R&D Product Manager
About The Position
This role sits at the intersection of product management, discovery, and hands-on execution. We are looking for a highly autonomous product thinker who can take a loosely defined idea, research the market, determine what should be built, and work side-by-side with engineers to bring it to life. Unlike traditional BSA or Product Owner roles, this position operates with minimal structure and oversight. The R&D Product Manager is expected to create clarity rather than receive it. This role is ideal for someone who thrives in ambiguity, enjoys early-stage problem solving, and wants to help shape a growing team.
Requirements
- Proven experience operating in highly ambiguous environments with little structure
- Strong product thinking — able to frame problems before jumping to solutions
- Demonstrated curiosity and comfort experimenting with new technologies, including AI tools
- Hands on experience writing requirements from scratch (not refining pre-defined scope)
- Ability to work extremely closely with software engineers on early-stage products
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Comfortable making decisions with incomplete data
- Self-directed, resourceful, and biased toward action
- Associate degree or equivalent education required
Nice To Haves
- Product Manager or Product Owner experience preferred
- Experience working on AI-enabled products, internal tools, or platforms preferred
- Property & Casualty insurance domain experience preferred
- Financial services or credit card domain experience preferred
- Experience working on internal platforms, B2B products, or infrastructure adjacent systems preferred
- Bachelor degree preferred
Responsibilities
- Take vague product ideas or problem statements and turn them into clear product direction
- Conduct market research, competitive analysis, and customer discovery to validate demand and shape product scope
- Evaluate where AI, automation, or intelligent workflows may create new product value
- Define product vision, core use cases, and success criteria for new R&D initiatives
- Identify what not to build and intentionally limit scope during early experimentation
- Translate product ideas into clear, actionable requirements that software engineers can build from immediately
- Engage regularly with executive leadership to gather, clarify, and align on product requirements, strategic priorities, and roadmap direction
- Partner closely with software engineers throughout design and development, maintaining tight feedback loops
- Make real‑time tradeoff decisions as new information emerges
- Create rough mockups, wireframes, or visual flows to communicate intent and experience (polish not required)
- Collaborate with engineers to refine functionality and user experience
- Ensure usability and customer value are front‑and‑center in product decisions
- Lead proof‑of‑concept, prototype, and pilot efforts, including AI-enabled features
- Define hypotheses, learning goals, and validation criteria for experiments
- Assess results and recommend next steps including iterate, pivot, stop, or operationalize
- Own end‑to‑end product validation by testing and experimenting with new solutions to confirm they meet initial requirements, perform reliably, and deliver value in real‑world scenarios
- Help define how R&D product work gets done as the team grows
- Mentor future R&D product managers and/or BSAs
- Establish lightweight standards and best practices without introducing unnecessary process
Benefits
- 100% employer-paid health, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance for employees
- flexible paid time off plan
- 401(k) match
- bonus potential
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
Education Level
Associate degree
