Director of Product Management

The Company

Rational Dynamics builds customized AI reasoning systems for tasks of high cognitive complexity.

Our initial market is the world’s leading institutional asset owners. We work very closely with these customers to create specialized, rigorous benchmark datasets encompassing their most valuable and difficult knowledge work. Then we use the benchmarks to construct agentic large reasoning models, applying the same rigor to prove that the models correctly do the work. Customers access the models through a tailored application service, making their most skilled, expensive workers dramatically more productive.

We are an early-stage startup. Our founders previously started Voleon, now one of the world’s largest systematic investment managers, and recognized as a longstanding industry leader in applied machine learning. They bring to Rational Dynamics the same research discipline and data-driven focus that succeeded in the unforgiving, high-stakes setting of financial markets.

Job Description

We are looking for entrepreneurial researchers and engineers who want to work on cutting edge agentic AI methods and build out a best-in-class core technical infrastructure. Our work environment is highly collaborative. Your colleagues will be accomplished experts in AI/ML, statistics, and systems engineering.

As Head of Product / Director of Product Management, you will own the full product lifecycle for Rational Dynamics’ AI products, from customer discovery and rapid prototyping through launch, iteration, and scale. Reporting to the VP of Engineering, you will help define how enterprises use AI to transform high-cognitive-complexity workflows, starting with financial services.

This is a senior leadership role, but not a purely managerial one. You will be expected to operate as a hands-on builder: rapidly turning customer problems into working prototypes, pressure-testing ideas with modern AI-native tools, and partnering deeply with engineering and research to convert bespoke solutions into repeatable products. You will lead a team of product leaders, raise the quality of product thinking across the company, and ensure we are building products that create differentiated insight and measurable customer value.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end product lifecycle across discovery, strategy, prototyping, specification, launch, and iteration

• Work directly with customers and internal stakeholders to identify high-value workflow problems and translate them into product direction

• Personally build rapid prototypes, demos, and workflow experiments using modern AI tools such as Lovable, Replit, and similar platforms to accelerate learning and decision-making

• Turn ambiguous customer needs and emerging technical capabilities into clear product strategy, priorities, and execution plans

• Lead and develop a team of product leaders and product managers; set a high bar for judgment, communication, and ownership

• Partner closely with Engineering, Research, and Forward Deployed teams to transform customer-specific solutions into scalable platform capabilities

• Drive product prioritization with strong judgment around tradeoffs, sequencing, and business impact rather than process for process’s sake

• Establish tight feedback loops with customers, usage data, and internal teams so the roadmap evolves quickly as the market changes

• Ensure product decisions are grounded in deep understanding of user workflows, technical constraints, and long-term strategic advantage

• Help shape Rational Dynamics’ product culture around speed, insight, clarity, and hands-on execution

• Develop metrics to manage and guide team execution, customer success, and product quality

Requirements

• Significant product management leadership experience, including experience owning products from concept to launch in enterprise software, AI, data, or other highly technical environments

• Demonstrated experience managing and developing teams of product leaders, not only individual contributors

• Proven track record of full-stack product ownership: discovery, prototyping, requirements, launch, customer iteration, and roadmap management

• Demonstrated ability to personally prototype products and workflows using modern AI-native tools; this role requires a builder who can move from idea to working artifact quickly

• Strong technical fluency and product judgment in AI-enabled systems, including LLM-powered applications, workflow tooling, data products, APIs, or adjacent platform technologies

• Highly flexible and effective in fast-changing environments where the product, customer, and approach may evolve rapidly

• Clear and collaborative communicator who can align executives, engineers, researchers, and customers around decisions and tradeoffs

• Hands-on desire and ability; you are willing to build, test, and refine ideas yourself rather than delegate all early product exploration

• Capable of developing and communicating insight; you can synthesize customer input, technical possibilities, and market signals into clear product direction

• Relentless curiosity, learning, and improvement; you actively adopt new tools, methods, and technologies to increase product velocity and quality

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building AI products in financial services or other high-consequence domains

• Experience taking products from 0 to 1 and then evolving them into repeatable, scalable offerings

• Strong design and workflow intuition, especially for products that simplify complex expert work

• Experience partnering closely with engineering and research organizations in technically demanding environments

• Experience leading product in an early-stage or high-growth startup

• Advanced degree in computer science, engineering, business, design, HCI, economics, or a related field

• Graduate degree preferred

“Friends of Rational Dynamics” Candidate Referral Program

If you have a great candidate in mind for this role and would like to have the potential to earn $7,500 to $15,000 if your referred candidate is successfully hired and employed by Rational Dynamics, please use this form to submit your referral. For more details regarding eligibility, terms and conditions please make sure to review the Rational Dynamics Referral Bonus Program.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Rational Dynamics is an Equal Opportunity employer. Applicants are considered without regard to race, color, religion, creed, national origin, age, sex, gender, marital status, sexual orientation and identity, genetic information, veteran status, citizenship, or any other factors prohibited by local, state, or federal law.