Associate Product Manager

The role

Newsela is looking for a passionate and detail-oriented Associate Product Manager (APM) to join our User Management team. This is a career-defining opportunity to work on the very foundation of the Newsela experience—the systems that define who our users are, how they get into our product, and how their data connects across our ecosystem.

You will join a team with a deep commitment to mentorship and growth, reporting directly to a Principal Product Manager who will provide coaching and guidance. Your work will be a unique blend of user-experience (optimizing sign-up flows), technical product management (managing integrations and identity systems), and data strategy. The systems you manage are the bedrock of our organization's data.

Why you’ll love this role

• Optimize User Onboarding: Own and continuously improve the user sign-up and account setup flows. Your success will be measured by improving sign-up conversion rates and reducing friction during school and district onboarding (minimizing support requests, rage clicks, and funnel drop-offs).

• Ensure Data Integrity: Collaborate with our data team members to ensure that our user systems produce clean, accessible, and reliable data that powers analytics and decision-making.

• Build Foundational Systems: Partner closely with a dedicated engineering team in an agile environment to define requirements and prioritize the backlog for our core user identity, access, and management systems.

• Empower Internal Teams: Become the product owner for back-office tooling used by our Customer Support and Integrations teams, discovering their pain points and building solutions to make them more efficient and effective.

• Execute with Precision: Translate product strategy into detailed user stories and requirements, and work hands-on with your engineering team to see them through to launch.

Why you’re a great fit

• 1+ years of experience in product management or a related role such as business analyst, product operations, project management, or software engineering.

• A strong desire to work on technical products; you're excited by the prospect of understanding system architecture, APIs, and complex data flows.

• Excellent problem-solving skills and a highly analytical mindset. You know how to break down a complex problem into manageable parts.

• User Empathy: You can put yourself in the shoes of different users—from a first-time teacher signing up to an internal support agent solving a problem.

• Strong Communication & Collaboration Skills: You can clearly articulate a vision and work effectively with engineers, designers, and stakeholders to achieve it.

• A bias for action and a passion for learning and growing in the product management field.

• Bonus points for:
  • Experience with identity and authentication systems (e.g., SSO, OAuth, Rostering)

  • Familiarity with API-driven products or software integrations

  • Previous experience in the EdTech industry

Base Compensation: $80,000 - $90,000. Total compensation for this role also includes incentive stock options and benefits. This compensation range may be adjusted based on actual experience.