What are the responsibilities and job description for the Associate Product Manager position at Lumion?
Associate Product Manager — Lumion
Location: South Jordan, Utah (on-site, 5 days/week)
Mentorship with Karlie Peterson (Senior Product Manager), and regular exposure to Josh (CEO/Co-founder) and Derrick (CTO/Co-founder)
Why Lumion
Lumion is building the operating system for trade schools — the institutions training the electricians, welders, HVAC technicians, plumbers, and skilled tradespeople the U.S. economy runs on. These schools serve students who often can't or don't want to take a traditional four-year path, and they've historically been stuck running their entire operation on a patchwork of spreadsheets, paper forms, and software built for a different era.
We're changing that. Our platform powers recruitment, enrollment, payments, communications, attendance, and reporting for trade schools across the United States — and the work we ship directly affects whether students get into programs, stay enrolled, and graduate into careers that change the trajectory of their families.
Why This Role Is Rare for an APM
Most APM roles look the same: a rotational program, a slice of someone else's roadmap, a year of waiting before you touch a customer. This one isn't that.
You'll start with one or two focused areas within Lumion's broader product surface, scoped to match your ramp. As you build judgment and trust, your surface area will grow.
Possible Starting Areas Include
What You'll Actually Do
Product Execution
Must-haves
The same environment your senior PM operates in — worth being upfront so you can decide if it's the right fit:
Lumion is building the operating system for trade schools. If you're early in your product career, AI-native, and want to grow into a senior PM faster than any rotational program will get you there — with real ownership, real mentorship, and real impact on students' lives — we want to talk.
Location: South Jordan, Utah (on-site, 5 days/week)
Mentorship with Karlie Peterson (Senior Product Manager), and regular exposure to Josh (CEO/Co-founder) and Derrick (CTO/Co-founder)
Why Lumion
Lumion is building the operating system for trade schools — the institutions training the electricians, welders, HVAC technicians, plumbers, and skilled tradespeople the U.S. economy runs on. These schools serve students who often can't or don't want to take a traditional four-year path, and they've historically been stuck running their entire operation on a patchwork of spreadsheets, paper forms, and software built for a different era.
We're changing that. Our platform powers recruitment, enrollment, payments, communications, attendance, and reporting for trade schools across the United States — and the work we ship directly affects whether students get into programs, stay enrolled, and graduate into careers that change the trajectory of their families.
Why This Role Is Rare for an APM
Most APM roles look the same: a rotational program, a slice of someone else's roadmap, a year of waiting before you touch a customer. This one isn't that.
- Real ownership from week one. You'll own features end-to-end — discovery, prototype, PRD, launch — not Jira hygiene and meeting notes.
- Actual mentorship, not aspirational mentorship. You'll partner with a senior PM. Regular brainstorming sessions, PRD reviews, customer interview coaching, and a real growth plan.
- AI-native from day one. You'll learn to work with AI tools the way the next decade of PMs will all need to — prototyping, PRD generation, research synthesis, audit automation.
- Founder visibility. You'll be in rooms with the CEO and CTO regularly. They'll know your name and your work.
- Equity in a company with real momentum in a market that's been underserved for decades.
You'll start with one or two focused areas within Lumion's broader product surface, scoped to match your ramp. As you build judgment and trust, your surface area will grow.
Possible Starting Areas Include
- A specific module within the School Admin Platform (e.g., reporting, settings, navigation)
- A workflow within the Student Portal (e.g., attendance, task management)
- A piece of the Communications Hub (e.g., inbox, SMS templates, marketing tools)
- A surface within Enrollment & Forms
What You'll Actually Do
Product Execution
- Own delivery of specific features within your product area, from idea to shipped
- Maintain a clear backlog and weekly priorities for your surface
- Contribute ideas to the broader roadmap; help your senior PM validate and prioritize them
- Build prototypes in HTML using AI tools — your senior PM will review and iterate with you
- Develop UX taste through reps and feedback
- Make UX recommendations; escalate ambiguous calls early rather than guess
- Draft PRDs for your features and iterate with your senior PM until they're engineering-ready
- Use AI audit tools to catch gaps between prototype and documentation before review
- Learn to write the level of specificity an AI-assisted engineering team needs
- Participate in daily standups for your engineering team
- Attend a weekly Product & Engineering operating cadence; present your area as needed
- Support go-to-market launches with CS, marketing, and sales — co-piloting at first, leading independently as you ramp
- Run customer interviews with coaching from your senior PM
- Synthesize feedback into actionable themes
- Sit in on customer deep-dives; eventually lead your own
- Keep documentation current for your product areas
- Use established page templates; suggest improvements when you spot them
- Contribute to weekly Notion housekeeping
Must-haves
- 1–3 years in product management, OR equivalent experience in an adjacent field (design, engineering, customer success, ops, marketing) and a clear move into product
- Hands-on experience with AI tools in real workflows — not just experimentation
- Some prototyping ability — you don't need to be a master, but you've built things and can articulate why you made the choices you did
- Strong written communication — you can produce a clear, structured doc
- Coachable — you take feedback well and iterate quickly
- Self-directed — you don't need hourly direction, and you know when to escalate
- Genuine curiosity about customers — you want to understand them, not just confirm your assumptions
- Background in payments, fintech, education, CRM, or marketing automation
- Prior startup experience (intern, early employee, founder)
- Design or front-end engineering background — particularly helpful given how prototype-heavy this role is
- Familiarity with trade school, vocational education, or workforce development markets
- Experience with compliance-sensitive workflows (SMS, digital signatures, FAFSA)
The same environment your senior PM operates in — worth being upfront so you can decide if it's the right fit:
- Pace. We ship fast. Major products go out in weeks, not quarters.
- Process. Lightweight by design. Daily standups, prototype-driven iteration, no heavy ceremonies.
- AI-first. AI is part of daily work — comfort with these tools is a baseline, not a bonus.
- Ownership with support. You'll make real calls, with a senior PM as your sounding board, not your safety net.
- Ambiguity. Roadmaps shift as we learn. You should find that energizing.
- You're looking for a structured PM rotational program
- You can’t openly surface your mistakes – we need to know where things break to learn, pivot, and avoid repeating them
- You want a path that requires years of waiting before you touch real customers or real strategy
- You'd rather be told what to build than help figure it out
- You're not actually excited about AI tooling — half this job involves working in and around it
- Competitive APM salary commensurate with experience
- Meaningful equity in a high-growth SaaS company
- On-site in South Jordan, Utah, five days a week — no relocation assistance provided
- Mentorship with an experienced senior PM, with regular C-Suite exposure
Lumion is building the operating system for trade schools. If you're early in your product career, AI-native, and want to grow into a senior PM faster than any rotational program will get you there — with real ownership, real mentorship, and real impact on students' lives — we want to talk.