Director of Product, Strategic Ventures

HighlightTA

25d • Remote

About The Position

HighlightTA is the on-demand talent team for Zipline . About Zipline Zipline is a well-funded, rapidly growing SaaS company transforming how frontline teams work. We empower the world’s leading brands across retail, healthcare, logistics, and beyond to connect, align, and inspire their employees—from headquarters to the front lines. Our customers consistently give us best-in-class NPS and CSAT scores, and they rave about how Zipline makes their teams’ lives easier and their businesses more effective. We’re also a fully remote company, with passionate employees across the U.S., Canada, and around the globe. About the Role Zipline is entering its next phase of growth—expanding into new verticals, unlocking new revenue motions, and exploring AI-enabled and partnership-led opportunities beyond the current product footprint. The Director of Product, Strategic Ventures owns Zipline’s future growth portfolio. This role is accountable for identifying, validating, and de-risking new sources of revenue—including vertical expansion, horizontal product extensions, AI-powered commercial offerings, and strategic partnerships—before they are scaled into core product teams. This is a senior, high-impact product leadership role operating ahead of the roadmap. You will work across Product, Design, Engineering, Data, Sales, CS, RevOps, and Corporate Development to turn ambiguity into conviction. You are responsible for deciding what to bet on, why, and when, not for owning long-term execution of core product pillars. You report to the SVP of Product and act as a force multiplier for pillar Product Managers by supplying validated opportunities—not competing roadmaps.

Responsibilities

• Own the Strategic Growth & New Ventures Portfolio
• Identify, frame, and size new growth opportunities across:
• New verticals and customer segments
• Horizontal product extensions and modules
• AI-powered commercial offerings
• Strategic partnerships and ecosystem plays
• Maintain a transparent, prioritized portfolio of short-, mid-, and long-term bets
• Define clear investment theses, success criteria, and kill / scale decision points
• Build rigorous business cases, including TAM, ROI, cost-to-serve, and GTM implications
• Lead 0→1 Discovery & Validation
• Run early-stage discovery to understand unmet customer needs and market gaps
• Partner with Design to prototype and test value propositions quickly
• Collaborate with Engineering and Data to validate technical feasibility (without owning core platform design)
• Execute controlled pilots and proof points that produce executive-ready evidence
• For select initiatives, this role may temporarily own scoped delivery during incubation to validate customer value and commercial viability. This ownership is explicitly time-bound, limited in scope, and transitions to a core product team once the opportunity is proven
• Make clear recommendations to scale, pivot, partner, or stop.
• Drive Vertical & Market Expansion
• Assess and prioritize new verticals with strong commercial and strategic fit
• Define vertical-specific problem spaces, workflows, and value propositions
• Partner with Sales and CS on early customer engagement and GTM validation
• Recommend market entry strategies, sequencing, and success metrics.
• Shape AI-Enabled Growth Opportunities (Without Owning Core AI Systems)
• Identify AI-powered opportunities that unlock new revenue, differentiation, or market access
• Partner with pillar PMs and Data Science to validate feasibility and customer value
• Focus on commercial potential and market fit, not long-term ownership of AI platforms or intelligence layers
• Transition validated AI opportunities into appropriate product pillars for scaling
• Partnerships & Corporate Development Support
• Collaborate with Corporate Development on product-fit assessments for partnerships and M&A
• Define product strategy inputs for partner-led offerings
• Evaluate build vs. buy vs. partner tradeoffs from a product and revenue perspective
• Build Repeatable Growth Systems
• Establish frameworks for discovery, validation, piloting, and business casing
• Create operating mechanisms that accelerate decision-making and reduce risk
• Over time, hire and lead a small team focused on strategic growth and incubation.

Benefits

• Remote-first culture
• Stock Options
• Time Off
• Benefits: World-class medical, dental, and vision policies
• Team Connection : Annual company off-sites in fun locations. We've done New York, Costa Rica, Whistler, Palm Springs, San Diego, and Mexico City
• Sabbatical : A one-month paid sabbatical after completing five years of working at Zipline
• Volunteering : Every quarter, Zipliners get a paid day off to volunteer for a nonprofit of their choice
• Learning : We support continuous learning and provide unlimited access to our Udemy Business account
• Great humans, great work : Work with kind, collaborative teammates who care about doing meaningful work and making a real impact. We value diversity of all kinds and are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace where we learn from each other. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome people of all different backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and perspectives

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed