AI Product Lead

About FutureProofingFutureProofing builds AI products with founders and companies. Our primary service is what we call the founding teams model. We put together whole AI teams (product leads, engineers, designers, data scientists and strategy leads) to partner with brand new startups and with established organizations that want to become AI-first. We only build AI products, and we run as an AI-native company ourselves: from engineering to talent to project management, AI is in every workflow we have. The roleThe Product Lead leads FutureProofing teams that build new AI products with our partners. You are the central point of contact for the partner and you lead the team of engineers doing the build. Depending on project scope, you may work with one partner or several. Our teams are flat. Each one is a product lead, engineers, design and strategy working together, and everyone talks directly with the partner, from the founder to the people who will use the product. You report to our managing directors. A partner is rarely one person. You will work with founders, executives and investors who all care about the outcome and all have opinions, and your job is to bring them to one clear direction. What you’ll doLead a FutureProofing team building a new AI product with a partner, from discovery through launchBe the partner’s central contact, and earn the trust of the founders, executives and investors who are betting their company on the productRun discovery and the initial strategy, and shape the product proposal with a managing directorDecide what to build and what not to build, and tie every priority to revenue, users and real needsPrototype quickly, for and with partners, to turn ideas into something people can test. When the idea is in your head, you build it yourselfLead engineers on tight timelines: keep the team pointed in the right direction, push back when it matters, and translate between engineers and non-technical stakeholdersManage scope with founders who have a hundred good ideas, and give the product a clear directionHelp shape one FutureProofing approach to product across our teams What we’re looking forYou have built at least one AI product from zero to one, with real technical depth (agents, RAG, evals), and you built it rather than integrating something a third party builtStartup experience, ideally from the founding team through Series A, working closely with founders through the chaos of an early companyYou prototype extensively and quickly, you build things yourself instead of handing them off, and you use AI in your own workflow every dayYou have managed C-level stakeholders, including founders, executives or investors, and can push back on leadership when the product needs itYou have strong opinions and hold them loosely. You can back someone else’s idea when it is the better oneExperience with B2B productsYou have led teams of engineers and can talk about how you did itYou can clearly state the ROI and impact of your past work Nice to haveA venture background, so you understand what is at stake for the founders we work withBoard experience, or experience working closely with oneA track record that includes an acquisition or IPOExperience at a larger tech company plus real time at startupsEnterprise productsRegulated industries such as banking, investment banking, fintech, insurance or life sciences, and familiarity with the rules that come with them (FINRA, SEC, GLBA, PCI DSS and similar) What makes this opportunity different New AI products, every time. You work with new partners on new products. We don’t build SaaS, and AI is the product, not a feature bolted on.Direct access to founders. You work hand in hand with the people who started the company, not through layers of account management.A real say in how we do product. Our product leaders bring different, complementary styles. Part of this role is shaping a single FutureProofing approach to product.An AI-native company. You will use AI every day, in how we build and in how we run the business.Location. US based, outside New York City and San Francisco. The Midwest is a plus, and a direct flight to New York is ideal. How we hire A 45 to 60 minute conversation with our co-founder and managing directorA technical assessment on our in-house assessment platformA conversation with our engineering leadConversations with two of our managing directors