Director of Platform Experience

JOB SUMMARY

At Summit K12 , we believe that every student can do well in school if instruction is tailored to their unique learning needs and they receive the encouragement to strive and achieve. Our learning programs provide teachers with the ability to differentiate instruction, monitor progress, and support learners in their journey toward success.

From English learners, multilingual students, bilingual students and dual language learners who are struggling to read or write, Summit K12’s online, standards-based supplemental curriculum will close gaps and ensure growth for all students.

The Director of Platform Experience is the strategic leader responsible for shaping the holistic user experience across all Summit K12 digital products and ensuring a consistent, intuitive, and scalable platform ecosystem. This role integrates product strategy, user experience design, platform governance, and cross-product alignment to deliver a seamless experience for students, teachers, administrators, and district partners.

The Director oversees the platform owner and the UI/UX Manager, bringing together system-level product architecture and user-centered design leadership in one unified function. This role ensures that the platform’s capabilities, interaction patterns, design systems, data workflows, and cross-product features are cohesive, extensible, and built for long-term innovation.

This is a highly strategic, hands-on role that partners with Product Management, Engineering, Curriculum, and Customer-facing teams to create a platform that is powerful, future-ready, accessible, and delightful to use.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Platform Vision & Strategy

• Develop and maintain the long-term platform vision and experience strategy that supports all products (ELD, Literacy, Science, Assessments, PLPs, Reporting).

• Define platform-level roadmap priorities in partnership with the Platform Product Owner and SVP of Product Development.

• Identify and prioritize platform-wide opportunities for scalability, efficiency, and innovation.

• Drive alignment between product-specific roadmaps and platform-level capabilities.

2. Unified User Experience Leadership (UI/UX)

• Lead the UI/UX Manager and design team in developing and maintaining design systems, interaction models, and accessibility standards.

• Ensure UI consistency across all products through governance, templates, component libraries, and UX guidelines.

• Oversee user research activities, usability testing, and data-driven insights to inform platform-level improvements.

• Ensure that UX research informs Product, Curriculum, Engineering, and Customer Success decisions.

3. Platform Product Ownership Oversight

• Manage and mentor the Platform Product Owner (Principal PM) who owns PLPs, dashboards, integrations, user management, reporting systems, and shared services.

• Ensure the platform product strategy aligns with engineering architecture and organizational goals.

• Support the PPO in requirements definition, prioritization, discovery, and cross-team alignment.

• Ensure coordination across PMs so platform-level changes are adopted consistently.

4. Cross-Functional Leadership

• Work closely with Product Directors and PMs to ensure platform capabilities support product-level needs without customization drift.

• Partner with Engineering leadership to align platform experience with technical architecture, scalability, data flows, and integration frameworks.

• Collaborate with Curriculum & Instruction to ensure instructional workflows in the platform support teacher and student needs.

• Partner with Customer Success, Sales, and Implementation to incorporate field insights into platform improvement plans.

5. Platform Governance & Quality

• Establish and enforce platform-wide standards for UI, UX, accessibility, navigation patterns, and cross-product workflows.

• Maintain a unified design system and component library in collaboration with UI/UX Manager.

• Introduce and maintain governance processes to prevent fragmentation and ensure platform integrity.

• Lead platform-wide release readiness reviews focusing on user experience, consistency, and accessibility compliance.

6. Innovative Experience Development

• Drive forward-thinking initiatives including personalization, AI-enhanced user experiences, analytics dashboards, and adaptive learning pathways.

• Partner with engineering and data teams on innovative platform capabilities and emerging technologies.

• Identify opportunities for automation, intelligent guidance, and simplification of teacher and student workflows.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Required Experience

• 7+ years experience in Product, UX, or Platform leadership within SaaS or edtech organizations.

• Proven success in owning or contributing to platform-level strategy and cross-product experience alignment.

• Strong background in UX principles, design systems, and user-centered design practices.

• Experience collaborating closely with Engineering teams on platform features and architecture.

• Demonstrated leadership managing multi-disciplinary teams including UX and Product roles.

Preferred Experience

• Experience with K–12 edtech platforms, assessment systems, or adaptive learning products.

• Familiarity with data systems, analytics dashboards, user permissions, integrations, or LMS-style architectures.

• Experience defining or maintaining design systems at scale.

• Exposure to accessibility (WCAG) and mobile-responsive design.

Skills & Atributes

• Strong systems thinking and ability to see interdependencies across multiple product lines.

• Deep user empathy, with strong research instincts and design sensibility.

• Excellent communication and facilitation skills.

• Ability to balance strategic vision with hands-on operational leadership.

• Collaborative, cross-functional mindset that drives alignment without authority.

• Passion for creating delightful, intuitive user experiences that improve teaching and learning.

SUCCESS INDICATORS:

• A unified, intuitive platform experience used consistently across all products.

• Strong adoption and satisfaction of platform capabilities by teachers, students, and districts.

• Product teams report clearer alignment and faster delivery due to shared systems and patterns.

• Reduced UX fragmentation, variance, and technical rework.

• Positive usability metrics and improved customer retention linked to platform improvements.

• Effective collaboration and coordination between Product, UX, Engineering, and Curriculum.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS:

We offer a comprehensive benefits package. Highlights include:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance with multiple plan options
• Company-paid short-term disability, long-term disability, and life insurance
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Paid Time Off (PTO) program
• 10 paid holidays plus 1 floating holiday annually
• Wellness resources and support programs

Summit K12 is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.