ABOUT ALU
ALU provides higher education for a higher purpose. Our students declare missions, not majors.They develop the real-world skills to take on the world’s most pressing challenges. And they take ownership of their learning from day one through our peer and student-led approach – because ALU believes in the power and agency of young people to start shaping the future right now.
Together with a world-class faculty and staff, our students are igniting a ripple of positive impact across Africa and the world.
HOW WE WORK
As a high-growth start-up, the ALU Team works in starkly different ways to traditional academic bureaucracies. We approach education from first principles, empower individuals to design, test, and implement creative new ideas, and work closely together to craft transformative learning experiences. We are deeply passionate about our students and excited by the challenge of building something entirely new.
ABOUT THE ROLE
The Product Manager for Systems Integrations is responsible for managing an outsourced development team that performs digital product planning and execution throughout the Product Life Cycle, including: gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining the product vision, and working closely with engineering, operations, marketing, the registrar’s office, academic stakeholders, learning experience design, students, and other internal and external stakeholders to ensure key results and customer satisfaction goals are met. The Product Manager’s job also includes communicating to the Executive Committee and key external stakeholders regarding ALU’s mission and the software products being developed to support that mission.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Manage the work of an outsourced development team that may include software engineers, project coordinators, quality assurance engineers, and other technical roles.
- Clearly establish goals and objectives for team members, assess progress, and provide timely, actionable feedback to team members.
- Work with internal resources in the academic, registrar, finance, and other functions to understand and document requested integrations and manage completion of those integrations via the external development team.
- Work with the CTO and other Executive Committee stakeholders to define the product strategy and develop a prioritized product roadmap.
- Work with the CTO to establish timelines and identify needs.
- Work with external third parties to manage outsourced software development projects.
- Work with external third parties to assess partnerships and licensing opportunities.
- Run beta and pilot programs with early-stage products and samples.
REQUIREMENTS
The basics:
- Minimum of 5 years experience as a Product Manager and/or Software Developer/Technologist.
- Demonstrated success managing complex projects resulting in successful launches.
- Experience building cloud service APIs, especially using Salesforce, Instructure Canvas, and Netsuite APIs.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Bachelor’s degree in a technology-related field or equivalent experience.
- Technical background, with experience in higher education.
- Excellent teamwork skills.
- Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams without formal authority.
What gets us excited:
- Minimum of 3 years experience managing a product management team of 3 or more individual contributors.
- Certifications in one or more of the product management methodologies.
- Experience managing digital products used by 10k+ users in multiple geographies
- Experience managing concurrent, complex projects
- Located in Rwanda or Mauritius or willingness to relocate. A competitive relocation package/support will be provided to the successful candidate.
