Group Product Manager / Director of Product, Academia
Core Services
$225-275k
A platform for academics to share research papers
Open for applications
A platform for academics to share research papers
101-200 employees
Open for applications
$225-275k
101-200 employees
Company mission
Academia.edu is on a mission to accelerate the world's research. Their goal is to speed up research in every domain - finding a solution to climate change; finding cures for diseases; evolving artificial intelligence.
Role
Who you are
- 7-12 years of product experience, with a focus on B2C products
- Previous experience in one of recommendations/ranking/relevance work, the payments tech stack, or user identity / data management work
- Previous experience hiring and leveling-up PMs
- Strong IC product skills; you know how to “lead from the front” and teach best practices
- Demonstrated ability to make a significant business impact, autonomously
- Exceptional communication skills, both written and oral
- Customer-centric approach with a knack for data-driven validation
- Extensive experience with A/B testing and user research (both qualitative and quantitative)
- Experience working with cross-functional teams (ENG, UXR, Data, Design) and exec leaders
- Startup experience is essential; bonus for a history of successful product pivots
- Technical understanding and ability to engage in high-level technical discussions
- Proven expertise in launching and scaling systems that support millions of users
Desirable
- Experience in Edtech or academia
- A stint in growth-stage tech companies during a ‘high-growth’ period
What the job involves
- We are seeking a high-performing Product Leader to lead our ‘Core Services’ Products group
- This group of product teams is responsible for key technologies and platforms leveraged across the company (including recommendations, payments, profile/identity management, and more)
- In this role, you will power the product teams responsible for providing our key technologies across the site
- The area of responsibility spikes on platform services, including experiences that serve customers directly and that power experiences that support other teams internally
- You will be responsible for 2 product teams to start, both with PMs in seats and the need to develop (and hire) the area further, with an initial goal of building out the team upwards of 4 product teams by early 2025
- Define the roadmap for our ranking / recommendation efforts, driving alignment with exec stakeholders
- Own the payment platform globally; help us identify merchants, banks, vendors, methods that drive more subscription (and reduce cancellations) on Academia
- Hire and support a high-performing product team; both with current roles and with expected future roles soon to emerge
- IC a product team in the early stages of your time with us, in order to show execution excellence and model performance to your reports
- Advocate for and provide best practices for product as a function, in both your area and across the company
Our take
Academia.edu is pitched as a social media platform to help researchers and academics share papers for free - with over 185 million registered users and over 30 million visitors per month, it has remained an active and popular platform since its founding in 2008.
The company has had a chequered relationship with the academics it proposes to serve (and the institutions it intends to disrupt). Some claim the new paywalled suite of features runs counter to the free and open-access model; others balk at their use of the .edu domain usually reserved for academic institutions (they registered before its use became restricted).
Perhaps to overcome these obstacles, and to give them an edge over the increasing preference for competitors like ResearchGate and Google Scholar, Academia.edu have taken some interesting steps. One was to develop a mobile app for the platform. Another was the early 2020 acquisition of entrepreneurial training and toolkit platform The Start-Up Gate. This latter decision could signal an exciting new developmental direction for Academia.edu - but thus far, the motivation remains unclear.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Few candidates hear
back within 2 weeks
4% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 5 rounds)
Feb 2022
$23m
SERIES D
Mar 2019
$16m
SERIES C
Total funding: $56.2m
Company benefits
- 21 days of paid vacation and 11 paid holidays per year
- 8 weeks of paid bonding parental leave plus 8 weeks of birth parent leave
- 6 weeks of fully-paid sabbatical leave for every four years you work here
- Book stipend
- Catered lunch
- Stock options
- Work from home opportunities
- Health insurance
- 401k
- FSA
- Activities
- Commuter benefits
Company values
- Mission Oriented
- Kindness
Company HQ
Financial District, San Francisco, CA
Articles
Leadership
Richard Price
(CEO)Studied PPE at Oxford, going on to complete a PhD in Philosophy. Founded two other businesses: LiveOut.co.uk, and PeopleRadar.co.uk. For 7 years was a Fellow of All Souls College at Oxford University.
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