Vice President of Product Management

Our client, a hyper-growth AI company -- Series C, backed by Mayfield, Benchmark, and other top tier investors, is looking for a hands-on AI-savvy VP of Product. This will be a craftsperson product leader - a true builder who cares deeply about problem framing, discovery, prioritization, and product quality. The ideal candidate is obsessed with building great products that drive business outcomes.

What You’ll Drive

• AI product vision and strategy: Define and execute the company’s long-term product strategy, shaping how AI transforms tax workflows and positioning the company as a leader in the category.
• Customer-centered product discovery and learning: Build strong discovery practices that keep product and design teams deeply connected to customers, ensuring product direction is informed by real-world usage, workflow needs, and continuous learning.
• Outcome-driven product roadmap: Own the product roadmap and prioritization framework, ensuring teams focus on the highest-impact opportunities and deliver measurable customer and business outcomes.
• Product Moats: Own the strategy for building durable competitive advantage through proprietary data, continuous data-driven feedback loops, validation rigor, and IP development.
• Product and design leadership: Lead and scale both Product Management and Product Design, building a high-performing organization focused on product excellence, strong UX, and customer value.
• Strategic partnership with executive leadership: Partner closely with the CEO, CTO, and executive team to align product strategy with company vision, long-term differentiation, and market opportunities.
• Cross-functional Partnership: Forge a strong operating rhythm with AI/ML, Engineering, and GTM teams to align the roadmap, research priorities, and technical strategy with commercial needs and customer value.
• Business growth through product innovation: Partner with commercial teams to ensure product strategy supports adoption, clear market positioning, and sustainable revenue growth.
• Modern product development practices: Establish strong product operating rhythms across discovery, delivery, experimentation, and iteration to accelerate learning and maintain high product quality.
• Building a world-class product organization: Recruit, develop, and mentor exceptional Product and Design talent while building a culture of accountability, craftsmanship, and customer obsession.

Who You Are

• Hands-on, craft-oriented product leader with 10 years of experience: Track record of building high-quality products by deeply engaging in customer discovery, prioritization, and product execution while also shaping long-term product strategy.
• AI-native product builder: Proven experience building AI-native applications and products, embedded into real workflows. Personally leverages modern AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Gemini, and agentic workflows to accelerate product discovery, strategy, and execution.
• Product-Led Growth Experience: Experience building product-led or workflow-driven SaaS businesses with strong retention and expansion dynamics.
• Customer-obsessed and UX research-driven: History of building organizations where PMs and designers regularly engage with customers, and where product decisions are grounded in qualitative research, usability insight, and real-world workflow validation.
• Data-driven product leader: Experience using metrics, experimentation, and outcome-driven frameworks to guide product decisions.
• Business-savvy and outcome-oriented: Track record of aligning product strategy with revenue growth and company objectives, with clear frameworks for evaluating product investments and prioritizing high-impact opportunities.
• Strong design leadership and product taste: Experience leading or closely partnering with product design teams to deliver intuitive, high-quality user experiences and translating complex technology into usable workflows.
• Clear thinker on AI strategy and defensibility: Demonstrated ability to articulate how AI creates durable competitive advantage through proprietary data, workflow depth, feedback loops, and distribution.
• High-growth operator: Experience operating successfully in startup environments with ambiguity, lean teams, and rapid pace of change, prioritizing speed of learning and building the right product with rigor.
• Familiar with complex products: Experience building products in complex operational, financial, compliance, or regulated environments.

Nice to Have

• Former founder or entrepreneurial builder
• SaaS enterprise experience
• Experience in AI-driven startups

Compensation: Base salary of $260-$350K Equity

Location: NYC (Hybrid)

Work Authorization: Authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship