Associate Director, Forward Deployed Product Manager

Code and Theory, LLC; Austin, New York (TX, NY); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Code and Theory, a digital-first creative agency, seeks a Lead Forward Deployed Product Manager in Austin to guide a pod of 4-5 FDPMs embedded across client work. You will set the operating standard for requirements, prototypes, and workflow decisions, and act as the escalation point between the pod and core product teams.

This role focuses on execution, pattern generalization, and building a shared playbook while coordinating staffing and ensuring delivery across deployments.

Qualifications

• Experience as a forward-deployed PM, solutions consultant, or implementation lead.
• Track record leading a workstream or informal team in a fast-moving, client-facing environment.

Responsibilities

• Set and enforce a consistent bar for requirements quality and prototyping across the pod.
• Unblock FDPMs by making calls or escalating to the right owner.
• Own relationships with Technical Account Managers and implementation leads at the program level.
• Review workflows, prototypes, and briefs before clients or engineering.
• Identify recurring patterns to generalize and drive into core product roadmap.
• Build and maintain the shared playbook: templates, workflows, prompts, docs.
• Coordinate staffing across deployments and flag capacity gaps.
• Surface pod progress and blockers to leadership.
• Stay hands-on to support deployments when needed.

Skills

Forward-deployed PM

Client-facing leadership

Systems thinking

Prototyping & prompting

Documentation standards

Excellent communication

Ownership & bias to action

Startup/SaaS mindset

Job description

The Machine is the agentic operating system for marketing, built by Code and Theory. It plugs into the tools marketing teams use and turns disconnected workflows into a single intelligent system, connecting brand strategy, creative production, and media performance. The Machine helps power agencies across Stagwell's network and world-leading brands.

We're looking for a Lead Forward Deployed Product Manager who will provide functional leadership for a pod of 4-5 Forward Deployed Product Managers embedded across client implementations. This person sets the operating standard for how requirements, prototypes, and workflow decisions get made across every active deployment, and acts as the escalation point between the FDPM pod, Technical Account Managers, implementation engineering, and core product. This is not a reporting-line management role - pod people management sits with the Director of Product - but it is the person who sets the bar the rest of the pod works to.

They've done the individual-contributor version of this role and know where it breaks under pressure. Product-minded but still executional, they lead by example rather than by authority, and are comfortable operating at the level of a single deployment and the level of the whole pod in the same day. They're the person who builds structure and standards where none exist, then gets peers to actually use them - turning scattered patterns across deployments into a shared playbook and a steady feed of learnings back into the core product.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Set and enforce a consistent bar for requirements quality, prototyping rigor, and documentation across the pod
• Unblock FDPMs on ambiguous or contested requirements by making the call or escalating to the right owner
• Own the relationship with Technical Account Managers and implementation leads at the program level, not just per-deployment
• Review and sanity-check the workflows, prototypes, and briefs the pod produces before they reach clients or engineering
• Identify which recurring patterns across deployments are worth generalizing, and drive that handoff into the core product roadmap
• Build and maintain the shared playbook: templates, workflow patterns, prompting approaches, and documentation standards the pod reuses
• Coordinate staffing and workload across concurrent deployments, and flag capacity gaps or performance concerns to the reporting manager
• Surface pod-wide progress and blockers to product and delivery leadership
• Stay hands-on enough to step into a deployment directly when a pod member is blocked, out, or the stakes require it

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

• Prior experience as a forward-deployed PM, solutions consultant, or implementation lead — including having done the individual-contributor version of this work and knowing where it breaks under pressure
• A track record leading a workstream, initiative, or informal team in a fast-moving, client-facing environment; direct people-management experience is not required
• Strong systems thinking with the ability to spot a pattern across multiple different client contexts at once, and the judgment to make the call for the pod, not just yourself, with incomplete information
• Hands-on comfort with prototyping, prompting, and workflow design — well enough to review someone else's work critically, not just do your own
• Excellent communication skills across technical, non-technical, client-facing, and leadership audiences
• High ownership and a bias to action, with the discipline to know when to step back and let an FDPM own it
• Comfortable working directly for clients and influencing a team without a reporting line — leading by example, not authority
• Likely from a startup, SaaS, or technical services environment, with a builder/operator orientation rather than a pure roadmap PM background

ABOUT US

Born in 2001, Code and Theory is a digital-first creative agency that sits at the center of creativity and technology. We pride ourselves on not only solving consumer and business problems, but also helping to establish new capabilities for our clients. With a global client roster of Fortune 100s and start-ups alike, we crave the hardest problems to solve. We have teams distributed across North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. The Code and Theory global network of agencies is growing and includes Kettle, Instrument, Left Field Labs, Create Group, Current, and TrueLogic.

Striving never to be pigeonholed, we work across every major category: from tech to CPG, financial services to travel & hospitality, government and education to media and publishing. We value the collaboration with our client partners, including but not limited to Adidas, Amazon, Con Edison, Diageo, EY, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lenovo, Marriott, Mars, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, and TikTok.

The Code and Theory network is comprised of nearly 2,000 people with 50% engineers and 50% creative talent. We’re always on the lookout for smart, driven, and forward-thinking people to join our team.

The compensation range for this role is $140,000 - $190,000 and spans multiple levels. We're open to hiring at the level that best matches the right candidate's experience. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, budget, and location.