Advanced Specialist, Strategy (Education Market Strategy)

Advanced Specialist, Strategy — Career Ready Workforce Programming

(Market aligned with Manager / Sr. Manager roles in Product Strategy, Market Intelligence, and Commercial Strategy in Education Technology and Workforce Learning)

At Pearson, we believe learning should open doors at every stage of life. Pearson’s Career Ready portfolio is focused on helping colleges and universities deliver workforce-aligned learning programs that support adult learners, career advancement, and employer needs.

We are building a new business focused on workforce programming distributed through higher education partners. This role is the strategic intelligence engine behind that launch — the resident expert on the market, the customer, and the end user, translating deep research and analytical rigor into the product and commercial decisions that will determine whether this business succeeds.

What You Will Do

You will develop and own the market, customer, and competitive expertise that shapes both the product roadmap and the commercial strategy for Pearson’s Career Ready HED workforce programming. This role is analytically rigorous and deeply cross-functional . You will work in close partnership with the Head of Sales, product management, and content development teams to ensure every major decision is grounded in real market evidence.

You will:

• Own market and user intelligence for the Career Ready HED workforce product — conducting desktop research, competitive landscape analysis, customer interviews, and formal research studies to develop a comprehensive understanding of the adult learner, university partner, and employer customer segments
• Translate market and user insights into clear product requirements and prioritization guidance, partnering directly with product management and content development to inform the direction of the product roadmap and feature decisions
• Develop and own the commercial strategy for the HED workforce product, including pricing architecture, packaging, and positioning — ensuring our go-to-market approach reflects both market realities and Pearson’s commercial objectives
• Partner with the Head of Sales to define geographic and segment prioritization — identifying which regions, university partnership profiles, and workforce development relationships should be sequenced first to maximize launch momentum
• Build the analytical frameworks and decision tools that help the commercial and product teams prioritize confidently in an ambiguous, early-stage environment
• Work cross-functionally across Pearson’s Career Ready, Higher Education, and Enterprise Learning teams to identify and unlock existing commercial and product capabilities that can accelerate go-to-market for the new workforce product
• Bring together the right internal stakeholders and resources at the right moments — acting as an internal connective tissue role that ensures the launch benefits from Pearson’s full institutional scale
• Track and synthesize signals from early university partner and user engagement to continuously refine the product and commercial strategy as the business moves from concept to market

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role means turning market complexity into clear, confident direction for both the product and commercial teams.

You will be successful if you:

• Develop a well-documented, evidence-based view of the HED adult workforce market — including sizing, customer segmentation, competitive dynamics, and unmet needs — that becomes the shared foundation for all major product and commercial decisions
• Own a pricing and packaging model grounded in customer research, competitive benchmarking, and Pearson’s commercial objectives that the sales team can execute with confidence
• Deliver a prioritized geographic and segment launch strategy that gives the sales team a clear, rationalized starting point for university partner outreach
• Identify and activate internal Pearson resources, partnerships, and capabilities that meaningfully accelerate the product’s path to market
• Establish a repeatable research and insight function that keeps the product and commercial strategy continuously calibrated to market reality as the business scales

This role requires someone who thrives at the intersection of analytical depth and commercial impact — someone who can turn research into strategy and strategy into clear decisions that teams can act on.

What Will Challenge You

This is an incubation-stage business inside a large organization. That means you will need to:

• Build structured analytical approaches where no prior framework exists
• Develop credibility with multiple internal stakeholder groups — product, sales, marketing, and senior leadership — simultaneously
• Balance the rigor of good research with the speed that an early-stage launch requires
• Navigate cross-functional complexity across business units with different priorities and operating rhythms
• Translate ambiguous market signals into concrete recommendations that teams can act on quickly

If you are energized by bringing analytical clarity to complex, high-stakes market questions and translating that clarity into product and commercial strategy that actually moves a business forward, this role offers a rare opportunity to do exactly that.

What You Need to Be Successful

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent; advanced degree in business, economics, education policy, or a related field preferred
• 8 years of experience in strategy, product marketing, market research, or commercial strategy roles — ideally in education technology, workforce learning, or higher education
• Strong analytical toolkit: comfort with market sizing, competitive analysis, pricing frameworks, customer segmentation, and synthesizing qualitative and quantitative research
• Experience conducting and designing customer research including interviews, surveys, and user studies — and translating findings into strategic recommendations
• Demonstrated ability to influence product roadmaps and commercial strategy through research and insight rather than organizational authority
• Experience working cross-functionally in complex organizations to unlock shared resources and align stakeholders around a common direction
• Deep curiosity about the adult learning, workforce development, and higher education landscape and how they are evolving
• Ability to operate with urgency and pragmatism in ambiguous, early-stage environments

Who Thrives in This Role

You are likely someone who:

• Loves digging into a market and emerging with a point of view that others find genuinely clarifying
• Gets as much satisfaction from the quality of the thinking as from the outcome it drives
• Can hold both the analytical detail and the strategic narrative at the same time
• Is comfortable influencing without direct authority — making the case through evidence and credibility
• Brings a genuine passion for education and its role in opening economic opportunity
• Moves quickly but doesn’t sacrifice rigor under pressure

Compensation at Pearson is influenced by factors including skill set, experience, and location. The full-time salary range for this role is $120,000-$150000

Information on benefits can be found at pearsonbenefitsus.com.

Applications will be accepted through April 10, 2026. This window may be extended depending on business needs.

Who we are:

At Pearson, our purpose is simple: to help people realize the life they imagine through learning. We believe that every learning opportunity is a chance for a personal breakthrough. We are the world's lifelong learning company. For us, learning isn't just what we do. It's who we are. To learn more: We are Pearson.

Pearson is an Equal Opportunity Employer and a member of E-Verify. Employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit and business need. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status or any other group protected by law. We actively seek qualified candidates who are protected veterans and individuals with disabilities as defined under VEVRAA and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act.

If you are an individual with a disability and are unable or limited in your ability to use or access our career site as a result of your disability, you may request reasonable accommodations by emailing TalentExperienceGlobalTeam@grp.pearson.com.

Job: Strategy

Job Family: ENTERPRISE

Organization: Higher Education

Schedule: FULL\_TIME

Workplace Type:

Req ID: 23629

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