AI Product Engineer – Venture Studio (Startup Incubator)

The D. E. Shaw Group; New York (NY); On-site; USD 185,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical and prescription drug coverage

401(k) contribution matching

Wellness reimbursement

Charitable gift match program

Job summary

A leading investment and technology firm is looking for an engineering-oriented AI technical product manager to join its innovative team. This role requires collaborating with internal leads to translate business challenges into technical solutions and developing prototypes using cutting-edge AI technologies. The ideal candidate has 3-6 years of experience in technology products and is skilled in applying LLMs to address real-world issues. A competitive salary and benefits package are offered, including a year-end bonus and wellness reimbursement.

Qualifications

• 3 to 6 years of relevant experience in technology product development.
• Strong analytical skills to translate vague requests into solutions.
• Experience working in high-trust environments, shipping code or closely with developers.

Responsibilities

• Translate business pain points into actionable technical solutions.
• Prototype using relevant tools and technologies.
• Collaborate across teams to evolve prototypes into MVPs.
• Support internal tools and process automation initiatives.

Skills

AI tools application

Prototyping

Collaboration with development teams

Creating user-friendly interfaces

Experience with LLMs

Education

Bachelor’s degree or higher

Tools

OpenAI APIs

LangChain

Llama Index

Vector DBs

Job description

OVERVIEW

The D. E. Shaw group seeks a pragmatic, engineering‑oriented AI technical product manager to join its DESCOvery team’s venture studio. The DESCOvery team ideates, researches, and builds innovative, technology‑driven businesses, with a growing focus on leveraging AI to address real‑world business challenges. This hands‑on, high‑autonomy role offers the chance to transform business needs into working prototypes, internal tools, and lightweight products that deliver immediate impact in a collaborative and engaging work environment.

WHAT YOU'LL DO DAY‑TO‑DAY

• Partner with internal leads to translate business pain points into actionable technical solution paths.
• Prototype solutions using tools and technologies such as OpenAI APIs, LangChain, Llama Index, vector DBs, and orchestration frameworks.
• Develop simple, user‑friendly front‑ends to demonstrate product viability.
• Collaborate with engineers and external vendors to evolve prototypes into robust MVPs ready for broader adoption.
• Work across multiple problem areas—including internal tools, process automation, and workflow enhancements—supporting both DESCOvery and portfolio companies.

WHO WE’RE LOOKING FOR

• A bachelor’s degree or higher is required, as is an impressive record of academic and professional achievement.
• Three to six years of relevant experience, including at least two years developing technology products alongside development teams and at least one year building workflow products that support business activities and processes.
• Excellent intuition for creatively applying LLMs and modern AI tools to solve business problems, with comfort using off‑the‑shelf components, open‑source tools, and APIs, and a drive to keep up with emerging AI/ML technologies.
• Demonstrated ability to translate vague or high‑level prompts into scoped plans and working solutions with minimal oversight; experience shipping code or working closely with developers in high‑trust environments is essential.
• Experience in startups, internal tools, R&D, or skunkworks‑style teams is a plus; individuals who have leveraged LLMs to build features, tools, or products independently, thrive in zero‑to‑one contexts (MVPs, early‑stage startups), and enjoy acting as a translator between businesses and technical teams will excel in this role.
• The expected annual base salary for this position is $185,000 to $230,0000. Our compensation and benefits package includes variable compensation in the form of a year‑end bonus, guaranteed in the first year of hire, and benefits including medical and prescription drug coverage, 401(k) contribution matching, wellness reimbursement, family building benefits, and a charitable gift match program.