Senior Product Manager

Playlab; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare

Retirement

Generous time off

Opportunities for professional growth

Remote-first environment

Job summary

Playlab, a tech non-profit focused on AI in education, is seeking its first product manager to shape how educators and students build with AI. You’ll own product strategy, write clear requirements, and collaborate with engineering, ML, design, and partnerships to deliver impactful tools worldwide.

This remote-first role demands 7+ years of PM experience in early-stage or high-growth settings, comfort with ambiguity, and a passion for equity in education.

Qualifications

• Have 7+ years of product management experience, including at least one early-stage or high-growth environment where you had to build process, not just follow it.
• Have led product development for AI-powered or technically complex products—you can work fluently with ML and engineering teams.
• Get energy from the details: you'd rather write a clear spec than a strategy deck.
• Ship fast without cutting corners: you know how to de-risk builds and make incremental progress.
• Thrive in ambiguity and can make good decisions with incomplete information.
• Communicate crisply: you can explain complex tradeoffs to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Care about education, equity, or mission-driven work; this isn't just a job, it's a chance to shape how AI shows up in schools.

Responsibilities

• Prioritize ruthlessly, write clear specs, and work with design, engineering, and learning teams to ship
• De-risk builds by breaking work into meaningful increments that let us learn as we go
• Make tradeoffs when scope, timeline, and resources collide and communicate those tradeoffs clearly
• Write detailed requirements that align design, engineering, and go-to-market teams
• Understand the technical constraints and possibilities, and work side-by-side with engineering
• Engage directly with users, and gather user feedback, usage data, and partner insights to inform decisions
• Establish rituals, artifacts, and communication patterns that help a growing team stay aligned
• Create clarity about how product decisions get made, without slowing the team down
• Document what's working so others can build on it
• Work with Learning and Partnerships to translate field feedback into clear priorities and simpler designs
• Coordinate with design to ensure what we build is usable, not just functional
• Pressure-test strategic assumptions against what you see in the product and hear from users
• Surface when priorities should shift, and make the case with evidence
• Help leadership make better decisions by bringing clarity to ambiguous situations

Skills

Product management

AI products

Communication

Ambiguity tolerance

Requirements writing

Risk management

Stakeholder management

Job description

About Playlab

Playlab is a tech non-profit dedicated to helping educators and students become critical consumers and creators of AI.

We believe that an open-source, community-driven approach is key to harnessing the potential of AI in education. AI is a new design material and should be shaped by many to bring their ideas about learning to life. We equip communities with software and hands-on learning that empowers educators & students to build AI apps for their unique context.

If you're passionate about building creative, equitable futures for students and teachers, we hope you'll join us.

The Role

This is a hands-on, high-ownership role for someone who wants to shape how educators and students build with AI.

Your product work will:

• Expand what's possible: Add new capabilities (e.g., components, agents) that expands how creators craft AI native software for their contexts.

• Deepen the context: Build on our current work on curriculum knowledge graphs and organizational knowledge bases to deepen how creators can leverage their context.

• Set the safety standard: Push the boundaries on what responsible and safe AI in education looks like. This includes advancing our moderation and safety systems; supporting learnability, legibility, and interpretability within the product; collaborating with key ecosystem partners; and open sourcing as much of this work as we can to advance the ecosystem.

You'll work directly with our CTO, engineering team, ML team, designers, and partnerships team. You'll hear directly from educators through our deep partner relationships. And you'll make product decisions that affect how educators and learners across the globe experience AI in education.

This role requires comfort with ambiguity. Playlab is an early-stage product with significant scope, a growing team, and limited existing product process. You'll need to build that process as you go and not wait for someone to hand it to you. If you need a lot of structure to do your best work, this isn't the right fit. If you thrive when you can shape the environment around you, read on.

What You'll Do

Drive Product Execution

• Prioritize ruthlessly, write clear specs, and work with design, engineering, and learning teams to ship

• De-risk builds by breaking work into meaningful increments that let us learn as we go

• Make tradeoffs when scope, timeline, and resources collide and communicate those tradeoffs clearly

Go Deep on the Details

• Write detailed requirements that align design, engineering, and go-to-market teams

• Understand the technical constraints and possibilities, and work side-by-side with engineering

• Engage directly with users, and gather user feedback, usage data, and partner insights to inform decisions

Build Product Process

• Establish rituals, artifacts, and communication patterns that help a growing team stay aligned

• Create clarity about how product decisions get made, without slowing the team down

• Document what's working so others can build on it

Collaborate Across Teams

• Work with Learning and Partnerships to translate field feedback into clear priorities and simpler designs

• Coordinate with design to ensure what we build is usable, not just functional

Refine Strategy as You Learn

• Pressure-test strategic assumptions against what you see in the product and hear from users

• Surface when priorities should shift, and make the case with evidence

• Help leadership make better decisions by bringing clarity to ambiguous situations

You Might Be a Fit If You...

• Have 7+ years of product management experience, including at least one early-stage or high-growth environment where you had to build process, not just follow it

• Have led product development for AI-powered or technically complex products—you can work fluently with ML and engineering teams

• Get energy from the details: you'd rather write a clear spec than a strategy deck

• Ship fast without cutting corners: you know how to de-risk builds and make incremental progress

• Thrive in ambiguity and can make good decisions with incomplete information

• Communicate crisply: you can explain complex tradeoffs to technical and non-technical audiences

• Care about education, equity, or mission-driven work; this isn't just a job, it's a chance to shape how AI shows up in schools

Bonus Points For...

• Experience in edtech or deep familiarity with how products land in K-12 or higher ed environments

• Background working on platforms or tools where users build things (not just consume content)

• Experience with responsible AI, content moderation, or trust & safety product work

• Deep familiarity with the AI-LLM product landscape

Why Join Us?

Build the Product Function: You'll be Playlab's first PM and will get the chance to shape how product management works here.

Meaningful Scope: You'll own strategic pillars that directly affect whether educators can build AI tools that transform their classrooms.

Mission-Aligned Team: Join a small, passionate group committed to equity, creativity, and joyful learning.

Direct User Connection: Playlab's deep partnerships mean you'll hear directly from educators

Flexible Work: Remote-first environment with autonomy and a strong culture of collaboration. Occasional travel for partner meetings and team gatherings.

Competitive Pay & Benefits: Includes salary, healthcare, retirement, generous time off, and opportunities for professional growth.