Product Manager

School scheduling is a hard problem, one that technology was meant to solve. Yet for decades, the master schedule has been built by hand, consuming educators’ valuable time while delivering a sub-optimal result for students. We started Timely to build the tool we wish we had when we were in schools. And today, we are changing how schools create high quality schedules for teachers and students. Timely combines groundbreaking AI technology with support from a team of expert school schedulers: saving schedulers’ time, and surfacing opportunities for leaders to unlock staff potential. Timely delivers optimized master schedules that are more efficient, accommodate diverse educator needs, and enable student access to courses and pathways that impact their lives.

Our district and school partners agree: scheduling is a key opportunity for educational innovation, and that Timely is the indispensable partner in addressing the challenge. We’re experiencing exciting growth as a company, while doubling down on our mission and people-centered approach to leveraging powerful technology. We serve districts and charter school organizations across 15+ states, growing (and renewing) at rates that lead the education technology industry. This growth has been driven by our strong product-market fit, deep understanding of education, and commitment to customer success.

About our Product

At Timely, our product does the impossible: it makes the job of a school scheduler measurably easier, while also delivering better quality in the results. We deliver optimized master schedules that are more efficient, accommodate diverse educator needs, and enable student access to courses and pathways that impact their lives. We address the needs of school-based employees who toil away building schedules and central office employees who need visibility into them.

We differentiate our product in the market through a combination of groundbreaking optimization technology plus an intuitive workflow experience, guiding users through options, implications, and solutions – supported by an experienced Success team.

About the Role

This role is for an experienced product manager who is able to operate in ambiguous settings and consider both the design and business implications of their work. As part of a founding team for a new initiative at Timely, you will work closely and cross-functionally with Engineering and Success teams to uncover customer challenges, develop and test solutions, and drive impactful product decisions in new areas.

This role will balance customer needs with business strategy - identifying the right problems to solve, deciding which solutions to build, and making sure the entire organization understands not just what we’re building, but why. You’ll ensure product decisions are clear, priorities are well-communicated, and our roadmap reflects both user impact and company goals.

Responsibilities

• Lead early product discovery in a new area to identify and prioritize customer problems, in collaboration with Engineering stakeholders for technical discovery.

• Lead ideation and design exercises to generate potential solutions and approaches to solving customer problems, leveraging the Success team and other stakeholders.

• Write product stories that include the “why,” “what,” and “when,” while working closely with Engineering to define the “how”.

• Collaborate with Engineering stakeholders to build initial prototypes and MVPs.

• Establish goal- and metric-setting processes with Engineering, to motivate and measure the work.

• Engage with potential customers to ideate and gather feedback on product and prototypes.

• Foster a culture of delivering value by setting and adjusting milestones, maintaining high standards, and keeping the team focused on impact.

• Communicate product decisions with clarity and enthusiasm, ensuring internal and external stakeholders understand priorities, and the reasoning behind them.

About You

• Mindset: You are a self-starter who is comfortable working in ambiguity and passionate about creating opportunities in education. You are excited by complex problems and imaginative solutions, particularly those that leverage AI. You take on new challenges eagerly and are driven to see ideas through to completion. You take ownership, communicate progress effectively, and adapt quickly in a fast-paced startup environment.

• Experience: 4+ years in B2B SaaS product organizations, with at least 2 years as a Product Manager. Experience building complex products that leverage AI.

• Skills: Strong in customer discovery, data analysis, and user-centric story writing. Experience with agile tools (e.g., Jira, Notion, Miro, etc.).

• Strengths: Collaborative by default, detail-oriented problem solver, and a visual communicator (e.g., mockups, sketches, diagrams, journey maps, etc).

• Nice-to-have (not required): Background in EdTech and/or education sector; experience in product development - e.g., front-end development, UX design; experience taking a product from 0 to 1 either within a company or as a new startup.

Why Join Us

• Work with an exceptional team tackling meaningful challenges in education.

• Be part of a growing, financially healthy company with a proven product.

• Enjoy comprehensive benefits, including health insurance, parental leave, 401(k), unlimited PTO, access to coworking, and equity in a fast-growing startup.