Chief Product Officer

Top Hat is looking for an accomplished product leader and outstanding company leader to join as our Chief Product Officer, CPO.

Top Hat takes a product-first approach to transforming the $9B Higher Education courseware category. As CPO, you will drive an ambitious, innovation-centric roadmap that sets-the-pace for the future of courseware.

We are looking for a strong leader with the ability to communicate and drive clarity and excitement across all areas of the company and with customers. You will assume end-to-end responsibility for all aspects of the product and have a massive impact on the success of our company. You’re passionate about the voice of our customer, and live at the intersection between design, development, and business. As a member of the executive team, you will also serve as an internal and external evangelist for our product.

About The Gig

• You directly own defining Top Hat’s Product Strategy and delivering on its innovation Roadmap
• You will build, lead, coach and set the strategic direction for our outstanding team of product professionals
• You will be a master translator: systematically analyzing customer pains and opportunities and translating these into solutions the customer cannot yet articulate.
• You will be an ultimate cross-functional leader, driving alignment with Engineering to prioritize the Product roadmap and with Marketing & Sales to successfully launch innovations to market.
• You will serve as an inspired subject matter expert on the Top Hat solution both internally and externally, driving radical alignment behind Top Hat’s product vision.
• You will partner closely with Top Hat’s Corporate Development team to drive M&A opportunities, validate theses, and oversee product integration plans. You confidently assess build vs buy opportunities.
• You will continue to scale the product development process with Engineering including accurate forecasting and communications of product progress.

About You

• Scale-Stage Growth Product Leadership: You thrive in driving product strategy and roadmap execution with a suite of products, balancing core product innovation while expanding the product portfolio. You have excelled in driving growth between the $50M-$350M ARR range. As part of this growth, you are confident in scaling product development teams across global locations.
• You value Company success above all: You balance humility and confidence, driving alignment and progress amongst your peers on the Executive team and across Product & Engineering leadership.
• Entrepreneurial Thinking: You bring the bold thinking of a Founder to driving product strategy and leading category disruption. In fact, you may have been a product-centric Founder in your past.
• Communication is a Super-Power: You are at-ease with serving as the go-to evangelist for Top Hat’s product vision with customers, partners, investors and employees. You are expert at bringing excitement alongside credibility.
• Customer-Centric AND Willing to Challenge Customer Status Quo: You are willing to take risks and pursue bold product commitments. You translate customer inputs into a solution they don’t yet know they need. You are a master communicator who inspires those around you to rally behind your vision and customers to believe in your insight.
• Technical Leadership & Fluency: You can go deep on technical solutions with Engineering leadership to collaborate on technical solutions that enable scale and efficiency of product innovation. A plus is that you have led Engineering organizations through scale.
• Zoom In & Zoom Out: You are deft at strategy and bring high overall business acumen AND you thrive in the details of roadmap planning, trade-offs and collaboration with Engineering.
• B2B and B2C (or B2B2C): You know how to drive value propositions for multiple stakeholders within a product. (At Top Hat, we serve Higher Ed Institutions, Educators and Students).
• Build, Buy, Partner: You lead in translating product vision into directives for M&A and partnership opportunities. You are experienced in planning Product integrations and leading build/buy/partner evaluations.
• Growth Mindset: You create accountability on the Product team for growth outcomes: customer, market share, revenue growth. You have a track-record of consistently identifying revenue growth opportunities and executing on those plans.
  Ten reasons people choose to join the Top Hat team:
  
  • A noble mission that creates meaningful, fulfilling work
  • A team that cares deeply for customers and for each other
  • Professional learning and development for all role levels
  • The latest and greatest technology to do your job
  • Competitive benefits and health/lifestyle spending accounts
  • We’re currently embracing an engaging, remote-first culture and work experience
  • A management team focused on performance, growth, engagement and connection
  • Our winning strategy and market potential
  • Employee-led, exec sponsored employee resource groups committed to Diversity and Inclusion
  • Passionate customers that believe in us—and what we do