Chief Product Officer

Axial Search; United States; On-site; USD 280,000 - 420,000; Full time

Job summary

Axial Search is seeking a seasoned product leader to own the vision and strategy for AI-driven products in the US, building and guiding a high-performing team and aligning cross-functional stakeholders to deliver on ambitious roadmaps.

The role emphasizes customer discovery, data-driven decision making, and scalable product processes to drive revenue and market impact.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of product leadership experience.
• Proven track record shipping 2+ products to market or managing $50M+ in product-driven revenue.
• Experience building and scaling product teams from 5+ people; ability to hire, mentor, and retain top product talent.
• Fluency in translating technical and data capabilities into customer value; comfortable engaging with engineers on architecture, ML models, and feasibility tradeoffs.
• Strong business acumen—understand unit economics, CAC, and how product strategy ties to financial outcomes.
• Comfort operating in fast-moving, ambiguous environments; ability to prioritize ruthlessly and ship under constraints.

Responsibilities

• Own the complete product vision and strategy, establishing roadmaps that align AI capabilities with customer needs and business objectives.
• Build and lead a high-performing product team, setting hiring standards, fostering a culture of ownership, and developing emerging product talent.
• Drive cross-functional alignment with engineering, data, design, and business stakeholders to ship products on time and at quality.
• Partner with executive leadership to define product-market fit metrics, manage revenue or user-growth targets, and track product health KPIs.
• Lead customer discovery and competitive analysis to inform prioritization and validate product hypotheses before and after launch.
• Establish and own product processes—including roadmap prioritization, feature scoping, and go-to-market planning that scale as the organization grows.
• Champion a data-driven mindset by owning analytics strategy, instrumentation, and experimentation frameworks to reduce guesswork in product decisions.

Job description

Axial Search is a specialist executive search firm built for one kind of hire: leaders who help organizations navigate AI transformation.

Visit our website to learn more about our process and explore free tools for your job search, including our live job market dashboard with salary, skills and hiring trend data from thousands of AI transformation roles.

What The Market Looks Like

We've tracked 200+ executive-level product postings across the US in the last six months, with concentrated hiring in California, New York, and Texas. Technology, financial services, and professional services lead hiring volume. CPOs in this cohort typically command salaries between $280K and $420K, with strongest candidates bringing a track record of shipping products in complex, data-driven environments and demonstrated capability to build and scale high-performing product organizations. The most successful hires combine technical fluency with clear business acumen and the ability to translate AI capabilities into customer value.

Job Responsibilities

• Own the complete product vision and strategy, establishing roadmaps that align AI capabilities with customer needs and business objectives
• Build and lead a high-performing product team, setting hiring standards, fostering a culture of ownership, and developing emerging product talent
• Drive cross-functional alignment with engineering, data, design, and business stakeholders to ship products on time and at quality
• Partner with executive leadership to define product-market fit metrics, manage revenue or user-growth targets, and track product health KPIs
• Lead customer discovery and competitive analysis to inform prioritization and validate product hypotheses before and after launch
• Establish and own product processes—including roadmap prioritization, feature scoping, and go-to-market planning that scale as the organization grows
• Champion a data-driven mindset by owning analytics strategy, instrumentation, and experimentation frameworks to reduce guesswork in product decisions

Candidate Requirements

• 10+ years of product leadership experience, with at least 5 years in a CPO or equivalent executive-level product role
• Proven track record shipping 2+ products to market or managing $50M+ in product-driven revenue
• Experience building and scaling product teams from 5+ people; demonstrated ability to hire, mentor, and retain top product talent
• Fluency in translating technical and data capabilities into customer value; comfort engaging with engineers on architecture, ML models, and feasibility tradeoffs
• Strong business acumen—ability to understand unit economics, customer acquisition costs, and how product strategy ties to company financial outcomes
• Comfort operating in fast-moving, ambiguous environments; demonstrated ability to prioritize ruthlessly and ship under constraints