Senior Product Manager

Job description

ABOUT PLAYLAB Playlab is a tech non-profit dedicated to helping educators and students become critical consumers and creators of AI. We believe that an open-source, community-driven approach is key to harnessing the potential of AI in education. We equip communities with AI tools and hands-on professional development that empowers educators & students to build custom AI apps for their unique context. Over 60,000 educators have published apps on Playlab – and the impact is growing every day. At Playlab, we believe that AI is a new design material - one that should be shaped by many to bring their ideas about learning to life. If you're passionate about building creative, equitable futures for students and teachers, we hope you'll join us. THE ROLE Playlab is hiring its first dedicated Product Manager. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role for someone who wants to shape how educators and students build with AI—not from a distance, but in the details. You'll work to implement Playlab’s strategic pillars including: - Expand what's possible: Add new capabilities (e.g., components, agents) that expands Playlab beyond chatbots, so that users can build more software that meets their needs. - Deepen the context: Make Playlab the tool that best understands and adapts to user context, building on and expanding beyond our current work on curriculum knowledge graphs. - Set the safety standard: Establish Playlab as the benchmark for responsible AI in education, shifting the burden of safety from users to the platform. Playlab has a near-term strategy defined. What we need is someone who can translate that strategy into shipped product, while sharpening the strategy based on what you learn along the way. You'll work directly with our CTO, engineering team, ML team, designers, and partnerships team. You'll hear directly from educators through our deep partner relationships. And you'll make product decisions that affect how educators and learners across the globe experience AI in education. This role requires comfort with ambiguity. Playlab is an early-stage product with significant scope, a growing team, and limited existing product process. You'll need to build that process as you go—not wait for someone to hand it to you. If you need a lot of structure to do your best work, this isn't the right fit. If you thrive when you can shape the environment around you, read on. WHAT YOU'LL DO Drive Product Execution - Own the product roadmap: prioritize ruthlessly, write clear specs, and work with design, engineering, and learning teams to ship - De-risk builds by breaking work into meaningful increments that let us learn as we go - Make tradeoffs when scope, timeline, and resources collide and communicate those tradeoffs clearly Go Deep on the Details - Write detailed requirements that align design, engineering, and go-to-market teams - Understand the technical constraints and possibilities, and work side-by-side with engineering - Engage directly with users, and gather user feedback, usage data, and partner insights to inform decisions Build Product Process - Establish rituals, artifacts, and communication patterns that help a growing team stay aligned - Create clarity about how product decisions get made, without slowing the team down - Document what's working so others can build on it Collaborate Across Teams - Work with Learning and Partnerships to translate field feedback into clear priorities and simpler designs - Coordinate with design to ensure what we build is usable, not just functional Refine Strategy as You Learn - Pressure-test strategic assumptions against what you see in the product and hear from users - Surface when priorities should shift, and make the case with evidence - Help leadership make better decisions by bringing clarity to ambiguous situations YOU MIGHT BE A FIT IF YOU... - Have 7+ years of product management experience, including at least one early-stage or high-growth environment where you had to build process, not just follow it - Have led product development for AI-powered or technically complex products—you can work fluently with ML and engineering teams - Get energy from the details: you'd rather write a clear spec than a strategy deck - Ship fast without cutting corners: you know how to de-risk builds and make incremental progress - Thrive in ambiguity and can make good decisions with incomplete information - Communicate crisply: you can explain complex tradeoffs to technical and non-technical audiences - Care about education, equity, or mission-driven work; this isn't just a job, it's a chance to shape how AI shows up in schools BONUS POINTS FOR... - Experience in edtech or deep familiarity with how products land in K-12 or higher ed environments - Background working on platforms or tools where users build things (not just consume content) - Experience with responsible AI, content moderation, or trust & safety product work - Deep familiarity with the AI/LLM product landscape WHY JOIN US? Build the Product Function: You'll be Playlab's first PM and will get the chance to shape how product management works here. Meaningful Scope: You'll own strategic pillars that directly affect whether educators can build AI tools that transform their classrooms. Mission-Aligned Team: Join a small, passionate group committed to equity, creativity, and joyful learning. Direct User Connection: Playlab's deep partnerships mean you'll hear directly from educators Flexible Work: Remote-first environment with autonomy and a strong culture of collaboration. Occasional travel for partner meetings and team gatherings. Competitive Pay & Benefits: Includes salary, healthcare, retirement, generous time off, and opportunities for professional growth.