Director, Product Management | Applied AI

EPAM Systems; Chicago (IL); Remote; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance (

Health Savings Account

Flexible Spending Accounts

Short-Term Disability

Long-Term Disability

Life and AD&D Insurance

Employee Assistance Program

LinkedIn Learning access

401(k) Matching

Paid Time Off

Paid Holidays

Legal Plan

Identity Theft Protection

Accident Insurance

Employee Discounts

Pet Insurance

Employee Stock Purchase Program

Discretionary bonus program

Discretionary Long-Term Incentive (LTI

Job summary

EPAM Systems seeks a product leader to run a portfolio of AI-powered products and to own how our Product Management team applies AI — strategy, standards, investment decisions, governance and team capability. You will lead and develop a team of Product Managers, own product strategy and P&L across the portfolio, and raise the organization's product-AI capability.

This is a director-level role focused on guiding AI strategy, funding bets, and setting guardrails for responsible use of AI across

Qualifications

• 7+ years in Product Management, with managed products or groups and launched multiple products including AI-powered capabilities
• Ownership of product vision, roadmap and P&L across a portfolio
• Experience prioritizing ROI, and building AI business cases and build/buy/partner decisions
• Ability to align product strategy with new technologies and responsibly adopt AI capabilities
• SME across multiple business domains with understanding of consumer trends and disruption
• Ability to lead and coach a team of Product Managers across a multi-product portfolio
• Set operating model and governance for AI features and responsible-AI practices
• Raising team AI capability via enablement, coaching and hiring standards
• Ability to evaluate AI outputs and proposals and fund the right bets
• Not required: building/training ML models; focus on judging, funding and governance

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of Product Managers overseeing a portfolio of AI-powered products; own strategy, vision and P&L
• Set AI-informed product strategy, sequencing roadmaps against advancing AI capability
• Make build/buy/partner and investment decisions for AI capabilities; own business cases and ROI
• Own AI-feature economics and lifecycle including cost, latency, pricing and drift/versioning
• Establish standards, operating model and review gates for AI features and governance
• Own responsible-AI governance across privacy, bias, security, transparency and regulation
• Raise the team's AI capability through coaching, playbooks and hiring standards
• Collaborate across product, engineering, data, design and AI/ML teams
• Represent the organization with senior clients on AI strategy with realistic expectations
• Direct effective collaboration across functions to maintain product intent and accountability
• Ensure compliance with governance and defense against over-promising

Skills

Product Management leadership

AI product strategy

P&L management

Portfolio management

Roadmap planning

AI governance

Stakeholder communication

Job description

We are looking for a product leader to run a portfolio that includes AI-powered products and to own how our Product Management team applies AI — the strategy, standards, investment decisions, governance and team capability. You will lead and develop a team of Product Managers, own product strategy and P&L across the portfolio, and raise the organization's product-AI capability.

What "Applied AI" means at Director level. The emphasis shifts from doing the hands-on AI work to judging it, funding the right AI bets and setting the guardrails. This is a product-leadership role — not an engineering, data-science or AI-research role. You set direction and standards for the specialists who build.

Req# 1100335863

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of Product Managers running a portfolio that includes AI-powered products; own product strategy, vision and P&L across that portfolio

• Set an AI-informed product strategy — where AI creates durable advantage, where it is commoditizing, and how to sequence the roadmap against advancing AI capability

• Make build / buy / partner and investment decisions for AI capabilities; own AI business cases and ROI; fund the right experiments and know when to stop them

• Own AI-feature economics and lifecycle across the portfolio — cost, latency, unit economics, pricing, and model-lifecycle decisions (drift, versioning, vendor change)

• Set the standards, operating model and review gates for how the team builds AI features and uses AI in its own work, so quality and responsibility are consistent

• Own responsible-AI governance — privacy, bias, security, transparency, human oversight, audit trails, incident response, and applicable regulation (e.g., EU AI Act) and sector rules

• Raise the team's AI capability through coaching, playbooks, shared prompt/agent libraries and an AI component in the hiring bar; advise business units or clients on adoption

• Direct effective collaboration across product, engineering, data, design and AI/ML teams, keeping product intent, constraints and accountability clear

• Represent the organization credibly on its AI product strategy with senior clients — setting realistic expectations rather than over-promising

