Founding Product Manager
People Culture Talent · San Francisco, CA
- On site
- Full-time
- $150,000 / year
- San Francisco, CA
✓ Hiring manager found for this role
Email the hiring manager to get a response.
Get their verified email + an intro that's ready to send.
Founding Product Manager
People Culture Talent · San Francisco, CA
Alex Rivera
Hiring Manager · h•••••@jobs.ashbyhq.com
✍️ Your intro emailReady to send
Subject: Interested in the Founding Product Manager role at People Culture Talent
Hi Alex — I came across the Founding Product Manager opening and wanted to reach out directly. I've spent the last few years doing exactly this kind of work, and People Culture Talent stood out because…
🔒 Unlock to read & send
✎ Personalized to your résumé after sign-up.
$1 once
Just this hiring manager
Best value
$9/mo
Unlimited — any job, anywhere
- ✓ Verified email of the hiring manager
- ✓ Intro email personalized to your résumé
- ✓ $9/mo = unlimited — any job link
Secure checkout · cancel anytime
View the original posting ↗
Not recommended alone — most applicants never hear back.
Job highlights
- Define AI infrastructure product strategy and roadmap.
- Engage directly with customers for discovery and insights.
- Prioritize roadmap balancing feedback and technical needs.
- Lead cross-functional teams for product success.
- Build foundational product processes and structures.
About the role
Founding Product Manager
We are seeking a Founding Product Manager to join a Series A AI infrastructure company. This role is critical in defining the product strategy and roadmap, working closely with the CTO and founding engineering team. You will engage directly with customers to understand their needs and translate them into actionable product initiatives. This position requires strong technical fluency, excellent customer discovery skills, and the ability to thrive in a dynamic, minimally structured environment.What You’ll Own
- Product Strategy: Define and drive the product roadmap, ensuring engineering efforts align with strategic objectives.
- Customer Discovery: Engage directly with customers to identify patterns and shape product direction.
- Roadmap Prioritization: Balance customer feedback, technical constraints, and business goals, clearly documenting decisions.
- Cross-Functional Leadership: Facilitate collaboration between engineering, leadership, and go-to-market teams to maintain aligned priorities.
- Product Development: Oversee product initiatives from concept through launch, providing guidance without micromanaging.
- Market Insight: Monitor competitive landscapes and industry trends to inform product strategy.
- Operational Foundation: Establish essential product processes, planning rhythms, and communication structures.
What You’ll Bring
- 4+ years of product management experience in B2B SaaS, developer tools, infrastructure, or enterprise software.
- Proven experience working directly with engineering teams to ship technical products.
- Strong customer discovery instincts, with the ability to find signal in conversations.
- Technical fluency to engage credibly with engineers on architecture and implementation tradeoffs.
- Excellent written communication skills for an async-first team.
- A data-informed approach to prioritization with the ability to defend decisions.
- Experience with APIs, integrations, or infrastructure products is a strong plus.
About Our Client
Our client is a venture-backed AI infrastructure company that is building the connectivity layer for AI platforms and B2B software. The founding team has impressive backgrounds from Google, Meta, and AWS. This is a unique opportunity to have meaningful ownership, contribute to a high-retention, high-standard technical team, and shape the future of AI-business collaboration.Key skills/competency
- Product Strategy
- Customer Discovery
- Roadmap Prioritization
- Cross-Functional Leadership
- Product Development
- Market Insight
- B2B SaaS
- Developer Tools
- AI Infrastructure
- Technical Fluency
Skills & topics
- Product Manager
- Founding Product Manager
- AI Infrastructure
- B2B SaaS
- Developer Tools
- Enterprise Software
- Product Strategy
- Customer Discovery
- Roadmap
- Technical Product Management
How to get hired
- Tailor your resume: Highlight B2B SaaS, developer tools, or infrastructure product management experience. Quantify achievements.
- Showcase technical fluency: Emphasize your ability to communicate with engineering teams on architecture and tradeoffs.
- Demonstrate customer empathy: Provide examples of how you've used customer discovery to shape product direction.
- Highlight leadership: Detail your experience leading cross-functional teams and driving products from concept to launch.
- Prepare for technical discussions: Be ready to discuss APIs, integrations, or infrastructure product concepts.
Technical preparation
Study AI infrastructure concepts and challenges.,Review common APIs and integration patterns.,Prepare to discuss system architecture tradeoffs.,Understand data infrastructure and connectivity layers.
Behavioral questions
Describe a time you defined a product strategy.,How do you balance customer needs with technical constraints?,Share an experience leading cross-functional teams.,How do you build product processes from scratch?
Prefer to apply the usual way?
Not recommended alone — most applicants never hear back. Email the hiring manager first.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the primary focus of the Founding Product Manager role at this AI infrastructure company?
- The Founding Product Manager will define and drive the product strategy and roadmap for an AI infrastructure company. This involves working closely with the CTO and engineering team, and directly engaging with customers to ensure product development aligns with business goals and market needs.
- What technical background is expected for the Founding Product Manager at this AI startup?
- The role requires genuine technical fluency. You should be able to engage credibly with engineers on architecture and implementation tradeoffs, particularly concerning APIs, integrations, or infrastructure products, which are a strong plus.
- How does customer interaction work for the Founding Product Manager at this company?
- You will talk to customers directly and often. The goal is to surface patterns that should shape product direction, requiring strong customer discovery instincts to find signal in conversations.
- What is the expected experience level for this Founding Product Manager position?
- We are looking for candidates with 4+ years of product management experience, specifically within B2B SaaS, developer tools, infrastructure, or enterprise software.
- What makes this Founding Product Manager role unique compared to other product management jobs?
- This is a founding role that fills a gap previously handled by founders. It offers significant ownership, the chance to shape processes from scratch, and to work closely with an experienced founding team in a rapidly growing AI infrastructure space.
- How does the company approach prioritization for the Founding Product Manager?
- Prioritization is data-informed. The Founding Product Manager must balance customer feedback, technical constraints, and business goals, clearly documenting the reasoning behind decisions.
- What is the work environment like for the Founding Product Manager at this Series A company?
- The environment is dynamic, with minimal structure, and an async-first communication approach. You will be part of a small, high-retention team with high technical standards, offering meaningful ownership.