Lead, Product Management & Innovation

Bain & Company; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 168,000 - 227,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision benefits

Paid time off

401(k) plan

Job summary

Bain & Company in San Francisco seeks a Product Management & Innovation Lead within Vector AIS to guide omnichannel solutions, collaborating with engineering, design, and strategy to translate user insights into impactful products.

You will drive agile delivery, define roadmaps, run workshops, and mentor teams while partnering with Bain clients on innovative, data-driven projects in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Business, Engineering, Design or related field (or equivalent).
• 5+ years of experience delivering innovation in consulting, tech, industries or startups
• Experience with product development and launching software or enterprise solutions
• Background in architecture/software dev/data pipelines is a plus
• Experience defining requirements & product flow and implementing AI/tech solutions

Responsibilities

• Apply human-centered design to uncover user needs and shape product vision.
• Lead ideation, journey mapping, and service design workshops with users and stakeholders.
• Partner with Bain teams and clients to deliver on business needs and drive results.
• Lead creation of product requirements documents, user stories, and backlog prioritization.
• Manage delivery, roadmaps, and agile ceremonies to ensure effective execution.
• Foster collaboration across stakeholders and teams to maintain delivery excellence.

Skills

Human-centered design

Agile methodologies

AI/tech solutions

Product management

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Business, Engineering, Design or related field

Tools

Gen-AI tools

Synthetic Users

V0

Loveable

Job description

We are proud to be consistently recognized as one of the world’s best places to work. We are currently the top ranked consulting firm on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work list and have earned the #1 overall spot a record seven times.

Extraordinary teams are at the heart of our business strategy, but these don’t happen by chance. They require intentional focus on bringing together a broad set of backgrounds, cultures, experiences, perspectives, and skills in a supportive and inclusive work environment. We hire people with exceptional talent and create an environment in which every individual can thrive professionally and personally.

WHO YOU’LL WORK WITH

Vector is Bain’s integrated digital and analytics capability, bringing together Enterprise Technology and AI, Insights & Solutions (AIS) to deliver cutting‑edge innovation.

You’ll join our Product Management & Innovation experts within the AIS team, which includes a group of experts in analytics, engineering, product management, user researchers and design. Together, we create human‑centric solutions that leverage the power of data and artificial intelligence to drive competitive advantage for our clients.

WHERE YOU’LL FIT WITHIN THE TEAM

As a Product Management & Innovation Lead, you’ll work on integrated teams alongside our general consultants and clients to lead development of omnichannel solutions across a wide range of industries and problems—driving the strategic vision with cross‑functional teams to deliver impactful, feasible, and client‑aligned experiences, products, and businesses.

You have a passion for designing and developing customer‑centric innovative solutions, a foundation in product development, technical aptitude, and a collaborative mindset. With a special focus on driving innovation, you will work closely with engineering, design, and strategy teams to explore emerging technologies, validate new ideas, and guide agile development from research and planning to execution. You’ll contribute to high‑impact, client‑facing solutions while building your technical and strategic skills in a fast‑paced, experimentation & data‑driven environment.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Apply Human‑Centered Design Principles to Drive User‑Centric Innovation

• Use deep expertise in human‑centered design to uncover user needs and pain points through research.
• Align research insights with business and customer goals to shape the product vision.
• Lead and take part in ideation, journey mapping, and service design workshops to co‑create with users and stakeholders.
• Collaborate on prototyping and testing to ensure continuous validation while applying a strategic lens to balance user needs, reliable tech solutions, business needs and alignment.

Support the Delivery of Proof of Concepts (POCs) and Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) and Product that Drive Results

• Partner closely with Bain teams and clients to understand business challenges and deliver on business needs and drive results.
• Use your expertise to recommend and drive insights‑based solutions that lead to measurable impact for users and the business.
• Lead insight generation across user, technical, and business dimensions. Lead the development of product requirements documents, user stories and help with backlog prioritization by leveraging insight across user, technial and business dimensions.
• Apply product management best practices to manage delivery, optimize roadmaps, and run effective agile ceremonies.
• Foster effective alignment and collaboration across stakeholders while managing day‑to‑day work planning and delivery excellence.

