Forward Deployed Product Manager
This is a Forward Deployed Product Manager role at a well-backed, AI-native B2B software company in London. Small, senior, approaching profitability, and moving fast.
You own a core product surface end to end, deploy it into the customer's world, and prove value in weeks, not quarters. This is for the rare product builder who ships like an engineer and thinks like a founder.
You own the strategy, the build and the outcome for a significant part of the product, and you stay hands-on. You will have the remit and influence of a leader without the org chart, because you own enough to be in the room where the decisions are made.
It is product ownership with a forward-deployed way of working. You sit with customers, dig into the problem yourself, deploy into their world, prove value in weeks, then fold what works back into the core.
How the team builds.
An engineer and, often, a research scientist around a real customer problem, on short build-and-ship cycles. As a Forward Deployed PM you carry a broad remit across more than one pod. You set direction, shape the product, and take it from a real customer problem to a shipped, validated, revenue-generating outcome. The engineers own the infrastructure. Your job is to understand the customer deeply and turn world-class science and deep technical work, built alongside researchers, into a product people actually want to use. It is some of the most interesting building you will do.
What you will own
Deep customer discovery. Real time with real customers, understanding the problem first-hand, then turning it into product with a strong UX. Ownership of the strategy, build and commercial outcome for a core product surface, end to end. A broad remit across multiple mission pods, not a single narrow lane. Shipping and validating with real customers on a fast, monthly cadence. Carrying a capability from concept to production, then to revenue, then to the customer running it themselves. Setting the standard for how the team uses AI to design and ship product. Bringing conservative enterprise and customer stakeholders through fast change without needing air cover.
Who you are
You are a genuine product builder who ships. Your edge is customer discovery and UX: you get to the real problem by talking to customers, and you have the design instinct to turn it into a product they love. You are AI-native to the core, fluent with modern AI build tools, and you use them to design, prototype and ship fast, with judgement on where embedded AI wins and where it does not. This is not an infrastructure or platform PM role. The company's engineers own the plumbing, your value is understanding the customer and shaping the product. You have taken products zero-to-one, into production, and generated revenue, and you can show it, evidence not narrative. You want to stay a hands-on senior IC with real remit rather than run a team. You earn trust fast and influence without authority. B2B experience is preferred, and exceptional B2C builders are considered where they show enterprise-grade thinking.
Years of experience are not the filter. The right experiences are. If you have led product and miss building, this is your way back in. Two people are being hired, with complementary strengths, one weighted to customer discovery and UX, and one stronger at building agentic AI workflows. Whichever you are, get in touch. Both are wanted.
How you will work.
Flat, lean, AI-native, high trust, short build-and-ship cycles, real customer contact, decisions made in the room. In office three days a week in London.
What this role is not. It is not a stepping stone to managing a team. You will be paid and elevated for building, with room to stretch for the right person, plus meaningful equity.
Location. Hybrid, London, three days a week in office.