Senior Director, Product

The Senior Director, Product will lead and scale QS’s B2B SaaS business by unifying five separate platforms into one powerful value proposition. This role involves defining and executing an integrated product strategy, building a world-class product organization, and driving product roadmap prioritization to serve enterprise customers at scale. It's a strategic leadership position focused on transforming and elevating the product landscape in global higher education.

Must Have

• Define, own and execute an integrated product strategy aligned to growth targets, customer needs, and market opportunities.
• Build and scale a high-performing product organisation of 15+ professionals.
• Drive product roadmap prioritisation grounded in customer insights, market analysis, and business impact.
• Partner closely with Engineering to deliver efficient product development and delivery processes.
• Work cross-functionally with Sales and Marketing to optimise go-to-market strategies and product positioning.
• Own customer discovery and validation processes to ensure product-market fit.
• Establish and monitor key product metrics including adoption, retention, and customer satisfaction.
• Drive product-led growth initiatives and optimise user onboarding and activation.
• Manage product portfolio decisions including sunset strategies and new initiative prioritisation.
• Present product strategy and performance to executive team and board of directors.
• Champion user experience design and ensure products meet accessibility and usability standards.
• Develop pricing strategies and work with Revenue teams on monetisation optimisation.
• P&L responsibility for the B2B SaaS product cluster.

Good to Have

• Experience of, or interest in, international higher education sector.

Perks & Benefits

• Competitive base salary
• Access to an annual bonus scheme (for qualifying roles only)
• 25 days annual leave, plus bank holidays – increasing to 27 days after 5 years’
• Access to a Buy Holiday scheme allowing you to buy up to 5 additional holiday days per year
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave
• Generous pension through Royal London
• Comprehensive private medical insurance and wellness scheme through Vitality
• Cycle to work scheme
• A vibrant social environment and multicultural and multinational culture
• Free subscription to the Calm App
• A focus on welfare led by global wellness team, with mental health first aiders globally
• Access to a variety of diversity and inclusion initiatives and groups
• Strong recognition and reward programs
• Support for volunteering and study leave
• Free subscription to LinkedIn learning
• Options to join global Mentorship programme

Role: Senior Director, Product

Location: UK, London

Job type: Full time, permanent – hybrid

This position offers a hybrid work model, allowing flexibility between working from home and our office. Typically, employees are expected to work 2 days in the office per week.

Why QS?

At QS, we believe that work should empower you. That’s why we foster a flexible working environment that encourages every employee to own their career whilst flourishing personally and professionally. Our company values underpin everything we do – we collaborate, respect and support each other.

It’s our mission to empower motivated people around the world to fulfil their potential through higher education, ensuring that everyone has access to opportunities that change lives.

Our diversity makes us stronger. By sharing our experiences, we learn from one another and achieve more together, driving progress across the sector.

At QS, you’ll be responsible for implementing real change in the international higher education landscape. You’ll take on meaningful challenges that see a positive impact across the business and the wider sector.

We’re confident you’ll feel right at home here. QS was named as one of Newsweek’s Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces® in the UK (October 2023), recognising the respect, trust and appreciation that drive our culture every day. And as a gold-accredited Investors in People organisation – putting us among the top 28% of workplaces globally – it’s official: QS is a place where everyone can thrive.

Background

QS has achieved sustained growth during one of the most challenging periods our industry has ever faced. We’ve accelerated – powered by bold brand investment, a smart acquisition strategy, and a relentless commitment to innovation.

As we enter 2026, we now operate a portfolio of powerful but distinct B2B platforms. The next chapter is about connection: unifying the customer experience, modernising our architecture, and unlocking the full commercial and operational potential of a truly integrated ecosystem.

This is a pivotal moment for QS – a chance to define the product landscape that will shape the future of global higher education. Our current platforms include:

• HolonIQ by QS - A recently launched (September 2025), versatile market intelligence and analytics platform that unites QS proprietary data with more widely available data sources to empower institutions to better understand their performance, map their efforts to the needs of the labour market, explore the best tools to drive innovation and efficiency in their own operations, and where to target which students.
• MyQS - Only a year old, and operating on the same stack as HolonIQ, MyQS aims to serve as a central customer portal, enabling customers to track subscription entitlements and access assets, as well as submitting profile and evaluation data. It also provides a level of freemium insight to institutional customers.
• 1Mentor - 1Mentor serves the purpose of enabling both students, and their career counsellors, at subscribing institutions to assess the skills required to maximise their fit with their dream job and determine the best elective courses, inside their institution and beyond, to chart their most direct course.
• QS Reputation Manager - Universities are increasingly mindful of their reputation and its impact on their ability to survive and thrive. Reputation Manager operates as a mini-CRM, guiding an institution on how to identify and manage critical stakeholders in their reputation and to help govern communication cadence and good practice, as well as managing consent and activating faculty members to contribute to the quest of gaining and sustaining a strong reputation.
• QS Partnership Manager (MoveOn) - A platform built on older technology, MoveOn enables over 250 universities to securely manage their partnerships with other institutions, including but not limited to, research collaborations, joint programmes and student exchange programmes – where the platform integrates with student management systems to process all the necessary paperwork and student transfer data.

