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Director of Product, AI Models

San Francisco, CA

Descript’s vision is to put video in every communicator’s toolkit. Back in the day you needed like six monitors and a bachelor’s degree to edit video. Descript lets you do it by editing docs & slides, and increasingly by just asking AI. In the future, maybe you won’t even need to ask! But building a new way to record or generate (or both!) videos that look & sound good comes with a series of unique design, technology, and business challenges. In other words, we need really good product managers.

We’re looking for a Director of Product, AI to lead and scale Descript’s end-to-end AI product strategy. We’re looking for someone who can connect deep customer empathy with cutting-edge research, and who thrives in both high-level vision and low-level execution. You’ll drive Descript’s most strategic AI products, working closely with a world-class team of researchers, engineers, designers, and product thinkers.

What you’ll do

  • Own and evolve Descript’s AI product vision and strategy: spanning foundation models, research collaboration, and AI-first user experiences.
  • Lead cross-functional, company-wide AI initiatives: from early research and prototyping through launch, measurement, and iteration.
  • Partner deeply with AI research, engineering, and design teams: helping translate state-of-the-art advancements into customer-facing, intuitive products that solve real problems.
  • Shape the roadmap across Descript’s AI portfolio: driving decisions on what to build, buy, partner on, or contribute to in the broader ecosystem.
  • Champion customer needs at every level: from long-term bets to tactical improvements, ensuring AI features deliver clarity, delight, and real utility.
  • Mentor and inspire product managers across the org: leveling up our product craft and helping build a culture of experimentation, curiosity, and thoughtful iteration.

Who you are

  • You’ve shipped things with generative AI: with 10+ years of product management experience, including working closely with research teams and shipping products powered by generative models. You’re comfortable working with researchers on model architecture tradeoffs one day, then with design on interaction details the next.
  • You’re a tinkerer or vibecoder, or whatever: You prototype - the new way - on v0 or Cursor or Replit or whatever (and you have an opinion on which is best for what and whom). But beyond work, you’ve built personal apps for yourself. How could you not once you see what this stuff’s capable of? You know it’s not 100% there yet, but the possibilities enchant you.
  • You keep up with and may even participate in the AI discourse: No, you don’t need to be extremely online. But yes, you do have opinions on the latest breakthroughs as they come out.
  • You are a fog sculptor: There are aspects to our product and its design that do not have real competitors yet. The product intuition and design conventions have not been decided. We need product managers who are attracted to ambiguous and unsolved problems and can sculpt that ambiguity into strategy and magic.

The base salary range for this role is $260,000 - $320,000/year. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise, and location, and they may vary from the amount above.

About Descript

Descript is building a simple, intuitive, fully-powered editing tool for video and audio — an editing tool built for the age of AI. We are a team of 150 — with a proven CEO and the backing of some of the world's greatest investors (OpenAI, Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital). 

Descript is the special company that's in possession of both product market fit and the raw materials (passionate user community, great product, large market) for growth, but is still early enough that each new employee has a measurable influence on the direction of the company.

Benefits include a generous healthcare package, catered lunches, and flexible vacation time. Our headquarters are located in the Mission District of San Francisco, CA. We're looking to hire people who are local and able to join us at the office when needed. We're flexible, and you're an adult—we don't expect or mandate that you're in the office every day. But we do believe there are valuable and serendipitous moments of discovery and collaboration that come from working together in person. 

Descript is an equal opportunity workplace—we are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status. We believe in actively building a team rich in diverse backgrounds, experiences, and opinions to better allow our employees, products, and community to thrive. 

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