The Director, Product Solutions leads a national team of discipline specific experts who support the most strategic, high value new business opportunities across Cengage. This leader is responsible for developing, scaling, and optimizing the Product Consulting function to improve win rates, increase digital adoption, and support attainment of discipline level sales targets.
Operating as a key member of the Sales Leadership Team, the Director, Product Solutions sets national strategy for how and when Product Consultants engage on the largest opportunities, ensures excellence in technical and discipline expertise, and drives alignment across Sales, Customer Success, Product, Technology, and Marketing. This role requires a visionary leader who can balance forward-looking planning with hands-on operational leadership, all while developing a high performing team of senior specialists on operational leadership.
What you9ll do here:1. Leadership & Team Development
- Lead, mentor, and develop a group of approximately 10 Product Consultants representing various academic fields, nationally.
- Build a strong culture centered on expertise, excellence in presentation, and consultative selling impact.
- Establish performance expectations and coaching frameworks to elevate both individual and collective capabilities.
- Recruit, onboard, and retain top talent, with a focus on deep disciplinary knowledge and strong customer facing skills.
2. Strategic Alignment & Coverage Model- Develop and implement the national strategy for how Product Consultants are deployed into the field to improve new business performance.
- Partner closely with the VP Solution Sales, Solutions Leaders, and Sales leadership to align on coverage, prioritization, and discipline level revenue goals.
- Ensure Product Consultants meaningfully contribute to pipeline growth and strategic opportunities.
3. Revenue Impact & Opportunity Support- Be responsible for the team9s involvement in high stakes national opportunities, competitive takeaways, and sophisticated multi partner deals.
- Guide the team in delivering discovery, solution consulting, demonstrations, and presentations.
- Analyze opportunity trends and pipeline data to ensure the team is deployed where they have the greatest revenue impact.
4.Cross Functional Collaboration & Internal Influence- Partner across Sales, Product, Technology, CX, and Marketing to ensure alignment on customer needs and product strategy.
- Partner with Product to ensure customer insights and discipline specific needs inform roadmap decisions.
- Collaborate with Marketing to shape discipline specific messaging, events, and advocacy programs.
- Ensure internal teams have clear access to customer insights, competitive dynamics, and instructional shifts.
5. Operational Excellence & Enablement- Build repeatable frameworks, guideline playbooks, demo standards, and sales processes that elevate the entire Solutions Sales organization.
- Drive consistency and quality in how Product Consultants show up for field teams and customers.
- Monitor performance data, customer feedback, and sales outcomes to continuously optimize deployment and effectiveness.
- Manage budgets, prioritisation, and national travel planning for maximum return on investment.
6. External Engagement & Thought Leadership- Ensure the team represents Cengage at national conferences, academic events, webinars, and largescale presentations.
- Strengthen Cengage9s credibility and influence by cultivating a network of discipline specific faculty advocates across the country.
Skills you will need here:(Required)
- 8 612+ years of experience in education, EdTech, product consulting, sales leadership, academic technology, or related fields.
- Proven experience leading high performing customer facing teams, ideally in a matrixed and national environment.
- Demonstrated success in roles tied to sales performance, revenue outcomes, or consultative selling motions.
- Strong coaching, leadership, and talent development capabilities with a track record of mentoring senior level specialists.
- Deep understanding of higher education, academic disciplines, instructional trends, or digital learning solutions.
- Outstanding communication and presentation skills; comfortable influencing senior academic and executive collaborators.
- Strong digital competency and the ability to guide teams in demonstrating complex platforms and technology solutions.
- Ability to travel nationally (up to 30%).
Preferred- Direct experience managing presales, product consulting, or technical consulting teams.
- Teaching experience or advanced discipline knowledge within higher education.
- Experience partnering with Product and Technology teams to drive roadmap discussion and solution enhancements.
- Familiarity with Salesforce and data driven sales operations.
Compensation
At Cengage Group, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees. to learn more about our Total Rewards Philosophy.
The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location. Sales roles often incorporate a significant incentive compensation program beyond this base pay range.
$117,100.00 - $152,200.00 USD
