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Product Manager

Washington, DC

State Affairs is the nation’s leading news and policy intelligence platform focused on state governments. We combine nonpartisan coverage of Statehouses across the country alongside state government data and AI-native tools into a singular platform. 

We inform and empower decision makers, policy professionals and citizens through our award-winning journalism and data – delivering profound insights to help our customers decode and act on state politics and  policy. We’re building a category-defining business that will reshape America as we strengthen visibility into what’s happening and why at the state level.

We are hiring a Product Manager to join our team located in Washington, DC to own a critical surface of our platform. You will not just be shipping features — you will be shaping how practitioners, organizations, and decision-makers consume intelligence, act on information, and demonstrate impact.

Your work will sit at the intersection of user workflow, data integrity, and organizational scale. You will move fluidly between deep customer problems and architectural tradeoffs, between the needs of a daily power user and the expectations of an executive buyer.

As the Product Manager, you will be responsible for the following:

  • Workflow Depth & Operational Rhythm: Design for professionals who live in the details. You will build tools that support high-intensity, always-on use cases — understanding the distinct motivations of different user personas and translating that into product logic that serves both the individual practitioner and the teams they operate within.
  • Signal-to-Noise & Intelligent Surfacing: Develop product logic that prioritizes relevance over volume. You will work closely with data and engineering teams to ensure our platform surfaces the right information at the right time — transforming raw inputs into structured, actionable insights users can act on with confidence.
  • Organizational Scale & Ecosystem Fit: Design for the complexity of how large teams consume and share information across hierarchies. You will think carefully about permissions, governance, and interoperability — ensuring our platform integrates cleanly into the broader software stacks our customers already depend on.
  • Data as a Product: Treat the lifecycle of information — from ingestion to enrichment to consumption — as a product problem, not a backend concern. You will partner with data and engineering teams to maintain accuracy, timeliness, and structural integrity as the foundation everything else is built on.
  • Holistic Value Delivery: Shift the frame from individual user actions to organizational ROI. You will identify features that help entire teams demonstrate their value internally — and build the metrics and narratives that make that case visible.

Essential Qualifications for this position include:

  • Bachelor’s degree in relevant field
  • 3+ years of professional work experience in product management, owning a product roadmap from discovery through launch
  • Prior professional work experience in an Agile/Scrum environment, collaborating daily with engineering and design to ship software iteratively
  • Prior professional work experience balancing the conflicting needs of multiple user personas — from the executive buyer to the daily operator — within a single product surface
  • Prior professional work experience conducting user interviews, synthesizing qualitative signals, and validating assumptions with high-value customers
  • Ability to map complex workflows, identify organizational bottlenecks, and design extensible solutions rather than one-off fixes
  • Ability to define KPIs, analyze engagement data, and use quantitative evidence to defend prioritization decisions
  • Ability to discuss data pipelines, schema design, and API architecture with engineers — not as a coder, but as an informed partner
  • Ability to write and communicate verbally. Ability to write a tight spec, translate complex requirements into clear user stories, and align a room without authority

Preferred Qualifications for this position include: 

  • Prior professional work experience with AI/ML in a product context 
  • Prior professional work experience in a 0→1 or startup environment
  • Knowledge of civic tech, govtech, enterprise SaaS, or legal tech

This is an onsite work opportunity and our teams operate from the State Affairs office in Washington, DC. State Affairs offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package to employees.

The annual salary range for this role as it is posted is $180,000 to $210,000 for candidates working from the State Affairs office in Washington, DC. The final job level and annual salary will be determined based on the education, qualification, knowledge, skills, ability, and experience of the final candidate(s), and calibrated against relevant market data and internal team equity.  Benefits listed in this posting may vary depending on the nature of your employment with State Affairs.

Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future company sponsorship.

State Affairs is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions on the basis of merit and business needs.  State Affairs does not discriminate against applicants on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, disability, or any other protected characteristic in accordance with federal, state, and local law.

State Affairs is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities as they go through our job application and interview process. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at jobs@stateaffairs.com

By submitting your application, you affirm the content contained therein is true and accurate in all respects. Please note that prior to employment, State Affairs will obtain background checks for employment purposes that may include, where permitted by law, the following: identify verification, prior employment verification, personal and professional references, educational verification, and criminal history. For certain roles, further background checks covering additional information and activities may be initiated.

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