Chief Product Officer (CPO)

Yaqeen Institute•Dallas, TX

About The Position

Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research is seeking a Chief Product Officer to lead our product organization and drive the next phase of our mission: to move people to a realization of Islam that inspires faith, grounds it with intellect, and creates a world of doers who are tranquil, confident, and purpose-driven. We reach millions of people globally through research-backed Islamic content spanning peer-reviewed papers, curriculum used by 1,000+ Islamic schools, a mobile app with a rapidly growing engaged user base, books, and video content that has seen a 30% increase in YouTube views in the past year alone. We are at an inflection point. We have built the content and the audience. Now we need a product leader who can build the engine that turns reach into lasting, measurable impact on people's faith and lives. The CPO will own the full product portfolio: our consumer app, Hashiya (our academic publishing platform), curriculum for Islamic schools, books, and our data and analytics capabilities. You will lead a lean, high-potential product team and work closely with engineering, content, research, and marketing to deliver products that genuinely change lives. This is not a maintenance role. We are looking for a builder who can unify a distributed product organization, drive retention and engagement at scale, champion AI-powered innovation, and bring the rigor of data-driven product management to a mission-driven context.

Requirements

10+ years of product management experience, with at least 5 years in a senior leadership role (VP Product, CPO, or equivalent)
Demonstrated success in driving retention and engagement for consumer-facing digital products
Experience leading and developing product teams of 5+ people across multiple product lines
Strong command of data-driven product management: A/B testing, cohort analysis, funnel optimization, and metric design
Experience with mobile app products and content platforms
Proven ability to unify distributed teams around a shared vision and operating cadence
Executive presence: ability to communicate product strategy to board-level stakeholders and translate mission into measurable outcomes
Comfort operating in a lean, resource-constrained environment where you build alongside your team
Demonstrated experience integrating AI and emerging technologies into product strategy and team workflows

Nice To Haves

Experience with mission-driven, nonprofit, or social-impact organizations
Familiarity with gamification design, behavioral psychology, and habit formation frameworks
Experience with AI/ML-powered personalization and recommendation systems
Understanding of educational technology and/or curriculum products
Experience with content platforms (publishing, media, or knowledge-sharing)
Familiarity with the Muslim community and Islamic content landscape
Experience building or managing AI agents and agentic workflows
Track record of coaching product managers from individual contributors to strategic leaders

Responsibilities

Product Vision and Strategy
Define and own the long-term product vision, connecting Yaqeen's mission to measurable product outcomes
Develop an integrated product roadmap across all verticals (App, Hashiya, Curriculum, Books, Data and Analytics)
Lead the transition from a reach-focused to an engagement-and-retention-focused product strategy
Evaluate and drive platform consolidation decisions (app architecture, content delivery, brand separation)
Lead GOSP (Goals, Objectives, Strategy, Plans) conversations for the product organization
Retention and Growth
Own the retention strategy: reduce churn, increase monthly active users, and deepen habitual engagement
Design and iterate on gamification, social features, and personalization to drive re-engagement
Build experimentation frameworks for testing engagement hypotheses with statistical rigor
Develop proxy metrics for measuring impact on religiosity and spiritual growth
Team Leadership and Development
Lead and develop a team of product managers across multiple squads
Coach PMs on executive communication, budget ownership, data-driven storytelling, and strategic thinking
Foster collaboration across squads that currently operate independently
Build a unified operating cadence: shared planning, cross-squad visibility, and regular demos
Drive AI fluency across the product team, including building and curating AI agents for day-to-day workflows
AI and Data Strategy
Own the data infrastructure strategy: content tagging, cataloging, and curation for AI-powered personalization
Drive AI-powered personalization to deliver the right content to the right user at the right time
Lead adoption of the latest AI models and tools to maximize throughput and quality
Build systematic audience sensing and market intelligence capabilities
Content Product Strategy
Oversee strategic positioning of consumer products (Yaqeen App) versus academic products (Hashiya)
Drive content modality expansion (audio, interactive, short-form) based on user behavior data
Develop a target audience roadmap: who to reach next, on which platforms, and in what sequence
Support curriculum partnerships and joint ventures to scale educational impact
Stakeholder and Executive Engagement
Partner with the CEO, Deputy CEO, and board to align product strategy with organizational goals
Present product performance, roadmap, and budget proposals to executive leadership
Lead the product organization through zero-based budgeting cycles with compelling, data-backed justifications
Build relationships with external partners (content distributors, educational institutions, technology vendors)