Competitive Salary &amp; Benefits • 6‑month contract • ~3 days/week • Hybrid (UK)TIAA Limited is entering an exciting phase in its AI journey. Following a successful Knowledge Transfer Partnership with the University of Essex, we’ve developed a promising AI capability — and now we need to validate whether it can deliver measurable internal value and support a credible external software proposition.We’re looking for a Senior Contract Product Manager to lead this discovery and validation effort. This is not a typical delivery role. It’s a hands‑on, structured, evidence‑driven product discovery position at the centre of a small, focused product function.If you thrive in ambiguity, enjoy shaping early product direction, and know how to turn capability into value, this is a rare opportunity to influence a strategic decision: invest, narrow, partner, pause, or build.About the RoleAs Senior Contract Product Manager, you will lead the six‑month product discovery and internal validation workstream for TIAA’s emerging AI capability. You’ll work closely with assurance teams, technical colleagues, leadership and a fractional commercial/product strategy lead to determine where AI can meaningfully improve workflows — and whether those use cases can form the basis of a repeatable external proposition.What You’ll DoProduct Discovery &amp; Validation<ul><li>Run structured discovery with assurance teams to map workflows, pain points and decision points.</li><li>Identify and prioritise 3–5 high‑value internal use cases for AI.</li><li>Define problem statements, hypotheses, acceptance criteria and success measures.</li><li>Validate whether the AI solves real operational problems — not just drives tool usage.</li><li>Maintain a clear discovery log capturing evidence, feedback and decisions.</li></ul>Internal Deployment &amp; Adoption<ul><li>Support controlled internal deployments of priority use cases.</li><li>Translate operational insight into user stories, workflow requirements and product improvements.</li><li>Document measurable value (time, quality, consistency, risk, speed, profitability, client insight).</li><li>Help define “good enough” for operational use, including technical and data readiness.</li></ul>Roadmap &amp; Product Stewardship<ul><li>Own the prioritised backlog for the validation phase.</li><li>Build an evidence‑based roadmap grounded in user value, feasibility and commercial potential.</li><li>Work closely with technical teams to clarify requirements and manage trade‑offs.</li><li>Produce clear artefacts: user stories, workflow maps, prioritisation matrices, value hypotheses.</li></ul>Commercial &amp; Market Validation<ul><li>Support external discovery conversations (5–10).</li><li>Shape early personas, value propositions and market‑facing use case narratives.</li><li>Provide product input into early pricing, packaging and go‑to‑market thinking.</li><li>Assess whether the proposition is repeatable, scalable and commercially meaningful.</li></ul>Stakeholder Leadership<ul><li>Work closely with TIAA leadership, assurance teams and technical resources.</li><li>Provide clear updates for fortnightly working sessions and monthly steering sessions.</li><li>Support decision gates at months 2, 4 and 6 with evidence on value, readiness and viability.</li></ul>What Success Looks LikeSuccess is measured by clarity, not backlog size or superficial adoption. By the end of six months, TIAA should have a confident, evidence‑based view of:<ul><li>Which assurance workflows AI can improve</li><li>Where measurable internal value exists</li><li>Which use cases are repeatable and commercial</li><li>What technical and operational constraints matter</li><li>Whether an external product is viable</li><li>What TIAA should do next</li></ul>Experience We’re Looking For<ul><li>Senior Product Manager / Lead PM / Product Consultant experience</li><li>Strong background in B2B SaaS, data products, AI‑enabled tools or regulated services</li><li>Proven product discovery in ambiguous or early‑stage environments</li><li>Ability to translate workflows and insight into clear product requirements</li><li>Comfortable working with technical teams on data, AI and workflow challenges</li><li>Strong stakeholder management, including senior leadership</li><li>Evidence‑based product decision‑making</li><li>Commercial awareness (value → positioning → pricing → GTM)</li></ul>Desirable<ul><li>Experience with AI/ML/LLMs, data science or assurance/audit/risk technology</li><li>Experience commercialising internal capabilities</li><li>Familiarity with tools like Jira, Linear, Productboard, Pendo, Miro, Figma, Notion</li><li>Experience with early customer discovery, pilots or advisory boards</li></ul>Personal AttributesStructured, practical, commercially grounded, collaborative, calm under pressure, comfortable with ambiguity, and focused on measurable value.Equality, Diversity and Inclusion StatementOur organisation is made up of brilliant people. Each of us is unique, whether in terms of our background, personal characteristics, experience, skills or motivations. And we value our people for the differences they bring to the table. These differences - this diversity - is powerful.Fostering an inclusive culture helps each of us to benefit from a wider range of these different perspectives, experiences and skills. We believe that this creates a happier, more productive working environment for us all.Why join TIAA?Here at TIAA we have a “can do” spirit rather than an absolute target-driven regime and we care about each of our individual experts and are there right behind them to offer advice, support and training. We believe in giving you the autonomy and recognition to drive your own success.We offer a generous benefits package, embrace remote and hybrid working and social initiatives to keep connected in a remote working world. How to ApplyPlease send your CV and a short note outlining your experience in product discovery, AI or data‑enabled products, and early‑stage product validation. We’re particularly interested in candidates who have helped organisations move from promising capability to evidence‑based product direction.

Senior Contract Product Manager (AI Product Discovery & Validation)

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Headstart partners with businesses and enterprises to embed AI into their products and workflows — usually building 0→1, in production, for real businesses with real constraints. We're the team behind the coding agent Friday, and we build frontier applied-AI technology: agent orchestration, memory, evaluation, and more. We're lean and senior, with total control of our roadmap.We're hiring a platform-level operator who can commit to a defensible thesis under ambiguity, own AI product quality end-to-end, and turn client delivery into reusable IP — not a feature-shipping PM.What you'll do:Lead product strategy across complex enterprise AI engagements, from discovery through multi-SOW roadmaps. Own AI product quality end-to-end — success metrics, evals, guardrails, production-readiness — alongside engineering. Spot patterns across clients and turn them into reusable frameworks and internal IP. Lead 0→1 validation through rapid prototyping, advise senior client leaders on AI operating models, and navigate complex stakeholder dynamics.What we're looking for:8+ years in product management in B2B SaaS, enterprise AI, or applied AI/ML, owning multi-phase, multi-stakeholder engagements from scoping through production. Comfortable in AI/ML systems — agent architectures, retrieval, evaluation pipelines, observability, LLM behavior — and the tradeoffs around model choice, latency, cost, and safety. Exceptional writing. Comfortable advising senior client leaders on AI investment priorities.Comp &amp; logistics: $240K base + competitive equity + 401(k) match. NYC hybrid, SoHo loft.

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Senior Contract Product Manager (AI Product Discovery & Validation)