Contribute to Product Planning, Roadmap Definition, and Execution

• Use your product management expertise to guide decision‑making and effectively translate complex technical concepts into clear and non‑technical language for clients and cross‑functional teams.
• Leverage business and user insights to help define, size and prioritize product roadmap opportunities, articulating associated tradeoffs.

Contribute to Building an Inspired Team

• Play an active role in fostering a positive and collaborative case team culture across AIS, clients, and other stakeholders.
• Adapt quickly to client environments, building trust influence through collaboration and consistent engagement.

Support Building Capabilities of AIS, Bain and Client Teams

• Continue building your skills in human‑centered design, agile, technical fluency (e.g., how products are built and scaled), and innovation‑driven product management.
• Contribute to internal initiatives and intellectual property in Product Management and Innovation. Capture and share learnings from client work to strengthen institutional knowledge within AIS and Bain communities.
• Maintain a curious and proactive mindset; adopting emerging tools and technologies, such as generative AI, to boost productivity and enhance team outcomes.

ABOUT YOU

Education & Years of Experience

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Business, Engineering, Design or related field (or equivalent experience).
• 5+ years of experience delivering innovation in consulting, tech, industries or startups

Preferred Experience

• Product Management experience, including assisting in the development and launch of software, enterprise solutions, services, mobile/web apps or other products
• Background in architecutre/software dev/data pipelines, a plus
• Experienced defining requirements & product flow and implmeneting AI/tech solutions, a plus

Technical Skills and Knowledge

• Familiarity with using insights to guide product decisions that consider business value, technical feasibility user needs and business goals, with the ability to assess and lead technical feasibility
• Basic proficiency in product managing software development, with some exposure to AI solutions
• Experience using Gen-AI powered product development tools effectively (i.e Synthetic Users, V0, Loveable, etc.)
• Experience and/or knowledge of design thinking principles and leading or facilitating workshops to cultivate design thinking innovation process
• Able to explain the technical aspects of the products worked on
• Ability to rapidly absorb and interpret technical information, with a basic understanding of modern design and development principles
• Awareness of agile project management methodology, incl. familiarity with Scrum
• Awareness of Lean Startup methodology
• Experience supporting the architecture and implementation of AI/tech solutions at a smaller scale, a plus
• Interpersonal Skills
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to explain and discuss approaches and technicalities of solutions with colleagues and clients from other disciplines
• Ability to work independently, manage priorities, and collaborate effectively in complex, ambiguous situations, passion for delivering high‑impact client results in fast‑paced, evolving environments
• Curiosity, proactivity and critical thinking
• Ability to collaborate with people at all levels and with multi‑office/region teams

Working Location and Travel

• This role requires a minimum of three days per week working together in person, either at a client location or at your Bain home office
• Travel is required. This position requires regional travel away from your home office/primary working location. Travel frequency and destinations will vary based on project needs.

U.S. COMPENSATION INFORMATION

Bain & Company's comprehensive benefits and wellness program is designed to help employees achieve personal independence, protection and stability in the areas most important to you and your family.

• Bain pays 100% individual employee premiums for medical, dental and vision programs, offering one of the most comprehensive medical plans for employees without impacting your paycheck
• Generous paid time off, including parental leave, sick leave and paid holidays
• Fully vested 401(k) company contribution
• Paid Life and Long‑Term Disability insurance

Compensation for this role includes base salary, annual discretionary performance bonus, 401(k) plan with an annual employer contribution based on years of service and Bain’s best in class benefits package (details listed below).

Some local governments in the United States require a good‑faith, reasonable salary range to be included in job postings for open roles. The estimated annualized compensation for this role is as follows:

• In New York and California, the good‑faith, reasonable annualized full‑time salary range for this role is $197,300.
• Annual discretionary performance bonus
• This role may also be eligible for other elements of discretionary compensation
• 4.5% 401(k) company contribution, which increases after 3 years of service and is 100% vested upon start date