Who We Are

Highlight is the definitive product intelligence platform enabling brands to create products people love. Powered by a proprietary community, seamless logistics, expert research methodologies, and AI-driven analytics, Highlight’s platform is purpose-built for modern physical product teams and trusted by leading brands, top retailers, and emerging innovators alike. The Highlight platform delivers high-impact insights with unmatched quality across every stage of the product innovation lifecycle—from early ideas and prototypes to in-market renovation—empowering teams to act quickly and bring winning products to market with confidence.

Highlight is looking for a Panel Manager to lead the strategic growth, health, and engagement of our Highlight Community of product testers. As a key member of the Operations Team, the Panel Manager will oversee the systems, processes, and initiatives that ensure our Highlighters are sharing quality and thoughtful feedback. This role is both strategic and hands-on; guiding the operational success of the community, managing team members, and championing best practices that elevate community experience and client deliverables. They will take ownership of key performance indicators for community health and serve as the internal voice of our Highlighters.

Our ideal candidate will have strong strategic thinking, project management, and problem resolution skills. You are driven to create tools, best practices, and methods that support process efficiency, community engagement, and high data quality. You are comfortable in an environment where adapting to changing priorities to meet multiple project timelines is a regular occurrence. You will work across the organization alongside customer enablement, sales, marketing, engineering, and product teams. This role comes with the opportunity to explore different initiatives and methodologies to better the Highlight Community.

Your Impact

Own and evolve the overarching panel (community) strategy to drive engagement, feedback quality, and long-term satisfaction in close collaboration with the product team.
Oversee day-to-day community operations, including support ticket resolution, member communications, and quality assurance.
Identify and implement scalable processes and automation tools to optimize support and survey workflows.
Develop and execute community growth initiatives, including referral programs, social media engagement (i.e., ad campaigns), and retention strategies.
Build and maintain reporting systems to track community KPIs (e.g., engagement rates, satisfaction, completion rates) and drive data-informed decisions.
Serve as the internal advocate for Highlighters—surfacing trends, pain points, and ideas to influence product and customer experience strategies.
Collaborate with the Operations team to refine tooling, infrastructure, and policies that promote community health and data quality.
Establish and document best practices and playbooks for community operations, engagement, and communications.
Foster a positive, inclusive, and responsive culture within the Highlighter Community.

About You

5+ years of experience in Panel Management or Customer Support (B2C) at a market research company and/or software company (preferably an early-stage startup)
Experience using customer support tech platforms, such as Freshdesk, Zendesk, Slack, Sendinblue, Mailchimp, Ad Campaigns, Rybbon
Experience building marketing campaigns for community growth and health
Experience building and tracking systems to report KPIs
Deep understanding of how to foster and create a delightful community experience
A keen eye for efficiency and the experience to know how and when to optimize internal processes with no-code automations, integrations, and documentation
An analytical mindset with the ability to extract insights and make data-driven decisions
Eager to learn, committed to getting 1% better every day, and open to feedback
Passion for innovation, sparking new ideas and fostering new ways for brands and consumers to work together

Benefits

Health insurance (medical, dental, vision) with 100% of employee premiums covered
Unlimited PTO
Flexible, remote WFH culture
Access to the iconic Hearst Tower & its facilities in NYC (should you choose to ever be in person)
Based on previous experience and skillset, the starting salary range for this position: $92,000 - $115,000 annually

You don’t need to meet every qualification listed to apply—we value potential, curiosity, and diverse perspectives. At Highlight, we believe that innovation thrives when different experiences and ideas come together. We’re committed to building an inclusive team where individuals of all backgrounds - including but not limited to - race, age, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, disability, veteran status, and more—feel empowered to contribute and grow.

If you’re a critical thinker who’s not afraid to challenge assumptions, we’d love to hear from you. We’re a passionate, supportive team that puts Humans First, cares about each other, and yes—we take our tacos seriously. 🌮