Principal Product Manager, Vertical AI

At Podium, our mission is to arm every local business with a complete platform and outcome-driven AI employees that convert leads into real, paying customers. Every day, millions of workers use our AI lead conversion and communication platform to help them get more leads and make more money.

Our work and focus on helping local businesses thrive has been recognized across the industry, including Forbes’ Next Billion Dollar Startups, Forbes’ Cloud 100, the Inc. 5000, and Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies.

At Podium, we believe in fostering a culture that thrives on hiring and developing exceptional talent. Our operating principles serve as a compass, guiding daily behavior and decision-making, and ensure we hire people who will thrive at Podium. If you resonate with our operating principles and are energized by our mission, Podium will be a great place for you!

About the company

At Podium, our mission is to arm every local business with a complete platform and outcome-driven AI employees that convert leads into real, paying customers. Every day, millions of workers use our AI lead conversion and communication platform to help them get more leads and make more money. Our work and focus on helping local businesses thrive has been recognized across the industry, including Forbes' Next Billion Dollar Startups, Forbes' Cloud 100, the Inc. 5000, and Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies. At Podium, we believe in fostering a culture that thrives on hiring and developing exceptional talent. Our operating principles guide how we work and make decisions, and ensure we hire people who will thrive at Podium. If you share our principles and mission, you'll thrive here.

About the team

We build AI agents that automates and accelerates front office work - texting, calling, emailing, and more. Our enterprise-grade conversational agents are integrated into the systems that matter and operate in a human-in-the-loop way that actually works in the real world. Over 100,000 local businesses use Podium today across industries like Automotive, Healthcare, Home Services, and Retail. We power the communication layer of their front office and are expanding into workflows that directly drive revenue. Our formula is simple: build product quickly, talk to customers, repeat.

About the role

We're hiring a Principal Product Manager to lead our AI efforts in the Automotive vertical. This is a senior, high-ownership role where you'll define product direction, customer outcomes, and long-term strategy for how Podium drives revenue in the Auto industry. This isn't a rotational position - you'll own this vertical long-term, building deep expertise in Automotive customer needs and workflows.

You'll be responsible for building outcome-driven AI agents that help Auto dealers and service centers make more money. This includes identifying high-value workflows to automate, expanding our product footprint in dealerships, and scaling the features that drive the most revenue. You'll work across our entire product surface - inbox, phones, payments, CRM, integrations - to create a comprehensive solution for the Automotive industry.

While previous Auto industry experience is helpful, it's not required - what matters is your ability to deeply understand customer problems, translate them into product solutions, and execute with speed. You'll need to balance strategic thinking with hands-on detailed work, from user stories and specs to testing and iterating on features.

This position is based in Lehi, UT. We may offer relocation assistance to new employees.

In this role, you will:

• Stay close to customers  - talk with dealership and service‑center managers regularly. Understand how their business works and what success looks like.
• Set strategic direction for our Automotive AI platform - decide where we go deeper, where we expand, and how Podium becomes the leading applied‑AI solution in Auto.
• Own the Auto vertical  - lead roadmap, strategy, and performance for this high‑value segment
• Build AI agents that help the customer - design and ship outcome‑driven agents that automate high‑value workflows using Podium’s first‑party systems and third‑party integration
• Expand what our platform can do for Auto dealers  - identify and unlock new workflows that drive revenue for our Automotive customers
• Work across the company - partner with engineering, design, partnerships, finance, legal, sales, onboarding, and customer success to deliver real product
• Roll up your sleeves - be hands‑on with detailed PM work, from user stories and specs to testing and iterating.

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Demonstrate high agency - consistently identifying opportunities and driving projects forward with minimal oversight or direction
• Have 8-10+ years of product management or related industry experience, with emphasis on building technical products
• Have deep understanding of AI agent design, human-in-the-loop patterns, and enterprise integrations
• Focus deeply on customer pain, turning real insights into crisp prototypes, compelling product stories, and demos that win customers

What sets you apart:

• Hands-on coding experience (React or Python)
• Background in ML, LLMs, or large-scale systems integration
• Startup, founder, or entrepreneurial experience
• Technical degree or equivalent real-world expertise
• Experience in vertical SaaS or local business software (Auto, Healthcare, Home Services, etc.)
• Experience leading business initiatives beyond just product development
• Success leading partner integrations or channel-based expansion

Benefits

• Open and transparent culture 
• Life insurance, long and short-term disability coverage
• Paid maternity and paternity leave
• Fertility Benefits
• Generous vacation time, plus three 4-day summer holiday weekends
• Excellent medical, dental, and vision benefits
• 401k Plan with competitive company matching
• Bi-annual swag drops with cool Podium gear and apparel 
• A stellar HQ (Utah) gym with local professional coaches and classes offered
• Onsite HQ (Utah) child care center, subsidized for employees
• Additional benefits for fully remote employees

Podium is an equal opportunity employer. Podium provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, genetic information, marital status or veteran status