Senior Product Manager, Contract (with potential for hire in a full-time role)

Climate Cabinet; Chicago (IL); Remote; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Climate Cabinet is seeking a Senior Product Manager for a 6-month contract role focused on creating innovative products for scaled climate policy analysis. The role involves leading product development, collaborating with diverse teams, and utilizing expertise in data science and machine learning to tackle critical climate legislation.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in product management or related role.
• Proven ability to turn ideas into testable prototypes.
• Experience in leading collaborative initiatives involving diverse stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Design and deliver functional beta product prototypes for policy analysis.
• Lead end-to-end product development focusing on policy tracking.
• Collaborate with data engineers to integrate datasets into prototypes.

Skills

Product Management

Data Science

Collaboration

Prototyping

Strategic Thinking

Tools

Jira

SQL

Python

Figma

Lucidchart

Job description

Role: Senior Product Manager, 6-month Contract with potential for hire in a full-time role
Role Goal: Create beta products that enable policy analysis work at scale.
Location: Remote in the U.S.
Timeframe: Proposals due June 16th, 2025. Contract start date of July 2025.
Price: Seeking proposals

About Climate Cabinet

Climate Cabinet helps state and local candidates run, win, and legislate on climate change. State and local policymakers are key to tackling climate change – they drive progress regardless of who is in the White House. That’s why Climate Cabinet exists.

We are a dynamic, passionate, startup team of experienced climate experts with staff on-the-ground across the country and a remote-first workplace. Our team culture prioritizes: supporting each other as full people, striving for the highest standard of excellence in our work, respecting local knowledge, embracing technology and innovation, curiosity, and a continuous growth mindset.

Role Summary
We’re looking for a Senior Product Manager contractor who thrives on turning ideas into action to create beta products that enable policy analysis work at scale.

Across America, lawmakers introduce an estimated 1 million pieces of policy each year. Approximately ~230,000 of those bills are at the state level alone.

Starting with a six-month contract, you will create beta products and prototypes that analyze these millions of words, and hundreds of thousands of policies to highlight the most climate-critical pieces of legislation nationwide. We expect expertise in large language models, data science techniques, and machine learning abilities to be particularly helpful given this problem set. You will also advise us on our longer term data and technology strategy as our team grows.

This work builds off of 5 years of cutting-edge data science work, and an existing database that covers thousands of pieces of existing legislation and tens of thousands of policymakers considering climate policy.

This is a great opportunity for someone who is equally energized by strategy, project management, and prototyping—someone who wants their product skills to directly support bold, equitable climate action in states and localities across the country.

Scope of Work

• Design and deliver 3–4 functional beta product prototypes that demonstrate the potential for scalable climate policy analysis.
• Lead the end-to-end product development process from idea to prototype, focused on policy tracking and analysis tools.
• Collaborate with data engineers and analysts to integrate existing datasets into product prototypes.
• Apply and evaluate techniques from machine learning, data science, and large language models (LLMs) to extract meaningful insights from legislative text.
• Conduct user discovery and internal feedback cycles to inform iteration and refinement.
• Provide input on Climate Cabinet’s long-term product and data strategy, including documentation of technical and resourcing needs.
• Maintain clear, organized documentation to support knowledge transfer and potential productization beyond the contract period.

Example Deliverables

• A prototype product that visualizes cross-state trends in climate legislation
• A dashboard or tool that tracks policy momentum (e.g., increases or decreases in climate policies).
• A lookup feature that allows users to retrieve relevant legislation based on topics or keywords (e.g., “all policies on solar legislation introduced in 2025”).
• A written recommendation memo on future product opportunities and infrastructure needs.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in product management, technical program management, or a related role.
• Rapid Prototyper & Strategic Thinker: Proven ability to bring structure to ambiguity, quickly turn ideas into testable prototypes while aligning them with broader goals, ensuring efficient iteration and clarity.
• Collaborative Leader: Strong track record leading complex, collaborative initiatives from start to finish involving technical and non-technical stakeholders with diverse perspectives.
• Impact-Oriented: Experience connecting short-term execution with long-term strategy and funding outcomes.

Technical Requirements

• Familiarity with applying large language models, machine learning techniques, or data science methods to analyze and extract insights from large volumes of unstructured text (e.g., legislative language, policy databases).
• Skilled and experienced in prototyping and visualization tools (e.g., Figma, Lucidchart, Google Sheets) to mock up products and align teams.
• Comfortable managing agile workflows using Jira (or equivalent tools)—sprints, backlogs, and ticket hygiene.
• Proficient in lightweight data exploration (e.g., SQL, basic Python) to validate ideas and collaborate with engineers.
• Experience collaborating on cloud-based solutions (especially GCP, BigQuery) and working alongside data engineering teams.

Application Process

• We are accepting applications via Greenhouse on a rolling basis through June 16th, 2025 – include a resume and a cover letter/proposal that includes the following:

1. Introduction and relevant experience

• What about Climate Cabinet and this role is appealing to you at this point in your life?
• A description of your experience and skills that satisfy the requirements of this role.
• An example of how you’ve rapidly developed a V1 product prototype to bring clarity to an ambiguous idea. What was the product and what was it trying to solve, what tools did you use, how did it help your team learn or decide, and what happened next?

Recommended approach for this scope of work

Estimated timeline of milestones

Price and fee structure

2-3 References

All applications submitted through June 16th will be reviewed and candidates will receive updates on their candidacy no later than June 20th, 2025.

The interview process will include up to three Zoom interviews with staff, an exercise, and reference checks.

No obligation to contract:
This request for proposal does not obligate Climate Cabinet to contract for services specified herein.

Rejection of proposals:
Climate Cabinet reserves the right at its sole discretion to reject any and all proposals received without penalty and not to issue a contract as a result of this request for proposal.

You should apply! We encourage applications from people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, women, first-gen and low-income people, and members of marginalized communities.

Climate Cabinet is an equal opportunity employer. Climate Cabinet believes every employee has the right to work in an environment free from unlawful discrimination. Consistent with applicable federal, state and local laws, Climate Cabinet provides all employees and applicants with equal opportunity in all aspects of the employment relationship. This includes employment decisions related to hiring, promotions, transfers, disciplinary action, termination, and training. Climate Cabinet will comply with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination in employment.

Want to learn more about Climate Cabinet? Check out our recent interview on Volts and climatecabinet.org.