Principal Product Manager

About SANS Founded in 1989, Solstice Analytics (SANS) began as a cooperative research and education organization. Over the next 25 years, it grew to become the most trusted and widely recognized provider of information security training and certification in the world. Today, SANS has served more than 300,000 cybersecurity professionals around the world, with more than 60,000 earning Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC) security certifications—the leading certification that provides assurance to employers that their people and prospective hires can do the job. At the heart of SANS is a community of practitioners, from auditors and network administrators to CISOs, who share their lessons learned and collaborate on solutions to the challenges they face. These experts, working across corporations, government agencies, and universities, come together to support and strengthen the global information security community. Why SANS? At SANS, our culture is defined by three pillars: Mission, Brand, and People. Our Mission is to hire people who understand the importance fighting against cybersecurity threats. Our Brand reflects a commitment to delivering the highest quality training. Our People are grounded in a culture of fairness, honesty, customer focus, and a pragmatic approach. What You’ll Achieve at SANS We are seeking an experienced and strategic Principal Product Manager to join our Product team. This role plays a key part in managing our Certification and Assessment product portfolio. Reporting directly to the Head of Product Management, this role will drive the vision, strategy, and execution for SANS's certification and assessment offerings including GIAC, one of the most trusted and widely recognized credentials in the cybersecurity industry. As a principal product manager, you will lead through influence, working cross-functionally with product management, engineering, business leadership, curriculum, and marketing to deliver world-class products that help cybersecurity professionals validate and advance their skills. As a Principal Product Manager, you will: Product Execution Define and own the multi-year product strategy for GIAC certifications and assessments, aligned to broader organizational goals. Identify market opportunities, competitive dynamics, and learner needs to inform product direction. Lead the end-to-end product lifecycle from discovery and definition through launch and iteration for all certification and assessment products. Translate learner, employer, and industry insights into clear product requirements and success metrics. Create and maintain the GIAC product roadmap, ensuring it reflects business priorities, learner needs, and industry trends while communicating progress and tradeoffs to senior stakeholders. Own and manage the product backlog, partnering directly with engineering teams to groom, prioritize, and sequence work that delivers the highest impact. Partner with psychometricians, exam developers, and range and lab platform technology teams to ensure certification and assessment products meet rigorous standards for validity, reliability, and fairness. Define and monitor KPIs to measure product health and drive continuous improvement. Cross-Functional Leadership Lead without formal authority, aligning and influencing cross-functional teams across curriculum, engineering, marketing, and business stakeholders to drive outcomes. Serve as a senior product thought leader, modeling strong product thinking and helping elevate PM practice across the organization. Act as a strategic partner and mentor to other product managers on the team, sharing expertise and contributing to a strong product culture. Stakeholder & Market Engagement Serve as the lead product management authority on the certification and assessment landscape, including industry trends, credentialing standards, and competitor offerings. Build strong relationships with key internal stakeholders across GIAC business leadership, curriculum, sales, marketing, and product development. Engage directly with customers, employers, and the broader cybersecurity community to deepen understanding of market needs Perform other related duties as assigned. What We’re Looking For Every SANS employee brings something unique. For this role, we’re looking for candidates with: Bachelor's degree or equivalent industry experience. 10+ years of professional product management experience with an emphasis on building and managing assessment-based products. Proven ability to define product roadmaps, prioritize competing demands, and deliver measurable outcomes. Demonstrated success owning complex product portfolios, ideally in education, credentialing, assessment, or a related field. Strong strategic thinking skills, capable of setting direction in ambiguous environments and rallying teams around a clear vision. Proven ability to lead through influence, driving alignment and results without direct management authority. Excellent cross-f