The Stacks Product Manager

About the role

Astera is a private foundation dedicated to advancing an abundant future through science and technology. We seek a Product Manager to lead The Stacks, a new open-access platform for scientific and technical knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Drive the product vision and strategy for The Stacks in alignment with Astera’s mission.
• Develop and maintain a clear product roadmap with thoughtful prioritization of features and milestones.
• Translate conceptual ideas and user needs into clear product requirements, specifications, and user stories.
• Work closely with engineering and design to ensure features are delivered with high quality, usability, and technical feasibility.
• Lead iterative development cycles by clarifying requirements, making tradeoff decisions, and keeping teams aligned.
• Conduct user research and gather structured feedback from researchers, writers, and early adopters to inform product direction.
• Analyze workflows, pain points, and habits of scientific and technical users to shape product design decisions.
• Ensure The Stacks maintains high standards for performance, accessibility, reliability, and user experience.
• Cook up with internal teams and external partners to ensure cohesive development and smooth collaboration.
• Communicate product decisions, timelines, tradeoffs, and progress clearly to leadership and stakeholders.
• Drive usage by understanding performance metrics and qualitative feedback to prioritize opportunities for improvement.
• Advocate for open science principles and incorporate them into product decisions and long-term planning.

Qualifications

• 4–7+ years of product management experience, ideally in content platforms, digital publishing, research tools, or adjacent fields.
• Demonstrated ability to lead product development from 0 → 1.
• Familiarity with open science concepts and contemporary research workflows.
• Experience working closely with engineering and design; able to translate technical constraints into product decisions.
• Technical fluency (comfortable reading specs, understanding system architecture, and discussing tradeoffs), ideally with prior experience in: software development, technical product management roles, or overseeing complex web products.
• Exceptional communication skills (clear, structured, succinct).
• High product intuition with a strong sense for usability, information architecture, and content experience.
• Ability to operate in fast-paced, ambiguous environments and bring structure to open-ended problems.

Location

On site at our office in Emeryville, CA. Some travel may be required from time-to-time for in-person collaboration and work.

Compensation

The posted salary range is based on location in the Bay Area. The successful candidate will receive a competitive compensation package, commensurate with their experience and location.