We’ve proven each product delivers value. Now we want to bring them together and build a category-defining B2B SaaS suite for universities worldwide.

As a Senior Director (Product) this is what you’ll be doing:

Our Senior Director, Product, will architect, lead and scale the future of QS’s B2B SaaS business. You’ll unify five separate platforms into one powerful value proposition, shape a product vision that directly fuels growth, and build a world-class product organisation capable of serving enterprise customers at scale.

This is not a maintenance role. It’s a build, transform, elevate role – ideal for a strategic product leader who thrives in high-growth environments, knows how to turn complexity into commercial clarity, and wants to shape one of the most important markets in the world: global higher education.

Key responsibilities

• Define, own and execute an integrated product strategy aligned to growth targets, customer needs, and market opportunities
• Build and scale a high-performing product organisation of 15+ professionals
• Drive product roadmap prioritisation grounded in customer insights, market analysis, and business impact
• Partner closely with Engineering to deliver efficient product development and delivery processes
• Work cross-functionally with Sales and Marketing to optimise go-to-market strategies and product positioning
• Own customer discovery and validation processes to ensure product-market fit
• Establish and monitor key product metrics including adoption, retention, and customer satisfaction
• Drive product-led growth initiatives and optimise user onboarding and activation
• Manage product portfolio decisions including sunset strategies and new initiative prioritisation
• Present product strategy and performance to executive team and board of directors
• Champion user experience design and ensure products meet accessibility and usability standards
• Develop pricing strategies and work with Revenue teams on monetisation optimisation
• P&L responsibility for the B2B SaaS product cluster

Requirements

• Extensive experience and expertise in B2B product management, complemented by recent leadership experience driving teams, products, and impact
• Proven track record of leading and building successful multi-location teams, fostering collaboration, innovation, and shared success across geographies
• Proven track record of building and scaling SaaS products serving enterprise customers
• Deep understanding of B2B sales cycles, buyer personas, and enterprise software evaluation processes
• Experience leading product teams through high-growth phases and organisational scaling
• Strong analytical skills with expertise in product analytics, A/B testing, and data-driven decision making
• Technical depth to collaborate effectively with engineering teams on architecture and technical decisions
• Excellent stakeholder management and executive communication skills
• Experience with modern product development frameworks (Agile, Lean, Design Thinking)
• Appropriate degree or appropriate equivalent professional credentials preferred
• Experience of, or interest in, international higher education sector may be helpful

Please note, if you don't meet all the criteria but believe you have the skills and passion to thrive in this role, we encourage you to apply.

So, who are we and what do we do?

QS is the world leader in higher education services, analytics, insights and intelligence. From consultancy to student mobility, academic partnerships to branding solutions, our services power both institutional and individual success.

We’re behind the world’s most widely read university rankings (Meltwater 2023). Our QS World University Rankings® reach hundreds of millions, shaping decisions and guiding futures.

Since launching in 1990, our impact and influence have only grown. Today, we work with more than 2,000 of the world’s leading higher education institutions, over 12,000 employers, and governments seeking change and socioeconomic development through higher education.

Join QS and you’ll join an 800-strong community of problem-solvers, creators, collaborators and change-makers based in 40+ countries and 11 international offices, including Australia, Malaysia, India, Romania, Singapore, France, Germany, the USA and our headquarters in London.

With every talented new hire, business acquisition and bold initiative, we’re strengthening our reach and delivering even greater value to institutions and learners worldwide. Are you ready to shape the future of higher education?

We take investing in our people very seriously.

As standard you will have:

• Competitive base salary
• Access to an annual bonus scheme (for qualifying roles only)
• 25 days annual leave, plus bank holidays – increasing to 27 days after 5 years’
• Access to a Buy Holiday scheme allowing you to buy up to 5 additional holiday days per year
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave
• Generous pension through Royal London
• Comprehensive private medical insurance and wellness scheme through Vitality
• Cycle to work scheme
• A vibrant social environment and multicultural and multinational culture

But that’s not all. Outside of these standard benefits we also offer resources to allow professional growth and wellness initiatives to nurture a healthy mindset:

• Free subscription to the Calm App – the #1 app for sleep, meditation, and relaxation
• A focus on welfare which is led by our global wellness team, with mental health first aiders globally
• Access to a variety of diversity and inclusion initiatives and groups
• Strong recognition and reward programs – including a peer-to-peer recognition platform, quarterly and annual QS Applaud Awards, Connect with your Career annual PD event
• Support for volunteering and study leave
• Free subscription to LinkedIn learning – with over 5000 courses and programmes at your fingertips
• Options to join our outstanding global Mentorship programme

Like what you’ve heard? Great, apply now!

As a candidate, we know the application and interview process can be daunting and so it’s important that you have a great experience with us. Our dedicated Talent Team will work hard to ensure you are fully informed at all stages and you are really excited by this opportunity to do meaningful work in the education space.

Equal opportunities

QS Quacquarelli Symonds is proud to be a fair and equal organisation where everyone has the same opportunity to achieve their full potential, irrespective of their background or personal attributes. We celebrate our diversity and believe through sharing our experiences we can learn from one another, be stronger together, and enable our business to thrive.

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