator and facilitator, capable of translating complex ideas into actionable insights for varied audiences.
10. Willingness and ability to travel up to 5–10 days per month, as needed.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Hiring

At Instruction Partners, we know that difference enhances, transforms and strengthens our ability to serve students and schools. We invite and celebrate diversity of all perspectives, and we are deeply committed to ensuring equitable access and voice throughout our organization. Instruction Partners is proudly an equal opportunity workplace, and we value the inclusion of persons who have experienced poverty and/or for whom English is not their first language, and every race, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, culture, ancestry, religion, national orientation, age, marital status or Veteran status. Join us, and let’s work together to support great teaching and accelerate learning for every student.

Compensation:

The salary for this role is $143,750. Detailed information about the organizational compensation philosophy can be found here. Competitive benefits and private retirement investment options are available, as well as a generous vacation policy. See our detailed benefits package here: 2023-2024 Benefits in Brief Overview. Additionally, Instruction Partners participates in E-Verify. Please see the E-Verify “Notice of Participation” and the Department of Justice “Right to Work ” posters for more information.”

Our Vision

All students experience an excellent education that prepares them to contribute to their community, achieve economic security, and pursue their dreams.

Our Mission

We strengthen instructional leadership in schools, school systems, and states to ensure teachers have the support they need to improve learning experiences and learning outcomes for students - with attention to students of color, students experiencing poverty, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities.

How We Work

Instruction Partners is a nonprofit organization dedicated to excellent instruction for all students, with a focus on students in poverty, students with disabilities, students learning English, and students of color. We keep one foot in practicality and the other in evidence-based best practices, because we believe that leveraging high-quality, grade-level content and providing just-in-time supports will accelerate learning for all students.

Instruction Partners spends time getting to know the needs of the educators, leaders, and systems it serves, allowing the team to custom-build service plans to support partner goals. Partnerships include on-the-ground support, and partnership team members serve as thought partners to the school systems they serve, a team educators can reach out to and feel supported by.

Instruction Partners provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Instruction Partners complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

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