Forward Deployed Product Manager

4w4 weeks ago

Fractional AI

New York City, US · Full-time · $200,000 – $325,000

About this role

Fractional AI focuses on putting frontier AI to work for real-world business problems. As a Forward Deployed Product Manager, you will own the journey from first conversation to live system to measurable business impact.

You will act as the primary face of Fractional to the client, turning ambiguous goals into crisp problem statements and shipped solutions. This includes shaping what we build, driving execution across multiple AI products, and coordinating between customers, engineers, and designers.

This is a full-stack customer role blending engagement management, product management, and delivery management. You will jump into the gaps to keep things moving, working with customers who have ambitious, often fuzzy goals around automation, content moderation, customer service, and workflow integration.

You will help create demand by joining early, messy conversations and teasing out real pain points. You will also drive adoption and long-term impact by working with client teams on rollout, enablement, and change management so the systems you build actually get used.

Requirements

Customer-facing, high-stakes experience leading projects where stakeholders were not aligned and the path was not obvious.
Ability to push back, reframe the problem, and hold the line on quality under pressure.
Typically 4–8 years in product, consulting, or implementations, though demonstrated experience matters more than title.
Comfort with translating ambiguous business problems into clear requirements and evaluation criteria for AI-powered systems.
Proven ability to coordinate and unblock cross-functional teams across customers, engineers, and designers.
Experience working with early-stage or rapidly changing customer engagements where the project is still a vague idea.

Responsibilities

Own the customer relationship end-to-end as the day-to-day strategic partner and primary point of contact.
Shape what we build and why by translating ambiguous business problems into crisp problem statements, user journeys, and success metrics.
Turn messy problems into shipped solutions by translating ambiguous needs into clear requirements, PRDs, and plans for engineers.
Drive execution across multiple AI products by running planning, check-ins, and risk tracking while coordinating between customers, engineers, and designers.
Help create demand by jumping on early, messy conversations and sketching solution approaches with founders and sales.
Drive adoption and long-term impact by working with client teams on rollout, enablement, and change management.
Bring judgment and clarity when requirements are fuzzy, articulating the goal, knowns, and plan to keep projects moving.