Consultant, Product Management

Raising The Village; Toronto; On-site; CAD 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player seeks a highly experienced Product Management Consultant to lead their data and technology initiatives. This role involves refining product strategies, enhancing user-centered solutions, and ensuring effective collaboration across teams. The ideal candidate will bring over a decade of experience in product management, particularly in developing data-informed solutions that drive impact in low-connectivity environments. Join a dynamic team dedicated to eradicating ultra-poverty through innovative technology and data analytics. Your contributions will shape the future of program delivery and community engagement, making a real difference in the lives of those in need.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in product management with a focus on data-informed solutions.
• Strong understanding of agile methodologies and product strategy.

Responsibilities

• Define Venn’s long-term product strategy and success metrics.
• Provide product lifecycle oversight and implement agile practices.
• Conduct field research to improve user experience and engagement.

Skills

Product Management

Data Analytics

Agile Methodologies

Stakeholder Engagement

AI Components

Cross-Functional Team Management

Field Research

Job description

Job Title: Consultant, Product Management
Reporting to: Managing Director
Location: Toronto, ON
Travel Required: 30%
Terms: Contract - Estimated 8 Months, to end of 2025

About Raising The Village
We are Raising The Village (RTV), an international development organization and a registered charity on a mission to end ultra-poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. Raising The Village is a fast-growing organization on an accelerated growth path. Our team in East Africa and North America works together to lift communities out of ultra-poverty in last-mile villages. We operate at the intersection of direct implementation and advanced data analytics to inform progress, decision-making, and impact.

To date, we have supported more than one million people through our innovative holistic approach. We have achieved this tremendous growth with the support of our incredible partners from all around the globe who believe in our model and impact. Find out more about our programs and impact at www.raisingthevillage.org.

Background on Venn
RTV's Venn ecosystem is the organization’s data and technology unit (based in Uganda and reporting to the Managing Director), supporting program design, monitoring, evaluation, learning, and adaptation. Venn integrates advanced analytics, AI, and digital tools to optimize decision-making and maximize program efficiency. Venn’s portfolio of products includes:

• Custom software solutions for implementers and communities for data-informed insights, program learning resources, and decision-support tools
  • Custom data analytics tools and platforms
  • AI-powered knowledge and decision support products
  • Custom software solutions for planning and program design
• At the core of RTV’s digital ecosystem is the Implementation Application (microservices architecture), a software tool that serves as the primary interface for frontline staff, community members, and replication partners. This application currently includes self-reporting on program activities, household check-ins to monitor household participation and input distribution tracking. The vision for this product is to continuously evolve into a comprehensive job-aide/program delivery tool for multiple user categories, integrating further data analytics (descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and eventually prescriptive) to support real-time decision-making, and ensure field staff and partners have access to relevant knowledge, training, program methodologies, and adaptive AI-powered tools.
• While the Implementation Application serves program teams and partner communities, RTV is also developing custom software and data products for end-to-end integration of digital solutions (from project planning and designing to delivery and evaluation) to enhance scalability and replication.

Role Description
Raising The Village (RTV) is seeking a highly experienced Product Management Consultant to provide product management leadership and execution oversight for Venn. This role aims to refine and structure our product management approach, ensuring that RTV’s data, learning, and technology solutions are user-centered, cost-effective, scalable, and impact-driven. The Consultant would be expected to refine these systems, strengthen integration across departments, and position RTV as a leader in technology-enabled development solutions for eradicating poverty within the last mile communities in SSA.

Key Responsibilities

Product Strategy & Vision

• Define and refine Venn’s long-term product strategy, ensuring alignment with RTV’s mission, impact goals, and sector trends.
• Develop an integrated product ecosystem that connects real-time data analytics, program learning resources, and decision support tools.
• Establish success metrics and measurement frameworks for product adoption, usability, and contribution to RTV’s impact goals.

Execution & Delivery Support

• Provide product lifecycle oversight from ideation through execution and post-launch optimization.
• Implement agile methodologies and best practices in product development, ensuring continuous iteration and user feedback loops.
• Ensure that products meet usability, data security, and compliance standards.
• Guide the integration of AI, machine learning, predictive analytics, and learning content into product development.
• Utilize real-time data insights to iterate and optimize product adoption.

User-Research and Product Understanding

• Conduct field research, stakeholder interviews, and usability studies to assess how end-users interact with the tools.
• Identify barriers to adoption and engagement and propose improvements based on research insights.
• Utilize A/B testing methodologies to refine product features and improve user experience.
• Develop and test products for multiple stakeholders, including frontline staff, community champions, and replication partners, ensuring usability and practical application.
• Ensure data and technology solutions are human-centered, particularly for low-connectivity, last-mile environments.

Cross-Unit Integration & Collaboration

• Act as an advisor to RTV leadership on best practices for product structuring, integration, and scale-up strategies.
• Ensure seamless collaboration between Venn’s Data Insights, Data Engineering, AI/ML, Software Development, and Implementation and Applied Learning teams.
• Provide guidance on potential co-development or licensing opportunities for RTV’s digital tools.
• Collaborate with IT to integrate robust data and software security protocols into every phase of product development.

Capacity Building & Team Development

• Assess and recommend organizational structures, talent needs, and capacity-building initiatives to improve product management.
• Develop training sessions and materials to strengthen internal adoption and stakeholder engagement with Venn products.
• Define job scope, responsibilities, and organizational placement for any future product leadership hire.

Required Skills and Expertise

• Extensive experience (10+ years) in product management, ideally building data-informed solutions, and scaling digital solutions, ideally in development contexts.
• Strong experience building data-centric products with AI components.
• Proven experience managing cross-functional teams.
• Strong understanding of agile methodologies, product strategy, and impact-driven technology solutions.
• Experience in international development, field-based programming, or working in low-connectivity environments is an asset.
• Exceptional strategic thinking, leadership, and stakeholder engagement skills.