Forward Deployed Product Manager

Code and Theory, LLC; Austin, New York (TX, NY); On-site; USD 70,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Code and Theory seeks an Forward Deployed Product Manager to be embedded in implementation pods, translating client and internal needs into clear product requirements during platform rollouts. You will bridge product, delivery, and implementation teams, defining workflows, prototyping solutions, and shaping how The Machine's agents behave in real-world use.

You will own end-to-end workstreams, moving between client context, product thinking, and delivery realities, and you will create structure

Qualifications

• Experience leading product efforts in startups, SaaS, or technical services environments.
• Ability to own workstreams end-to-end with limited supervision.
• Strong systems thinking and workflow design.
• Hands-on with prototyping, prompting, and AI-enabled workflows.
• Excellent communication across technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Bias to action and willingness to define playbooks.

Responsibilities

• Gather and clarify business requirements from clients and internal teams during implementations.
• Translate workflows into structured requirements, user stories, and briefs for delivery teams.
• Prototype flows and prompts to validate direction before full builds.
• Collaborate with Technical Account Managers to keep implementations moving.
• Refine solutions with engineering during in-market use and surface edge cases.
• Identify recurring patterns and contribute to the product roadmap.
• Document decisions and process changes to preserve institutional knowledge.
• Support discovery, design, and handoff across multiple deployments.
• Communicate risks, blockers, and trade-offs as they arise.
• Stay current with AI tooling and bring new prototyping techniques to the team.

Skills

Product management

Business analysis

Solutions consulting

Forward-deployed

Implementation

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 Forward Deployed Product Manager who will be embedded directly in implementation pods, turning client and internal needs into clear, actionable product requirements during platform rollouts. This person bridges product, delivery, and implementation teams throughout rollout — defining workflows, prototyping solutions, and shaping how The Machine's agents behave in real-world use.

They own discrete workstreams end-to-end, translating ambiguous business needs into structured requirements that implementation engineers can act on without dropping specificity along the way. They're comfortable moving between client context, product thinking, and delivery realities, and are increasingly the person who creates structure where none exists rather than waiting for someone else to define it.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Gather and clarify business requirements directly from clients and internal stakeholders during implementations
• Translate ambiguous workflows into structured requirements, user stories, and briefs that a delivery team can work from
• Prototype flows, prompts, and lightweight solutions to validate direction quickly, before investing in full builds
• Partner with Technical Account Managers to keep implementations moving and unblock decisions in real time
• Work closely with implementation engineers to refine solutions in-market as real usage surfaces new edge cases
• Identify recurring workflow patterns across deployments and feed them back into the core product roadmap
• Document decisions, edge cases, and process changes as the team learns, so knowledge doesn't live in one person's head
• Support discovery, solution design, and handoff across multiple concurrent deployments
• Identify and proactively communicate risks, blockers, and trade-offs as they emerge
• Stay current with modern AI tooling and bring new prototyping and prompting techniques back into the team's practice

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

• 2–5 years of experience in product management, business analysis, solutions consulting, forward-deployed, or implementation roles — ideally from a startup, SaaS, or technical services environment
• A track record of owning workstreams independently and delivering high-quality work on complex, ambiguous projects with limited supervision
• Strong systems thinking and workflow intuition, with the judgment to make good calls on incomplete information
• Hands-on comfort with prototyping, prompting, and workflow design using modern AI tools — you're technical and curious, not just directionally aware
• Excellent communication skills, able to move fluidly between technical and non-technical stakeholders and between client context and internal delivery realities
• High ownership and a bias to action — you're more likely to write the playbook than wait for one
• Experience working in collaborative, cross-functional environments spanning product, delivery, and engineering

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 $70,000 – $140,000 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.