Compensation Range:
Annual Salary: $112,290.00 - $151,590.00
Position Summary
The Associate Vice President (AVP) of Publisher & Digital Solutions leads the strategic development, management, and expansion of NU Academies' print and digital product lines for both Harmony Academy and Fundraising Academy. This senior leadership position will oversee three core functional areas: Product Development, Content Development, and Technology & Digital Learning Solutions. The AVP drives innovation, operational efficiency, and growth through an integrated approach to product and content management, leveraging cutting-edge digital solutions to support market and revenue growth and enhance the educational experience. As a critical member of the senior leadership team, the AVP collaborates with cross-functional teams to shape the direction of our academies' offerings and ensure alignment with organizational goals and National University. The incumbent manages a senior management team dedicated to creating and refining products that engage learners, foster skill development, and meet the needs of diverse user groups across both print and digital platforms. Additionally, contributes to the growth and success of NU Academies by shaping the future of education for diverse learners through innovative digital solutions and comprehensive product development strategies. Utilizes a passion for education, strong understanding, and a background developing digital learning tools, to pursue a vision for how technology can transform the learning experience.
Essential Functions:
Product Development
- Strategic Leadership in Product Creation:
Lead the overall product strategy for both print and digital product lines, ensuring alignment with the mission and vision of Harmony Academy and Fundraising Academy. Develop a comprehensive product roadmap, identifying key opportunities, prioritizing initiatives, and ensuring that products meet both short-term needs and long-term strategic goals. - End-to-End Product Lifecycle Management:
Oversee the full product lifecycle, from ideation through to design, development, launch, and ongoing optimization. This includes creating detailed timelines, setting clear milestones, and ensuring products are delivered on time, within scope, and within budget. Ensure that all products, both print and digital, meet rigorous quality standards and deliver measurable outcomes for end-users. - Cross-Functional Collaboration:
Collaborate closely with key stakeholders, including content development teams, technology teams, marketing, and sales, to ensure the product development process is seamless and integrated across all functions. Facilitate communication between teams to foster alignment on product goals, user requirements, and market needs. Provide regular status updates to leadership and ensure stakeholder input is incorporated throughout the development process. - Market Research and Competitive Analysis:
Lead comprehensive market research to understand emerging trends, learner needs, and the competitive landscape within educational products. Conduct surveys, focus groups, and interviews with current and potential users to identify gaps and opportunities for innovation. Analyze competitor products and benchmark performance to ensure NU Academies’ offerings remain at the forefront of the market. - User-Centered Design:
Champion a user-centric approach to product design, ensuring that all products are developed with the learner’s experience in mind. Work closely with UX/UI designers and instructional designers to create products that are intuitive, engaging, and accessible to diverse audiences. Prioritize features and functionality based on user feedback, ensuring that the product continually meets the needs and preferences of students, educators, and administrators. - Innovation and Continuous Improvement:
Stay informed about the latest advancements in education technology and publishing, and integrate innovative tools, features, and best practices into product development. Lead initiatives to enhance product offerings, ensuring that the academies remain competitive and responsive to industry changes. Identify areas for improvement in existing products and implement iterative updates to enhance their effectiveness and user satisfaction. - Scalability and Sustainability:
Develop products that are scalable and adaptable to meet the growing needs of NU Academies. Ensure that products can evolve over time, incorporating new features, content, and technologies as needed, while maintaining consistency and quality. Consider long-term sustainability when designing and developing new products, ensuring they are built with future growth and expansion in mind. - Data-Driven Decision Making:
Leverage data and analytics to make informed decisions about product development, continually measuring the success and impact of existing products. Use user feedback, performance metrics, and usage data to guide decisions about product improvements, new feature development, or potential product discontinuations. Foster a culture of continuous learning and product refinement. - Team Leadership and Development:
Manage, mentor, and retain a high performing team of product managers, content managers, project managers, designers, and other product development and technology staff. Provide clear direction and set performance goals, ensuring that the team is equipped with the resources and knowledge needed to execute product initiatives effectively. Encourage a collaborative, creative, and problem-solving mindset among the team to drive the development of innovative and high-quality products.
Content Development
- Oversee the creation, curation, and enhancement of content across both print and digital mediums, ensuring it is engaging, relevant, and aligned with the pedagogical and contractual goals of the academies.
- Collaborate with subject matter experts, instructional designers, external firms, and educators to develop dynamic, educational content for learners.
- Ensure that all content adheres to best practices in instructional design, accessibility standards, donor contractual terms, and is optimized for a variety of delivery formats.
