Product Manager (Manager Candidate)

About this role

This contract Product Manager role leads the product management organization for JAPAN AI’s Generative AI and large language model products. The work combines organization leadership with hands-on product development. Responsibilities include supporting medium- and long-term product strategy, prioritizing across multiple product lines, allocating resources, proposing strategy to executives, and supporting management decisions.

The role directly leads requirements definition and specification for important products, works closely with engineering teams to improve development quality, and promotes data-driven decisions. Day-to-day product work includes market research, competitive analysis, roadmap creation, priority setting, KPI tracking, user interviews, data analysis, release planning and execution, and reviewing current AI technology for application to products.

The manager candidate leads and develops a product manager team of several members, including team development and evaluation. The position is also responsible for organizational improvements, creating an environment that supports autonomous growth, and coordinating bilingual communication within a multinational team. Collaboration with sales, customer success, engineering, executives and other departments is required, together with direct customer communication to understand needs and collect feedback.

The PdM group has 13 members across the CHAT/AI AGENT, Speech, and AI AGENT PMF teams covering HR, Marketing, Sales and CS. The product domain includes B2B software, SaaS and AI-related products, with a focus on Generative AI and LLM-based solutions.

Required experience includes at least three years in product management, including leading product strategy from planning through execution, market and competitor analysis, requirements and specifications with development teams, and data-driven decision-making. Candidates need experience in both launching a new product from 0 to 1 and scaling an existing product from 1 to 10 after product-market fit, as well as experience making rapid decisions and adjusting strategy in uncertain environments. At least three years of experience with B2B software, SaaS or AI products, customer interviews translated into system functions, and management of at least three people are also required.

The development environment names TypeScript and Python. Preferred qualifications include project management, business-process analysis and system proposals, AWS, Azure or GCP knowledge, and understanding or practical experience with GPT, LaMDA, BERT, natural language processing, Generative AI and Transformer models.

Japanese fluency is required for product development and customer discussions. Conversational English is requested, although prior business use of English is not required. The work arrangement is hybrid, with three days in the office and two remote days per week, at the Shinjuku, Tokyo location. The initial contract is generally one month, with subsequent terms negotiable, such as renewal every three months. Salary is undisclosed and negotiable. The posting lists AI-tool access, paid development-tool support up to 30,000 yen per year, book support up to 30,000 yen per half-year, language and certification support, refresh support up to 5,000 yen per month, and rent support up to 30,000 yen per month. The selection process is document screening, one or two interviews, and an offer, with an SPI assessment and reference check required before the final interview.