Fast Facts

Join Macmillan Learning as a Strategic Growth and Innovation Manager to drive transformative strategies and market discovery in the educational sector, focusing on K-12 opportunities.

Responsibilities: Lead growth and innovation initiatives, conduct market discovery, develop business models, and manage cross-functional collaborations to validate and launch educational solutions.

Skills: Strong background in educational technology, strategic analysis, collaboration, and innovative problem-solving.

Qualifications: Bachelor's Degree and 4+ years in K-12 education or related fields; entrepreneurial mindset and experience in driving initiatives from concept to pilot preferred.

Location: Remote work eligible within the USA, excluding specific states like Alaska, Arkansas, and others.

Compensation: $90000 - $95000 / Annually

At Macmillan Learning, we're committed to driving innovation that transforms education. We seek team members who thrive on pushing boundaries, envisioning future possibilities, and building solutions that make a lasting impact. Whether you're a Pioneer shaping bold new ideas, a Builder turning possibilities into reality, or a Stabilizer optimizing for success, you'll play a vital role in advancing our mission. If you're excited by the prospect of testing new technologies, implementing transformative strategies, and thriving in a fast-paced, innovative environment, we’d love to hear from you!

The Strategic Growth and Innovation Manager (School) drives the discovery and incubation of new opportunities that expand BFW’s impact across the broader school market, including high school and emerging K–8 opportunities. This role blends entrepreneurial curiosity with strategic analysis to identify unmet educator and learner needs, test new ideas, and translate market signals into viable pathways for growth. The Manager leads early-stage initiatives from insight to pilot, establishing a repeatable process for validating new concepts and building the evidence needed for future investment or scale. Focused on the Who and the Why, the Manager drives market discovery and builds the business cases that guide investment decisions. The Manager collaborates with the Content team to test and refine early concepts, ensuring that new market insights (Who/Why) are translated into feasible, high-impact prototypes and content experiences (What/How). Working closely with cross-functional partners in Product, Marketing, UX Research and Sales, the Strategic Growth and Innovation Manager helps BFW shape what’s next in the school space—grounded in educator feedback, informed by data, and guided by a spirit of experimentation and strategic focus.

We know that talented candidates sometimes hesitate to apply when they don't meet every single qualification listed. We encourage you to apply if you're excited about this role and believe you can contribute meaningfully to our team, even if your background doesn't align perfectly with every requirement. We're looking for people who are passionate about our mission and can bring valuable perspectives to our work. Different experiences, skills, and approaches all have the potential to strengthen what we do. If this opportunity interests you, we'd love to hear how your unique background and abilities could contribute to our team's success. We're committed to building a workplace where everyone can do their best work and where diverse viewpoints are valued. We encourage all qualified candidates to apply - we're excited to learn about the different ways you might add value to our organization.

Major responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Growth Strategy & Market Discovery

• Serve as the leader of growth and innovation, bringing people together across functions to drive clarity, momentum, and shared ownership of strategic growth priorities.
• Work cross-functionally with key partners, including UXR, Product Marketing, New Markets, Business Development, and the High School Teaching & Learning Strategist, to integrate market insights, educator perspectives, and commercial opportunities into discovery and strategy.
• Conduct early stage market discovery and strategy development by analyzing customer needs, competitive dynamics, and emerging instructional or policy trends to identify and prioritize new opportunities across high school and K-8.
• Serve as a voice of the market, articulating where school education is heading and how BFW will meet that future through innovative, evidence-based solutions.

Talent Pipeline & External Partnerships

• Identify, recruit, and cultivate relationships with innovators, educators, and thought leaders who will help shape new offerings.
• Build a pipeline of collaborators (e.g., authors, classroom innovators, external partners) who can contribute to concept design, pilot testing, and program growth.
• Hire and manage SMEs to support prototype development for early validation of new concepts. 

Innovation & Digital/AI Acceleration

• Lead innovation efforts focused on digital-first, pedagogy-centered, and AI-informed approaches that accelerate growth in the school market.
• Manage the innovation bridge with the strategy team, ensuring alignment between early experimentation and long-term strategic direction.
• Partner with Product, Marketing, and Teaching & Learning colleagues to co-create and validate new solutions that address defined classroom needs.
• Ensure innovation efforts deliver focused, school-specific solutions rather than adaptations of models from other markets."

Program & Business Model Development

• Take ownership of end-to-end initiative success: from concept through pilot, launch, measurement, and iteration.
• Ensure speed to market by building data-informed business cases and accelerating decision-making with the Program Director and Strategy team.
• Define and track success metrics, financial measures, and retention drivers to guide business strategy and ensure commercial impact.
• Balance creative innovation with disciplined execution, enabling smart investment decisions and measurable outcomes.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree.
• 4+ years in educational technology, K–12 education, or related innovation roles.
• Proven ability to identify, validate, and scale new business or product opportunities.
• Experience driving initiatives from concept to pilot, using data to guide decisions.
• Strong collaborator skilled at translating educator and learner insight into strategy.
• Clear, persuasive communicator with a bias toward action and measurable results.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Entrepreneurial mindset with a record of creative problem-solving and experimentation.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and balancing innovation with business discipline.
• Motivated by learning, iteration, and meaningful impact.
• Collaborative, authentic leader who builds trust across teams.
• Deep understanding of K–12 dynamics and educator needs.

Salary Range: $90,000 - $95,000

Exemption Status: Exempt

Physical Requirements:

Requires periods of close concentration; must be able to multi-task; must be able to travel occasionally; work overtime - more than 40 hours a week – regularly, as needed.

The position is eligible for remote employment, excluding the following locations: Alaska, Arkansas, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming.  

Benefits

Regular full-time and qualifying part-time employees and their dependents are eligible for Macmillan benefits, effective on the employee’s date of hire. Macmillan also offers health benefits coverage to qualifying same-sex and opposite-sex domestic partners (may require additional documentation) of active employees.

• Competitive pay and bonus plan
• Generous Health Benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision)
• Contributions to your 401k retirement account through Fidelity 
• Generous paid time off, sick time, floating holidays, and paid holidays (Spring Reset Day , Juneteenth, Indigenous People's Day, Election Day, and more!)
• Employee Assistance Program, Education Assistance Program
• 100% employer-paid life and AD&D insurance
• And much more!

Macmillan Learning is a privately-held, family owned company that improves lives through learning. By linking research to learning practice, we develop pioneering products and learning materials for students that are highly effective and drive improved outcomes. Our engaging content is developed in partnership with the world's best researchers, educators, administrators, and developers. To learn more, please visit macmillanlearning.com or see us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or join our Macmillan Community. Macmillan Learning is a division of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, a family-owned global media company headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany.  

At Macmillan Learning, we believe diverse perspectives and backgrounds enrich our mission to improve lives through learning. We actively seek candidates who reflect a wide range of identities, experiences, and communities. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, ethnicity, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, disability status, physical ability, neurodiversity, genetic information, protected veteran status, family and economic status and background, geographical status and background, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. You can read more about our Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion initiatives here.

The successful candidate for this position will be an employee of Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishing Group, LLC d/b/a Macmillan Learning. Bedford Freeman & Worth Publishing Group, LLC has developed an affirmative action program in compliance with the NY Department of Education’s guidance. Portions of the affirmative action program are available for review by applicants and employees by contacting Human Resources at Macmillan Learning.