Scientific Product Manager

Sunlight reflection may be the only available option, alongside dramatic emissions reductions, adaptation, and rapid scaling of carbon removal, to rapidly limit many climate impacts over the coming decades.  But we don’t know nearly enough about it to make a scientifically-informed decision about potential deployment – and we’re not on a trajectory for rapid, legitimate decision making.

Reflective is a philanthropically-funded initiative to develop the necessary knowledge base and do the requisite technology research and development, urgently and responsibly. 

What you’ll do

As Reflective’s Scientific Product Manager, you’ll own the strategy, coordination, and execution of our growing suite of scientific tools designed to accelerate sunlight reflection research. These tools—including our SAI simulator, cloud data hub, and open-source surrogate models of stratospheric dynamics—are (or will be) used by scientists, engineers, and decisionmakers to explore potential SAI scenarios.

You’ll serve as the connective tissue between users and builders: gathering feedback from the research community, aligning priorities across teams, and ensuring that our products are intuitive, reliable, and aligned with our scientific roadmap. This role is central to how we translate high-priority research questions into useful, open-source tools that others can run with.

You’ll work closely with Reflective’s science and engineering teams—along with external collaborators—to prioritize what we build, clarify requirements, set and track milestones, and help everyone involved move quickly without breaking things. You’ll also shape our approach to product documentation and communication so researchers can understand what the tools do and how to use them.

Responsibilities

• Product Ownership & Strategy

  • Serve as product owner for Reflective’s core scientific tools—including the SRM simulator and associated data platforms. 
  • Work with internal and external stakeholders to define product vision,  strategy, and user requirements.
  • Translate user needs into clear product requirements and technical specifications.
  • Establish and maintain a prioritization framework for ongoing product development and iteration.

  Project Management & Execution

  • Drive planning, coordination, and execution of cross-functional product work across Reflective’s science, engineering, and data teams.
  • Create and manage clear, realistic project timelines and workflows.
  • Help unblock teams and identify dependencies, tradeoffs, and bottlenecks.
  • Ensure tools are rigorously tested, documented, and version-controlled.

  User Engagement & Feedback

  • Act as the primary point of contact for internal and external users of Reflective’s tools.
  • Create and maintain feedback loops with researchers, modelers, and decision-makers.
  • Work with Reflective’s communications staff to develop documentation, training materials, and outreach strategies to support tool adoption and impact.

  Strategic Integration

  • Collaborate with Reflective’s leadership to ensure tool development aligns with the organization’s scientific roadmap.
    Represent Reflective’s technical capabilities in external meetings and convenings.
  • Contribute to pitches and proposals to expand support for key scientific infrastructure initiatives.

Who you are

Minimum qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in scientific product management, technical program management, or scientific computing leadership roles.
• You have experience building and managing open-source scientific software or computational tools used by researchers.
• You have a solid understanding of climate science, atmospheric modeling, or data science—enough to communicate fluently with scientists and engineers and to assess trade-offs.
• You have experience managing complex, cross-functional projects with multiple stakeholders and dependencies.
• You’re an exceptionally fast learner. You enjoy (and have experience) quickly ramping on new technical topics.
• You have excellent written and verbal communication skills—especially when translating between technical and non-technical audiences.
• You’re obsessed with usability and adoption—you understand that the best tool is the one people actually use.
• You are low ego and high trust, and you build deep, collaborative relationships across teams.
• You’re highly organized, outcomes-oriented, and proactive—you don’t need someone to tell you what to do next.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience working with or building tools for Earth system modeling, geoscience, or large-scale simulation workflows.
• Familiarity with CESM, GeoMIP, or other climate modeling efforts.
• You’ve contributed to or led open-source projects.
• Have a deep understanding of sunlight reflection research and the socio-political implications of this research.
• Ability to work in person in the SF Bay Area 2-3 days per week.

Not needed

• A nonprofit background. Reflective is technically a nonprofit, but it doesn't feel like one.

We encourage anyone who is interested in this role to apply, regardless of whether you feel you meet 100% of the qualifications. The top candidates will bring their own unique perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds from a variety of industries along with many but not necessarily all the skills listed above. We offer professional learning and training opportunities to help you develop skills you may not have had the opportunity to cultivate yet.   

Location 

Our goal is to hire the right person for the role regardless of location, but we have a slight preference for candidates who can work from our Bay Area office 2-3 days/week. However, the role can be fully remote and we are open to candidates based anywhere in the world who can overlap with our core working hours. We may be able to sponsor visas for US-based foreign nationals and have a moving stipend to support candidates who would like to relocate to the Bay Area. 

But regardless of location, we love seeing each other in person and believe regular co-location helps improve collaboration and team culture. As such, we plan regular team co-working weeks, typically in the Bay Area. This role may entail additional travel (up to 1x per month) for conferences, external meetings, and team gatherings. Of course, we cover those travel costs.

Compensation and Benefits 

We are committed to providing competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits to our employees. We offer fixed salary levels based on experience and role to minimize biases in compensation and to ensure team members are paid the same for doing the same work.

We expect this position to be a regular, full-time position, with an annual salary between $130K and $190K USD, depending on level of experience. In addition to salary, we offer a comprehensive set of benefits to all full-time employees:

• Medical, dental, vision insurance    
• 401(k)
• Professional and personal development 
• Generous paid time off and sick leave, including 12 weeks paid parental leave
• Flexible working hours  

Diversity

At Reflective, recruiting, hiring, mentoring, and retaining a diverse workforce is critical to our success.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran. 

Reflective is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.