Director of Product Management – Enterprise Applications

Be the one who makes a difference!

At Vertex Education we are a team of high achievers, courageous leaders, and passionate believers in changing lives through education. As a purpose-led education services provider, our mission is destined to benefit many and yet it starts with just one person inspired to work together with us to make a memorable and meaningful difference for our clients, schools, students, and communities. Be the one who makes a difference—with us.

The Director of Product Management – Enterprise Applications leads Vertex Education’s most complex and high-impact platforms—Workday, NetSuite (FIS), Sage Intacct (FIS), ensuring they deliver measurable business value for Vertex employees and the schools we serve.

By delivering high-quality, user-centered solutions, the Director enables every Vertex and school team to effectively advance our mission of changing lives through education. These platforms connect people, data, and processes across HR, finance, and planning, helping every team focus more time and energy on delivering exceptional outcomes for students.

In partnership with the Sr. Director of Product & Engineering, this role sets the strategic vision for Vertex’s business systems portfolio, driving platform optimization, automation, and delivery through consistent frameworks and shared best practices.

Essential Functions:

1) Strategy, Prioritization & Roadmap Delivery:

• Develop and maintain comprehensive product roadmaps for Workday, NetSuite, and Sage Intacct, aligned with Vertex’s strategic objectives and measurable business outcomes.
• Lead structured planning cycles using prioritization frameworks (Impact/Effort, MoSCoW, RICE) to focus resources on high-impact work.
• Define value-driven epics and user stories, managing agile execution that prioritizes long-term strategic outcomes over reactive fixes.
• Monitor and report on platform health and adoption through defined KPIs, ensuring transparency across product, delivery, and executive teams.

2) SaaS Portfolio, Vendors & Implementation Partners:

• Oversee the full lifecycle of Vertex’s business systems portfolio, ensuring stability, optimization, and continuous improvement.
• Manage third-party support contracts and spending, including support agreements and partnerships with Workday support providers such as AVAAP.
• Lead vendor selection, contract renewals, and SOW negotiations; hold partners accountable for SLAs, performance, and delivery quality.
• Standardize out-of-the-box capabilities and documented configurations; ensure partners deliver to Vertex conventions and avoid one-off customizations.

3) Data Governance, Access & Reporting Enablement:

• Partner with IT/Engineering, Finance, and HR teams to ensure data quality, ownership, and reliability across all business systems.
• Implement and maintain robust role-based access controls (RBAC), audit protocols, and identity alignment across Workday, NetSuite, and Intacct.
• Oversee integrations and data flows between systems to ensure accuracy, consistency, and reliable analytics.
• Own the embedded analytics and reporting library within business systems; ensure aligned definitions and optimized performance across all tools.

4) Service Model & Change Controls with IT:

• Define and clarify service ownership boundaries, escalation pathways, and change control processes in partnership with IT and system administrators.
• Establish pragmatic release cadences, blackout windows, and risk mitigation practices to reduce disruption and maintain operational continuity.
• Serve as an escalation point for critical system issues, coordinating rapid assessment and resolution across product, IT, and vendor teams.
• Drive a culture of operational excellence, emphasizing proactive improvement, disciplined change management, and lifecycle stewardship.

5) People Leadership, Stakeholder Partnership & Adoption:

• Lead and develop a high-performing team of product managers, analysts, and system specialists supporting Workday, NetSuite, and Intacct.
• Build a product culture rooted in transparency, accountability, and user empathy, ensuring team members grow in both capability and impact.
• Partner closely with the Sr. Director of Product & Engineering to apply shared frameworks and delivery standards across the portfolio.
• Build strong partnerships across the organization to understand user needs, align priorities, and drive adoption through communication, training, and feedback loops.

Required Qualifications:

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Business Administration, or related field.

Experience:

• Minimum of 7 years leading product management or product strategy for internal-facing enterprise systems, SaaS platforms, or similar large-scale technology.
• At least 3 years managing direct reports (Product Managers/Owners, Analysts), demonstrating successful mentorship and team growth.
• Demonstrated track record defining and executing strategic, prioritized roadmaps; skilled in using structured prioritization frameworks.
• Extensive experience managing vendor/partner relationships, SOWs, licensing, platform spend, and renewals.
• Proven expertise establishing structured change management, service ownership boundaries, and agile product practices.
• Hands-on knowledge of data governance practices, including RBAC, data quality management, and analytics enablement.

Credentials:

• Agile certification (CSPO, PSPO, or equivalent).
• Familiarity with IT service management frameworks (ITIL v4 Foundation or similar).

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Business Administration, MIS, Computer Science, or related.
• Experience within K–12 education, charter schools, or educational technology domains.
• Prior experience in technology management consulting or systems implementation within a complex, distributed organizational environment.
• Hands-on experience managing educational enterprise platforms (ERP, SIS, HRIS, finance systems, helpdesk/service management tools).
• Advanced certifications in agile methodologies (e.g., SAFe), ITIL Managing Professional, or data governance/privacy (FERPA familiarity).

Be excited to be a part of our team and grow your career with us!

Be the one who enables us to positively impact over 258,000 students across multiple states while driving our growth forward so we can enrich even more lives. Be the one who helps us achieve excellence for over 226 schools that we support with academics, finance, technology, human resources, communications, marketing, facilities, construction, and food services. Be the one who is a diverse thinker, a team player, a smart risk taker, an innovator, and a difference maker by encouraging others to climb higher and reach farther to further education.

• Be yourself surrounded by wonderful people who care about you, value your unique skills, and lift you up.
• Be supported in your work by caring leaders and team members who want you to succeed.
• Be empowered to make a difference and climb higher and reach farther to change lives through education.
• Be well in all aspects of your life from your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing to your finances.
• Enjoy industry-leading pay, rewards, referral bonuses, with unlimited flexible paid time-off for performance.
• Be able to care for your health and your family with comprehensive medical, dental and vision benefits and invest in your future with 401(k) plans with a 6% employer match on your contributions.
• Enhance your growth and development with mentoring and money to take training classes.
• Thrive in a welcoming, supportive, and inclusive environment where we treat others with fairness and respect, celebrate diversity, and elevate equality and inclusion as an equal opportunity employer.

Be the one who makes a difference!

With an innovative mind, a hungry heart, and engaging spirit you can change lives through education. Be a part of Vertex Education and let’s make a difference together. Apply Today!