Senior Director of Innovation and Growth Strategy

Capstone has added an exciting new role of Senior Director of Innovation and Growth Strategy. This position leads strategic initiatives to identify new growth opportunities for Capstone’s content business. This role explores adjacent markets, develops innovative product concepts, assesses acquisition opportunities, and creates strategies to extend existing or new content into new formats and channels. The ideal candidate combines sharp strategic thinking, market research expertise, and a deep understanding of content potential to drive the future growth of our organization.

Our preference is for this role to be hybrid, based out of our Edina, MN location. However, fully remote work may also be considered for the right candidate.

Why You’ll Want To Join Capstone

Have you ever read something that increased your understanding of the world around you? An article, a book, a research paper, a piece of local legislation, even a poem or short story?

Capstone is a mission-driven community of passionate, creative people like you who believe in the power of literacy. Our mission is to make reading fun for kids, so that they never experience literacy as the barrier that prevents them from understanding and engaging with the world around them.

For more than 30 years, Capstone has led the way in K–5 educational publishing, creating award-winning books and digital learning experiences (PebbleGo). The information landscape has changed dramatically since we first started out in 1991, and competition for kids’ attention is at an all-time high. This changing landscape inspires our continued growth and innovation – today’s kids need trusted sources of content more than ever, but their standards for what’s considered engaging have never been higher! At Capstone, we’re excited by that challenge – are you?

Your Responsibilities:

• Market & Opportunity Research: Continuously monitor trends in educational content and technology products and adjacent industries to identify potential growth opportunities. Cultivate relationships both internally and externally in order to gain insight and opportunities.
• Innovation Strategy: Develop and drive a product innovation roadmap, including new product concepts, partnerships, and revenue-generating opportunities.
• Product Concept Development: Collaborate with content, product, design, and engineering teams to conceptualize, test, and launch new offerings in current and adjacent markets, including go-to-market strategies and handoffs to development.
• Idea Evaluation System: Build and implement a structured system for evaluating potential ideas, distinguishing high-potential initiatives from those unlikely to succeed.
• Financial Collaboration: Work closely with the FP&A team to model financial impact, assess feasibility, and prioritize initiatives based on strategic and financial merit. Manage department budget.
• Acquisition & Partnership Analysis: Evaluate potential acquisitions, partnerships, or licensing opportunities that align with strategic growth goals.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with marketing, sales, analytics, and finance teams to validate ideas, assess market potential, and ensure alignment with company objectives.
• Thought Leadership: Serve as a subject matter expert on content and product innovation and market expansion, presenting findings and recommendations to the executive team, the Board, and others as needed.
• Performance Tracking: Define metrics to assess the impact of new initiatives and guide decision-making.
• Team Lead: To begin, this role is an individual contributor. However, this role may define and build a team of product development and go-to-market colleagues; will collaborate with partners both internally and externally; and may lead indirectly or directly.
• Culture Builder: Champion a culture of innovation across the organization by introducing and supporting frameworks, workshops, and practices that inspire creativity and experimentation, working with like-minded partners across the business.

Education, Experience, and Skills desired:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Education, Media, or a related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• 8+ years of experience in market research, business development, content strategy, or product innovation.
• Proven track record of identifying growth opportunities and successfully launching new products or initiatives.
• Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills, with the ability to translate data into actionable insights.
• Experience building systems or processes to evaluate, prioritize, and operationalize ideas.
• A collaborative, energetic, and dynamic leader who is comfortable working both independently and in teams; navigating ambiguous situations; and supporting change initiatives.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with experience working with senior leadership.
• Experience in acquisitions, partnerships, or licensing highly desirable.
• Passion for content, media, and exploring innovative ways to reach audiences.
• An ability to fail quickly, learn from failures, and move forward is essential

Key Competencies:

• Strategic foresight and curiosity
• Market analysis and competitive intelligence
• Innovation and creative problem-solving
• Idea evaluation and decision-making frameworks
• Cross-functional leadership
• Business acumen and financial literacy

Travel Requirements

This position requires some travel (5-10%).

Inclusion & Belonging

Capstone embraces equal opportunity and a culture of belonging for all employees and applicants. We are an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer. All candidate information will be kept private according to EEO guidelines. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request to hrservices@capstonepub.com.

The pay range for this role takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered surrounding compensation including but not limited to: skill sets, experience and training, work location, and other business and organizational needs. At Capstone, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at the top of the range for their role. A reasonable estimate of the annual pay range for this position is $148,000 - $223,000.

Capstone strives to provide comprehensive and market-competitive benefits to meet the needs of our employees and their families. Click here to see our benefits.

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California Applicants:

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Employment Authorization:

At this time Capstone unfortunately cannot sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa. To be considered for one of our roles, applicants must be authorized to work in the United States.