- Establish clear content guidelines and editorial processes, ensuring consistent quality, tone, and style across all platforms and products.
- Analyze learner feedback and performance data to refine content offerings and continuously improve learning outcomes.
Technology & Digital Learning Solutions
- Lead the strategic integration and implementation of technology solutions that enhance the digital learning experience across both academies.
- Work closely with IT and tech teams to develop and maintain a robust infrastructure for digital product offerings, including Learning Management Systems (LMS), interactive learning tools, and other educational technologies.
- Oversee the creation and deployment of digital learning platforms and experiences that support diverse learning modalities, including synchronous, asynchronous, and hybrid formats.
- Foster innovation in educational technology, evaluating and adopting emerging tools that can enhance the academies’ digital learning solutions, increase user engagement, and drives new and renewal revenue
- Ensure the seamless integration of technology with existing content and product offerings to create an optimal learning environment for users.
- Other duties as assigned.
Supervisory Responsibilities:
- Supervisor duties to include: 6-8 direct reports at Director and Sr Director levels over major functional areas.
Requirements:
Education & Experience:
- Bachelor's degree required.
- Advanced degree in Education, Publishing, Instructional Design, Technology, or a related field, preferred.
- Minimum of fifteen (15) years of experience in a senior publishing role, ed tech, content, or digital solutions role, with a focus on educational products or services, required.
- Leadership experience required.
Competencies/Technical/Functional Skills:
- Strong senior level leadership experience, with a demonstrated ability to manage cross-functional teams, develop and retain teams, and drive complex projects to successful completion.
- Deep understanding of publishing process, product development, instructional design, content creation, and educational technology in both print and digital formats.
- Expertise in the creation of digital learning experiences and platforms, with an understanding of current trends in edtech and learner engagement strategies.
- Exceptional strategic thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities.
- Ability to build relationships with internal stakeholders, external partners, and vendors, driving collaboration and alignment across teams.
- Proven success in developing and managing high-value strategic accounts at the national, state, or district levels.
- Established network of relationships with K-12 district leaders, state officials, and national organizations.
- Experience engaging with strategic advisors and leveraging advisory groups or similar networks to advance organizational objectives.
- Ability to establish and maintain relationships with key decision-makers, including district leaders, state education agencies, and advocacy organizations.
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate with senior leadership to define and align on overarching sales strategies.
- Expertise in navigating multi-stakeholder deals and long sales cycles with high levels of customization and coordination.
- Proficiency in Salesforce CRM, with experience managing pipelines, forecasting, and ensuring deal visibility across cross-functional teams.
- Exceptional communication, negotiation, and presentation skills, with the ability to influence and build trust with high-level stakeholders.
- Experience collaborating with marketing, professional learning specialists, and other teams to deliver tailored solutions and campaigns for strategic accounts.
- Entrepreneurial mindset with a passion for creating meaningful impact in education.
- Willingness to travel nationally sometimes.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Confident in representing the organization at national conferences, presenting to high-level stakeholders, and advocating for educational partnerships.
Location: Remote, USA
Travel: Some Travel Required; requires approximately 25% travel, including visits to various clients, partner organizations, and key industry events. Travel will be essential for building relationships, overseeing product development initiatives, attending conferences, and ensuring alignment with stakeholders across multiple locations. The ability to travel as needed is a key component of this position.
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Candidate receiving offers will be offered a salary/pay rate commensurate with experience that vary based on a candidate’s qualifications, skills, and competencies. Absent exceptional circumstances, candidates will be offered a salary within this range for this position. The minimum salary will be offered based on the minimum exemption threshold based on state of residency. Base pay is one component of National University’s total rewards package, as we are dedicated to supporting the needs of the “whole you” with our holistic approach to employee benefits by offering comprehensive well-being benefits for you and your family. For full details about our benefit plan offerings, please visit benefits.nu.edu. For Part-time benefits, please click here.
National University is committed to maintaining a high-quality workforce representative of the populations we serve. National University employs more than 4,500 faculty and staff and serves over 45,000 students. We are united in our mission to meet the global education demands of the 21st Century and are dedicated to creating a supportive academic and work environment that allows students, faculty and staff to develop their interests and talents while experiencing a sense of community. With programs available both online and at our many campus locations, National University is a leader in creating innovative solutions to education and meeting the needs of our student population, including adult learners and working professionals.
National University (NU) is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant per applicable federal, state and local laws. At NU, a mix of highly talented, innovative and creative people come together to make the impact of a lifetime for each of our student learners. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment, education, and admission at National University.
