Product Lead, Explore

About the role

You will own the end-to-end strategy and execution for Stellic's Explore product, defining what it becomes in the market and how it delivers unique value. You will translate the raw potential of a blank canvas into a coherent product vision that anticipates user needs before they are explicitly stated. This role requires you to build conviction in the solution direction when the path ahead is not yet clear, balancing qualitative insights with decisive action. You will be the primary steward of the Explore experience, ensuring every decision aligns with both university partner needs and student journey integrity. You will foster deep collaboration with engineering and stakeholders to ensure technical feasibility shapes, but does not limit, ambitious product ideas. Your work will directly influence how millions of prospective and transfer students perceive and navigate their educational pathways. You will measure success not just by feature adoption, but by the clarity, confidence, and purpose you help instill in the users' education journey.

Key facts

What you'll do

Define the core value proposition and long-term vision for the Explore product, ensuring it remains aligned with Stellic's mission of transforming student success.

Lead end-to-end product discovery for Explore, synthesizing qualitative feedback from university partners and prospective students into actionable product hypotheses.

Architect the roadmap for Explore from a greenfield state, prioritizing initiatives that deliver the highest leverage across diverse university workflows.

Partner directly with university stakeholders to map transfer processes, identify friction points, and translate complex articulation rules into intuitive product flows.

Collaborate daily with engineering teams across the US and Pakistan, translating product requirements into technical specifications and trade-off analyses.

Establish patterns and reusable components for transfer rules and admissions workflows to minimize custom development and maximize scalability.

Conduct rigorous user testing and prototype validation to de-risk new concepts before significant engineering investment is made.

Own key metrics for Explore, setting measurable success criteria and iterating based on performance data and stakeholder feedback.

Represent Explore in cross-functional discussions, balancing the needs of prospective students, universities, and internal leadership with clarity and conviction.

Champion a culture of experimentation within the Explore team, encouraging rapid learning cycles and data-informed pivots when hypotheses do not hold.

Build and mentor junior product team members, elevating the entire team's ability to execute at a high standard in a fast-paced environment.

Ensure all product decisions respect data privacy, institutional compliance requirements, and the diverse regulatory landscapes of the 7 countries of operation.

Maintain a relentless focus on the user journey, ensuring that complex backend logic for transfer rules results in a simple, empowering frontend experience.

Balance short-term wins with long-term platform integrity, making architectural choices today that keep future options open for Explore.

Synthesize insights from disparate sources into a single, coherent narrative that guides the product strategy for Explore on a quarterly and annual basis.

Requirements

You must possess a Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience that demonstrates your problem-solving capabilities in a professional setting.

You bring a minimum of 6 years of progressive product management experience, with demonstrable growth in scope, ownership, and impact over time.

You have true 0-to-1 product experience, having defined a problem from scratch, built conviction around a solution, and successfully shipped a real product into the market.

You are deeply comfortable operating within ambiguity, able to start exploration and hypothesis formation without waiting for a fully specified requirement.

You have a proven track record of strong partner management, excelling in discovery conversations and translating qualitative feedback into clear product decisions.

You possess strong technical fluency, capable of engaging in architecture discussions and understanding how technical constraints influence product timelines and possibilities.

You have an ownership mindset where you treat every challenge as your problem, proactively seeking solutions without needing to be directed at every turn.

You communicate with precision and empathy, able to make complex, fuzzy problems feel structured and understandable to diverse stakeholders.

You are willing to travel occasionally for user research and partner meetings, including potential international travel to support key university partners.

You are authorized to work in the country of this position without sponsorship, ensuring immediate contribution to the team.

You thrive in a fast-paced, high-growth environment where priorities can shift quickly and adaptability is essential.

You demonstrate resilience and composure under pressure, maintaining a solutions-oriented mindset even when facing conflicting constraints.

You are comfortable making high-stakes decisions with incomplete information, relying on judgment and patterns built from prior experience.

You have a history of building cross-functional influence without direct authority, aligning engineering, design, and stakeholders around a shared vision.

Nice to have

Prior experience in higher education, student services, or enrollment management is highly valued for context.

Experience with transfer pathways, articulation agreements, or curriculum mapping is a significant advantage.

Familiarity with data analytics platforms and the ability to derive insights from complex datasets.

Background in mission-driven organizations or social impact sectors that align with Stellic's investor base.

Practical notes

This role requires in-office work in San Mateo, California, for 2-3 days per week to support our hybrid work culture.

Travel may be required occasionally for user research, partner visits, and industry events.

Candidates must be authorized to work in the country of this position without the need for sponsorship.

The role is full-time and aligned with Stellic's commitment to equal opportunity employment.