Lead Product Manager, Strategic Initiatives

San Jose/ San Francisco Bay Area

interface.ai is the industry's-leading specialized AI provider for banks and credit unions, serving over 100 financial institutions. The company's integrated AI platform offers a unified banking experience through voice, chat, and employee-assisting solutions, enhanced by cutting-edge proprietary Generative AI.

Our mission is clear: to transform the banking experience so every consumer enjoys hyper-personalized, secure, and seamless interactions, while improving operational efficiencies and driving revenue growth.

interface.ai offers pre-trained, domain-specific AI solutions that are easy to integrate, scale, and manage, both in-branch and online. Combining this with deep industry expertise, interface.ai is the AI solution for banks and credit unions that want to deliver exceptional experiences and stay at the forefront of AI innovation.

About the Role

The Lead Product Manager – Strategic Initiatives is a high-leverage, high-trust role that sits at the frontlines of new product discovery, commercialization of AI research, and strategic market validation.

You’ll operate as a cross-functional builder, moving between:

  • Net-new product development

  • Sales-driven proof-of-concepts (POCs)

  • Deep platform and AI infrastructure initiatives

  • Internal tools that power intelligence, efficiency, and scale

This role blends product strategy, AI fluency, go-to-market alignment, and internal enablement. If you’re a product leader who thrives in uncertainty, learns fast, and ships faster-this role offers rare scope and visibility.

Key Responsibilities

Lead New Product Discovery & Prototyping

  • Identify, define, and validate new product opportunities in response to customer signals, market whitespace, and emerging capabilities.

  • Collaborate closely with Engineering, Research, and Sales to rapidly turn ideas into prototypes and learning loops.

  • Design MVPs, evaluate business models, and shape the transition path from idea → concept → pilot → production.

Drive High-Stakes POCs to Support Strategic Deals

  • Partner with Sales and Strategic Accounts teams to deliver POCs that accelerate revenue, validate platform use cases, and unlock new verticals.

  • Define lightweight, measurable pilots with clear success criteria and rapid feedback collection.

Own Internal AI & Data Enablement Initiatives

You will be responsible for high-impact internal products that multiply the effectiveness of every team:

  • Internal AI Copilots
     Build internal-facing agentic tools (e.g., for implementation, customer success, GTM) that drive faster onboarding, improved QA, and knowledge routing-powered by our core AI stack.

  • Modern ML Infrastructure & Data Workflows
     Partner with infrastructure and data platform teams to shape labeling systems, model management workflows, experiment observability, and feedback loop architecture. Your goal: turn model outputs into productized value.

Align Strategic Bets with Product-Market Fit

  • Identify signals across early pilots and sales conversations to evaluate market readiness, solution maturity, and pricing fit.

  • Develop frameworks and positioning to test new product-market combinations and determine viability before full productization.

Create Internal Product Velocity

  • Operate across departments to remove blockers, connect the dots, and turn ideas into experiments-and experiments into shippable products.

  • Help translate cross-functional ambition into structured, time-bound initiatives with clear scope, goals, and outcomes.

What Success Looks Like

In your first 6–12 months, you will:

  • Deliver a couple of successful POCs that support major deals or pilot partnerships.

  • Help define the scope and feasibility of new product lines that support long-term roadmap evolution.

  • Launch internal AI copilots that measurably improve operational speed, accuracy, or onboarding quality.

  • Collaborate with ML and data teams to bring at least one research asset to production-ready status with measurable usage.

Qualifications

Required

  • 4–6 years of product management experience, including substantial work in zero-to-one product development, technical pilots, or R&D commercialization

  • Background in software engineering, AI/ML, or data infrastructure (2–3 years hands-on experience)

  • Proven ability to work closely with sales and strategic accounts on pre-product or pre-GA initiatives

  • Track record of operating effectively in ambiguous, fast-moving environments-prioritizing clarity and delivery

  • Deep interest in the practical productization of AI systems and working with researchers to shape usable systems

Preferred

  • Experience leading internal tooling or platform teams focused on operational intelligence or enablement

  • Exposure to ML Ops, experiment observability, or feedback loop architecture

  • Familiarity with financial services workflows or other complex, compliance-driven industries

Why This Role is Unique

  • Define and deliver what comes next. You’ll help shape the next generation of products that push the limits of what our platform can do.

  • Partner across all layers of the company. From ML research to executive sales, you’ll be at the heart of our most exploratory, cross-functional work.

  • Drive impact without guardrails. This is a high-autonomy, high-expectation role. You’ll bring shape to what doesn’t exist yet-and ship it with confidence.

Compensation

The base salary range for this role will be between $180,000 and $210,000. Final compensation will be determined by a variety of factors, including, but not limited to your location, skills, experience, education, and/or professional certifications. During the phone screening, your recruiter will provide the location-specific salary range for this role. Regardless of your personal situation or where you are in the world, Interface.ai offers comprehensive and great benefits programs to meet your needs:

  • Health: medical, dental, and vision insurance and wellbeing resources and programs
  • Time away: Public holidays and discretionary PTO package for flexible days off with manager approval
  • Financial: 401K, ESPP, Basic life and AD&D insurance, long-term and short-term disability
  • Family: parental leave, maternity support, fertility services
  • Development: Access to internal professional development resources.
  • Additional: 24/7 access to professional counselors, voluntary insurance coverage, exclusive perks and discounts

 

At interface.ai, we are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all employees and applicants. We celebrate diversity and believe it is critical to our success as a company. We do not  discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other legally protected status. All employment decisions at Interface.ai are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications. We strive to create a culture that values and respects each person's unique perspective and contributions. We encourage all qualified individuals to apply for employment opportunities with Interface.ai and are committed to ensuring that our hiring process is inclusive and accessible.

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