Senior Product Manager Save

ABOUT BASTA

Basta helps first-generation students turn college degrees into strong careers by transforming how they enter and advance in the workforce. Basta's flagship platform, Seekr, is powered by millions of data points from more than 70,000 first-generation career journeys and combines precision matching, personalized guidance, and structured pathways to help students secure strong first jobs. With a presence on 300+ campuses, Basta helps institutions scale career support and connects employers with high-performing talent that traditional hiring systems often overlook. Basta advances economic mobility for first-generation students nationwide.

THE OPPORTUNITY

We just launched a new version of Seekr, grew our user base 10X in the last 12 months, and are now sharply focused on the outcome that matters most: students getting hired into good-fit jobs. The infrastructure is there. The momentum is real. We’re looking for a Senior Product Manager to help us build what comes next.

You've shaped a product at the 0-to-1 stage, and you know what it's like to operate in a fast-moving yet resource-constrained environment where decisions are real, the stakes are high, and you don’t always have the complete information. You're energized by open-ended problem spaces and comfortable sitting in the ambiguity of "what should we build next?" — running discovery, weighing tradeoffs, and forming a data-backed POV about what's worth pursuing now versus later. You move fluidly between strategy conversations with leadership, PRD writing for engineering, user research synthesis, and unblocking the team — often all in the same day. You're energized by that range, not worn down by it.

You understand both sides of a B2B2C model. You’ve thought about what makes an institutional partner buy and renew, and what keeps an end user engaged, and you hold both with a clear eye on impact and ROI. Universities and employers are becoming the primary revenue growth channel, and the product needs to evolve to serve that. The Senior PM will play a central role in shaping that evolution.

Basta is a tech-enabled nonprofit. Part of this role's scope is program enablement — building tools and workflows that make our coaches and program staff more effective, alongside the student-facing features that drive outcomes. Many of your closest collaborators come from program and coaching backgrounds, not tech, so part of the work is making product thinking and decisions legible to them. The right person sees all of this as worthy of strong product thinking.

Location:  Remote eligible, NYC preferred. The ability to travel to NYC 4-6 times/year, required. We currently support employment in NY, NJ, MA, CT, PA, and FL — and are open to other states on a case-by-case basis. We’re unable to sponsor employment visas at this time. Basta does not cover the cost of relocation.

ABOUT THE SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER

This is a senior individual contributor role reporting to the Chief Product and Technology Officer. You’ll own the product roadmap for Seekr, working closely with the eTeam and a Product Strategist to set priorities and drive execution. The EPD (Engineering, Product, Data) team is nimble and growing — currently a mix of full-time staff, agency partners, and independent contractors, including software engineers, QA engineers, a product designer, and data partners. You’ll help shape how this team operates as it scales.

Here’s what your work will center on:

Own the roadmap and drive outcomes

• Lead the product roadmap for Seekr — translating organizational priorities, partner needs, and user insights into a clear, sequenced plan with measurable outcomes.
• Partner with EPD leadership to set quarterly and annual OKRs for the product, keeping the team focused on what matters most and connecting daily work to organizational goals.
• Own product analytics end-to-end: define the metrics that matter, partner with engineering on instrumentation, inspect usage data regularly, and translate what you see into product decisions and stakeholder narratives.
• Make good decisions quickly with imperfect information. Know when to move and when to pause — and communicate that reasoning clearly to stakeholders at every level.
• Serve as a credible external voice for Seekr when called on — giving product demos to funders, presenting at conferences, and communicating how Basta is using technology to advance the mission.

Build for both sides of the model

• Own the partner product strategy — define what Seekr needs to do to make employers and universities successful, shape how the product supports the sales and renewal motion, and bring a clear point of view on packaging, differentiation, and where Basta can win in the market.
• Build a product that serves students — meeting them where they are in the job search process and accelerating their path to a good-fit job offer.
• Build tools and workflows that make Basta’s coaches and program staff more effective. Program enablement is a core part of this role, not a secondary one.
• Conduct ongoing market and competitive research to identify where Seekr can differentiate in the career navigation, EdTech, and workforce readiness space.
• Identify and evaluate AI-powered features that could meaningfully improve the student or partner experience, and help the team build them thoughtfully.