Requirements

• 7+ years in Product Management, having managed products, product lines/families and/or groups, with experience leading PM/PO teams; developed and/or launched 3+ products to market, including AI-powered products or capabilities

• Ownership of product vision, roadmap and P&L, and of strategic roadmap alignment across a portfolio

• Portfolio analysis and strategy formulation; prioritizing spend by ROI and supporting financial models — including AI business cases and build/buy/partner decisions

• Track record aligning product strategy with new technologies, assessing and adopting emerging AI capabilities responsibly

• SME across multiple (3+) business domains; deep grasp of consumer trends, technological disruption and competitive factors — including how AI is reshaping the domain

• AI literacy sufficient to lead — understands AI concepts, capabilities and limitations well enough to make sound portfolio and investment decisions and to challenge technical proposals credibly. ML-engineering / data-science depth is not required

• Able to shape company product strategy, convey difficult messages to senior stakeholders and own key initiatives and business KPIs

• Leads, develops and champions a team of Product Managers across a multi-product portfolio; identifies and plans for performance improvement

• Sets the operating model for how the team applies AI, and raises its proficiency through enablement, coaching and a clear hiring bar

• AI-informed product/portfolio strategy — advantage vs commoditization, build/buy/ partner, AI business cases and ROI, roadmap sequencing against AI capability

• Responsible-AI governance across the portfolio — privacy, bias, security, transparency, human oversight, audit trails/incident response and relevant regulation

• Ownership of AI-feature economics and lifecycle — cost, latency, unit economics, pricing, drift/versioning/vendor decisions

• Setting AI standards and review gates for how the team builds AI features and uses AI

• Raising team AI capability — enablement, coaching, playbooks, shared tooling, hiring bar

• Ability to evaluate AI outputs, prototypes and technical proposals and fund the right bets

• Working AI literacy — concepts, capabilities and limitations sufficient to lead and challenge

• Continued practical use of AI in own work and adaptability as AI evolves

• Ability to direct effective collaboration across engineering, data, design and AI/ML teams

• Not required: building, training, fine-tuning or deploying ML models; data-science, MLOps or AI-research depth. The Director sets direction and standards for the specialists who do this work

Nice to have

• Deep hands-on AI prototyping or feature-building (valued, but expected to plateau here — it is the Senior PM / IC strength; the Director's job is to judge and fund, not build)

• External thought leadership on AI product management (talks, publications, community)

• Direct experience standing up an AI governance or enablement program at organization scale

We offer

• Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance (Subsidized)

• Health Savings Account

• Flexible Spending Accounts (Healthcare, Dependent Care, Commuter)

• Short-Term and Long-Term Disability (Company Provided)

• Life and AD&D Insurance (Company Provided)

• Employee Assistance Program

• Unlimited access to LinkedIn learning solutions

• Matched 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan

• Paid Time Off – the employee will be eligible to accrue 15-25 paid days, depending on specific level and tenure with EPAM (accrual eligibility may change over time)

• Paid Holidays - nine (9) total per year

• Legal Plan and Identity Theft Protection

• Accident Insurance

• Employee Discounts

• Pet Insurance

• Employee Stock Purchase Program

• If otherwise eligible, participation in the discretionary annual bonus program

• If otherwise eligible and hired into a qualifying level, participation in the discretionary Long-Term Incentive (LTI) Program

This Remote Position Cannot be Performed in New York City.

In accordance with the LA County Fair Chance Ordinance, you may find a copy of the Notice containing a summary of the Ordinance’s key provisions here: Concept FCO Posting 8 27 24 (lacounty.gov)

EPAM Systems, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We recognize the value of diversity and inclusion in creating success for our customers, business partners, shareholders, employees and communities. We are committed to recruiting, hiring, developing and promoting employees without discrimination. As a global employer, this commitment includes complying with all laws in the countries in which we operate. Nevertheless, we believe equal employment practices should not be limited to what the law requires. Equal opportunity and inclusion are essential to motivate, empower and recognize the best in everyone.

At EPAM, employment actions are based on individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, pregnancy status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital or familial status, national origin, ancestry, genetics, age, disability status, veteran status, citizenship status when otherwise legally able to work, or any other characteristic protected by law.