Founding Product Lead, AI Developer Tools

HyperDev AI; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

HyperDev AI is seeking a Founding Product Lead to shape the vision, strategy, and roadmap of a new AI developer platform in Johannesburg. You will work directly with the founders to understand developers, map workflows, and translate insights into practical product briefs and experiences.

You will balance user needs with commercial goals while guiding a small, fast‑moving team. You will own discovery to delivery, partnering with engineering and design to ship meaningful features, validate ideas

Qualifications

• Experience taking a software product from idea to launch and iteration.
• Track record of owning product decisions and delivering outcomes.
• Hands‑on with customer discovery, prioritisation, and close collaboration with engineering and design.
• Strong technical fluency: discuss APIs, integrations, architecture with developers.
• Practical experience shipping AI‑powered products and understanding LLM capabilities and limits.
• Strong product judgment supported by evidence and user experience focus.

Responsibilities

• Define the product direction with Co‑Founders and set a focused roadmap.
• Turn direction into clear prioritisation decisions and explain trade‑offs.
• Stay close to AI and developer tooling to sharpen positioning and product choices.
• Build direct relationships with developers and early customers for feedback.
• Own the product journey from discovery through delivery, launch, and iteration.
• Define acceptance criteria and create user journeys for engineers and designers.

Skills

Product strategy

Customer discovery

Cross‑functional collaboration

Technical fluency

AI‑powered products

User experience judgment

Job description

HyperDev AI is seeking a Founding Product Lead to shape the vision, strategy, and roadmap of a new AI developer platform in Johannesburg. You will work directly with the founders to understand developers, map workflows, and translate insights into practical product briefs and experiences.

You will balance user needs with commercial goals while guiding a small, fast‑moving team. You will own discovery to delivery, partnering with engineering and design to ship meaningful features, validate ideas