Ship and build the foundation for shipping better

• Own the full product development cycle — from discovery and prioritization through delivery and iteration — with a bias toward learning fast and adjusting quickly.
• Help shift the org toward more repeatable, scalable product development: build the processes, documentation, and cross-functional habits that make the next thing easier to build than the last.
• Operate with breadth — moving fluidly between strategy, PRD writing, research synthesis, and stakeholder communication. This role requires range; the work rarely sits in one mode for long.

WHAT YOU BRING

We care about what you can actually do. Here’s what this role genuinely requires:

• 5+ years of product management experience, with time spent in 0-to-1 product discovery at a B2B2C company. You're energized by open-ended problem spaces and can build a data-backed case for which opportunities are worth pursuing now versus later. Familiarity with digital learning and modern gamification is a plus.
• A track record of building processes from scratch while still shipping. You’re equally comfortable presenting product strategy to a CEO and writing the PRDs that get features built.
• Strong understanding of B2B2C dynamics: how institutional partners make purchasing decisions, what drives renewal, and how end-user engagement connects to partner value.
• Analytics fluency: you’ve defined product metrics, scoped instrumentation with engineers, and used usage data to drive decisions. You dig into dashboards yourself rather than waiting for someone else to surface what’s happening.
• The ability to manage up effectively in a lean, founder-led org. You communicate with clarity, adapt your style to your audience, and keep decision-makers informed without overwhelming them.
• Technical fluency: you can understand and describe the technical underpinnings of the products you own, work credibly with engineers, and write clear, useful requirements.
• Strong product and design sense: you translate user empathy into intuitive, engaging experiences and know how to bridge the online and offline world.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams without direct authority — engineers, designers, program staff, operations — and earning their trust in the process.
• Comfort working with non-technical collaborators. Many of your closest partners at Basta come from program, coaching, and operations backgrounds. You can explain product tradeoffs in plain language, demystify the development process, and build shared understanding in an accessible way.
• A genuine connection to the mission of supporting first-generation students. This isn’t a nice-to-have — it shapes how you make decisions and what you care about in the work.
• Background in EdTech, talent networks, workforce development, or social impact is a strong plus.
• Experience building or shipping AI-powered features is a bonus — we’re building in that direction and want someone who thinks critically about where AI adds real value.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE:

In year one, success means the product is moving with more clarity, the team is shipping with more confidence, and Basta’s partners and students can feel the difference.

• You have a clear, defensible point of view on where Seekr needs to go over the next 1-3 years to support Basta's growth model, and the eTeam trusts it.
• The roadmap is clear, communicated, and trusted — stakeholders across the org understand what’s being built, why it’s prioritized, and how it connects to outcomes.
• Students are engaging with the platform in ways that lead to job offers — adoption is up, the data tells a story about what’s working, and the team is using that story to make better decisions.
• Institutional partners are seeing ROI — the product is contributing meaningfully to renewal conversations and new partner growth.
• Program staff and coaches have better tools — the enablement side of the product is getting as much attention and care as the student-facing side.
• The team has better foundations for building — clearer processes, stronger documentation, and cross-functional habits that make each sprint more effective than the last.
• Product metrics are defined, instrumented, and being used — decisions are grounded in data, not just intuition.
• You’ve established yourself as a trusted thought partner to the eTeam and CPTO — someone whose judgment is sought out, not just reported to.

THE TANGIBLE GOOD 

Basta is a remote-first hybrid organization based in NYC. We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package including medical, dental, vision, short- and long-term disability, life insurance, retirement matching, and paid parental leave. 

Time off: 19* paid holidays (including a full end-of-year shutdown and a floating holiday), 15 vacation days (20 after year one), and summer Friday half-days from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Basta also offers a sabbatical after 7 years of service – reflecting how seriously we take long-term investment in our people. 

We currently support employment in NY, NJ, MA, CT, PA, and FL — and are open to other states on a case-by-case basis. We’re unable to sponsor employment visas at this time. Basta does not cover the cost of relocation.