Founding Product Manager

Note from CEO: Xenia is at a really exciting inflection point being the core app for thousands of frontline workers, and has a tremendous opportunity to innovate using multi-modality like voice, photo and video to become a system of action on the frontline for teams across restaurants, c-stores and retail. We need a dynamic product manager/leader looking to ship rapidly and aggressively alongside customers with ownership. We will be giving upside equity and strong comp for the right person. Great work ethic and around the clock attitude required given our engineering team based overseas.

We are seeking an exceptional Founding Product Manager to help shape the future of frontline operations software. You will work directly with the founders in this role, and will be valued as a critical early member of a fast-growing team defining product strategy and execution.

As our Founding PM, you'll be responsible for driving product vision, strategy, and roadmap for Xenia's platform. You'll work cross-functionally with engineering, design, sales, and customer success to build products that frontline workers genuinely love. This role requires someone who can balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution, moving seamlessly between talking to customers in restaurants and retail stores to collaborating with engineers on technical architecture across time zones. You'll play a key role in identifying and building AI-driven features that leverage voice, photo, and video to transform how frontline teams work — from intelligent automation and predictive maintenance to multi-modal interfaces and smart workflows.

This is a fully in-person position at our Chicago headquarters office. We believe that being together in person accelerates collaboration, learning, and innovation, especially at this critical early stage of the company.

• Own the AI product roadmap and strategy for Xenia's platform, making critical decisions about what to build next based on customer insights, market opportunities, and business impact
• Ship rapidly and aggressively alongside customers, maintaining momentum with our overseas engineering team through flexible hours and around-the-clock collaboration
• Be obsessed with the customer — spend significant time with frontline workers and managers to deeply understand their workflows, pain points, and needs across restaurants, c-stores, retail, and other multi-unit operations
• Define and prioritize features that drive product-led growth, user activation, retention, and expansion
• Drive AI and multi-modal innovation — build capabilities that leverage voice, photo, and video capture to create a true system of action for frontline teams (think AI photo verification, voice-driven workflows, analytical agents, and more)
• Collaborate closely with engineering across time zones to scope, design, and ship high-quality features rapidly, making smart trade-offs between speed and quality
• Work hand-in-hand with the founding team on go-to-market strategy, pricing, positioning, and competitive differentiation
• Leverage data and analytics to inform product decisions, measure success, and iterate quickly based on user behavior and feedback
• Champion the product internally and externally through demos, customer calls, webinars, and product marketing content
• Build for scale — think ahead about how features will work across different industries, use cases, and customer segments
• Define success metrics and own product KPIs including activation, engagement, retention, and feature adoption
• Stay ahead of the market by understanding competitive landscape, industry trends, and emerging opportunities in the frontline workforce space

• 3-5 years of product management experience, preferably in B2B SaaS, with at least 1-2 years in an early-stage environment
• Ability to work fully in-person at our Chicago headquarters office — this is a non-negotiable requirement for this role
• Flexibility to collaborate across time zones with our overseas engineering team, including early mornings or late evenings as needed
• Deep customer empathy and a track record of building products people love by talking to users and iterating based on feedback
• Strong technical fluency — you can speak the language of engineers and make informed decisions about technical trade-offs (technical background is a plus)
• Genuine excitement about AI/ML applications and multi-modal interfaces (voice, photo, video) — you stay current on AI developments and think creatively about practical applications for frontline workers
• Exceptional work ethic and ownership mentality — you thrive in fast-paced environments and take full accountability for outcomes
• Data-driven mindset with experience using product analytics tools (Mixpanel, Amplitude, etc.) to drive decisions
• Excellent communication skills — you can articulate product vision, write clear specs, and influence stakeholders at all levels
• Bias for action and comfort with ambiguity — you ship fast, learn, and iterate rather than over-planning
• Experience with PLG (product-led growth) strategies and building self-serve products is a major plus
• Understanding of mobile-first products and designing for frontline workers is highly desirable
• Bachelor's degree in a technical or business field preferred; MBA is a plus but not required
• BONUS: Experience in operations software, ERP, maintenance management, field services, or workflow automation tools
• BONUS: Experience shipping AI-powered features or products, or working closely with ML/AI teams
• BONUS: Experience in restaurant tech, retail tech, convenience store operations, or multi-unit/multi-location businesses

Xenia (www.xenia.team) is a AI native frontline operations platform, giving managers and frontline workers modern, powerful software in the palm of their hands. Xenia's platform unifies daily task execution, maintenance management, and safety & compliance into one app. Standardize, schedule, track, and measure work across every department, asset, and location with inspections, work orders, checklists, logs, chats, and reports— all in one place.

We serve multi-unit operators across restaurants, retail, convenience stores, hotels, hospitality, manufacturing, and more, powering operations for leading brands like Dave's Hot Chicken, Adidas, Huck's, Refuel, and PowerMarket. We're on a mission to build tools that frontline employees actually love, and have fun using on their day-to-day jobs. For us, it's immensely exciting to pursue an opportunity to serve north of 2.7 billion frontline workers globally.

Our founding team consists of a globally-minded group of individuals with backgrounds spanning across technology, sales, marketing, investing, and more. We are a Series A company headquartered in Chicago, IL, USA. In November 2025, we announced our $12 million Series A led by PSG (Providence Strategic Growth), a leading private equity firm based out of Boston. This investment validates our vision of bringing AI-driven transformation to frontline operations and gives us the resources to accelerate our roadmap while maintaining our agility and culture.