VP Product, Babbel
Subscription-based language learning software
Job no longer available
Subscription-based language learning software
1001+ employees
Job no longer available
1001+ employees
Company mission
To create mutual understanding through language.
Role
Who you are
- Experience building, scaling, and reshaping product teams during periods of transition or reinvention, not just scaling success
- A track record of pragmatic excellence: you have shipped, iterated, and grown products that balance vision with ruthless execution
- A reputation for pulling greatness from diverse teams and for elevating people even amid challenge and change
- A high capacity for strategic thought and operational rigor that allows you to build frameworks and roadmaps without losing the humanity of leadership
- High bar for product quality
- Ambitious drive to lead boldly and humility to learn and adjust
What the job involves
- This role is essential to Babbel’s product transformation and to the long-term vitality of the business
- The right person will help architect not just what we build, but how we build, shaping the culture, speed, and impact of the product organization
- Champion the Mission, Not Just the Metrics: Bring passion for Babbel’s purpose, creating mutual understanding through language, and help translate that mission into product experiences that matter. You’ll connect the day-to-day to the deeper why, rallying your team and peers around impact that extends beyond features and KPIs
- Establish the Product Operating System: Assess what is in flight and what is planned, and rapidly consolidate a clear, data-informed product roadmap aligned to Babbel’s strategic objectives
- Operationalize Vision Into Execution: Own and evolve product vision yourself and help extract it from others. Translate strategic ambition into clear priorities and a scalable operating model that empowers teams and drives tangible learner and business outcomes. Prioritize personalization and adaptive experiences that evolve with the learner, including context-aware features, AI-supported coaching, and re-onboarding moments that extend learner engagement and lifetime value
- Center the Learner, Expand the Opportunity: Deepen our understanding of learner needs, pain points, and missed opportunities through rigorous research, data analysis, and commercial insight. Define what learner success means and build toward it with clarity, empathy, and urgency
- Drive Product Velocity Without Losing Soul: Identify proven engagement and retention mechanisms from the broader ecosystem and apply them pragmatically. Focus strategic cycles on innovation and forward-looking ideas about where learning is going, while executing quickly on well-established areas that require little differentiation (such as streaks and leaderboards). Balance speed with quality, creating fast cycles without burning out teams or undermining trust
- Lead Through Change and Reset: Evaluate the current product organization, assess talent rigorously, and reshape the team as needed, putting the right people in the right seats with urgency and care. Act as a coach rather than a player, building strength through others instead of becoming the bottleneck yourself
- Be a Signal Processor, Not an Echo Chamber: Distill meaningful insight from noise across learner data, commercial outcomes, and organizational dynamics to focus energy on the most impactful opportunities
- Role Model Hands-On Leadership: Lead with presence in moments of ambiguity and reset. Inspire teams through clarity, grounded action, and momentum even when conditions are far from perfect
- Challenge and Evolve the Status Quo: Bring a fresh, courageous lens to what has become too precious. Challenge assumptions, redesign norms, and push toward a more agile, learner-obsessed future
Our take
Babbel is one of the leading lights in the language eLearning sector. Its premium subscription-based online learning resources cover over a dozen predominantly European languages, at all proficiency levels. They include interactive lessons and podcasts - all developed and delivered by professional educators and linguists.
Learning languages online has become big business in recent years, and this has led to a surge of VC investment in the sector. This diversified the field of competition, tripling revenue for smaller rivals like Busuu and driving up engagement on online tutoring sites. It has ramped up pressure on incumbents like Babbel, and its better established (but pricier) competitor Rosetta Stone, to diversify their offerings.
To get there, Babbel has taken a smart cue from live tutoring sites like Preply, which also saw a surge in engagement over recent years. Babbel has launched its own live tuition offering, and additional B2B services, demonstrating a savvy use of its leading position and strong resources to keep a tight grip on its substantial market share.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
22% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Jul 2015
$22m
SERIES C
Mar 2013
$10m
SERIES B
Total funding: $33.3m
Company benefits
- 30 vacation days and flexible working hours
- BVG card or Swapfiets bike
- Jobbatical and Sabbatical options
- Many internal & external learning opportunities to choose from
- A yearly Learning & Development budget
- Visa and relocation assistance
- Full access to Babbel & Babbel Live classes
- Modern office in the heart of buzzing Berlin equipped with a family, music, faith and nap room
- Various internal communities to be part of including the Femgineers, DEI Ambassadors, Accessibility & Disability Group and more
Company HQ
Friedrichshain, Berlin, Germany
Leadership
Markus Witte
(Executive Chairman & Co-Founder)Currently a Partner at Wachstumsbegleitung, a Fellow of JoinPolitics and was Previously an Independent Board Member at Blinkist.
Salary benchmarks
We don't have enough data yet to provide salary benchmarks for this role.
Submit your salary to help other candidates with crowdsourced salary estimates.
Share this job
View 10 more jobs at Babbel