Senior Product Manager, Emerging Products & AI

Workiva Inc.; Ames (IA); Hybrid; USD 129,000 - 207,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary bonus

RSUs (restricted stock)

401(k) match

Job summary

Workiva Inc. is seeking a Senior Product Manager to transform ambiguous customer challenges into validated, high-trust enterprise AI products.

You will lead discovery, hypothesis-building, rapid prototyping, and rigorous validation to determine when to scale or sunset early product vectors. In this technical, zero-to-one role, you will architect probabilistic AI experiences that balance utility with strict data security and safe human-in-the-loop interactions within regulated enterprise

Qualifications

• 6+ years in product management or technical product-building role with a Bachelor’s degree.
• Experience managing B2B SaaS enterprise workflow software or data-intensive products.
• Understanding of AI landscape including LLMs, multi-agent orchestration, and human-in-the-loop design.

Responsibilities

• Lead qualitative user interviews and system mapping for enterprise finance, compliance, and audit teams.
• Formulate hypotheses and strategic bets with measurable customer value and business impact.
• Collaborate with design and engineering to prototype and validate MVPs with clear boundaries and timelines.
• Define agentic experiences with auditable, human-in-the-loop workflows and clear AI vs deterministic signals.
• Design security governance and access policies for autonomous AI agents with auditability.
• Establish KPIs and run retrospectives on experimental features to refine strategy.

Skills

Product management

B2B SaaS

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Advanced degree

Tools

APIs

AI prototyping tools

Job description

Workiva's Growth organization is building the next generation of AI-native products. We are seeking a Senior Product Manager to transform ambiguous, complex customer challenges into validated, high-trust enterprise product solutions. In this role, you will champion early product spaces from inception to evaluation: uncovering systemic customer challenges, developing rapid technical prototypes, determining where artificial intelligence drives measurable value, and validating product-market fit with clear evidence before scaling. This is a technical, zero‑to‑one validation role focused on systemic exploration rather than static roadmap maintenance. Your core challenge will be architecting probabilistic AI experiences that deliver high utility while maintaining strict predictability, data security, and user safety within a highly regulated, high‑trust enterprise compliance environment.

What You’ll Do

• Deep Customer Discovery & System Mapping – Lead qualitative user interviews, observational workflow walk‑throughs, and technical discovery sessions to analyze how enterprise finance, compliance, and audit teams manage complex operational data. Diagram enterprise dependency structures, human‑to‑system handoffs, multi‑stakeholder approval gates, and historical operational failure points.
• Hypothesis Formulation & Strategic Betting – Synthesize messy, fragmented user signals into structured, reusable problem definitions rather than one‑off custom feature requests. Translate field observations into precise product‑market hypotheses, defining the explicit customer value, repeatability, and expected business impact of your proposed AI workflow interventions.
• Rapid Prototyping & Technical Validation – Collaborate closely with design and engineering partners to develop, script, and launch low‑ and high‑fidelity validation concepts (utilizing tools like SQL, Python, Retool, or Streamlit). Establish clear Minimum Viable Product (MVP) boundaries, explicit non‑goals, and concrete validation timelines to decisively recommend whether to scale, pivot, or sunset an early‑stage product vector.
• Agentic Experience & Trust Frameworks – Translate complex enterprise compliance anxieties into intuitive, high‑trust agentic experiences. Define interaction paradigms that dictate how autonomous agents collaborate with humans—ensuring the product interface clearly signals when an AI is making a probabilistic recommendation versus when deterministic rules apply. Champion elegant human‑in‑the‑loop touchpoints that allow users to audit, verify, and approve AI‑driven outcomes without sacrificing workflow momentum.
• Agentic Boundary & Security Governance – Formulate, model, and implement digital authority boundaries for autonomous enterprise AI agents. Design enterprise‑grade, permission‑aware access policies that precisely define what an agent can read, summarize, compile, update, elevate, or execute, ensuring absolute auditability under active corporate compliance guidelines.
• Cross‑Functional Alignment & Performance Analysis – Act as the central, transparent product leader connecting technical engineering workflows, UX design iterations, data security requirements, and go‑to‑market (GTM) pilot rollouts. Establish core quantitative Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that track early feature adoption, and conduct evidence‑driven retrospectives on experimental features to constantly iterate on strategy.

What You’ll Need

• Minimum Qualifications – 6+ years of experience in product management or a closely related technical product‑building role with a Bachelor’s degree; or 4+ years of experience with an Advanced Degree. Demonstrated track record managing B2B SaaS applications, enterprise workflow automation software, data‑intensive products, or corporate business tools. Strong conceptual understanding of the modern applied AI landscape, including LLM capabilities, multi‑agent orchestration, and human‑in‑the‑loop design patterns. Proven experience translating highly ambiguous, unstructured user pain points into structured technical requirement documentation, validation roadmaps, and testable hypotheses. Exceptional product craft with a deep focus on user psychology, interface transparency, and building high‑trust solutions in risk‑averse environments.
• Preferred Qualifications – Ability to understand how modern software products are structured, including APIs, front‑end experiences, back‑end services, data flows, AI/ML services, and integrations, and to use modern AI tools to explore, prototype, and work effectively with engineering. Advanced degree. Background working within deeply regulated domains such as corporate accounting, financial auditing, compliance reporting, risk management, legal operations, or ESG/sustainability tracking.

Working Conditions & Travel Requirements

Ability to travel up to 20% to facilitate customer discovery workshops, align with internal distributed product teams, and represent Workiva at key industry conferences. Reliable internet access during any remote work outside a Workiva office.

How You’ll Be Rewarded

Salary range in the US: $129,000 – $207,000. A discretionary bonus typically paid annually. Restricted Stock Units granted at time of hire. 401(k) match and comprehensive employee benefits package.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Employment decisions are made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other protected characteristic. Workiva is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. To request assistance with the application process, please email [e-mail]. Workiva employees are required to undergo comprehensive security and privacy training tailored to their roles, ensuring adherence to company policies and regulatory standards.