VP of Product

About Secondmind

Secondmind exists to help automotive engineers design better cars faster, and achieve greater sustainability through generative machine learning. We are driven by a desire to achieve sustainability in our operation and through the products we develop for our customers.

About the role

Secondmind is in search of an accomplished Vice President of Product who will be responsible for evolving and executing on the Secondmind product vision and leading the definition and design of compelling, scalable, machine learning-based SaaS products and solutions.

The ideal candidate is technically savvy, product-centric in their approach and design-led in their thinking. They also have an innate desire to delight automotive customers by solving their most complex engineering problems. This leadership role, which reports to the CEO, will partner with other members of our executive team, and Research, Engineering, and Customer Experience leads to develop and evangelize a product roadmap that delivers exceptional value to our customers with increased velocity over time.

Key responsibilities

• Evolve and define Secondmind product vision and strategies, and drive an ambitious, achievable roadmap aligned with the company’s strategic objectives in automotive.
• Initiate and explore new use cases with automotive ecosystem customers to define and increase differentiation of Secondmind design and optimization solutions.
• Partner with Research, Engineering, Customer Experience, Sales and Business Development teams to ensure product definition, positioning and value propositions are clearly communicated and understood by all internal and external stakeholders.
• Support customer engagements through early-stage discovery, software proofs of concept, prototypes and requirements gathering to ensure alignment with core product roadmap.
• Recruit, empower and develop exceptional product management, user experience, and product marketing talent that inspires, evangelizes and delivers against the product vision and champions the voice of the customer across the company.
• Evangelize a product-centric, user-oriented culture focused on consistently delivering value and measurable outcomes, and encourage company-wide ideation and collaboration.
• Partner closely with business development to identify and engage with the automotive ecosystem and channel partners to execute on whole-product strategy.

Skills to succeed in this role

• Experience working with automotive customers in R&D and commercial engineering.
• Possess a technical understanding of design simulation, calibration and overall vehicle design and development.
• Working knowledge of modern cloud-based software including data analytics, machine learning, and scaled deployment to drive internal decision-making within software engineering organisations.
• Experience with or understanding of machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies and integrating them into scalable, repeatable SaaS, AIssS or PaaS solutions and business applications.
• Experience with or knowledge and appreciation for the value of UX and user research principles and practices in product definition and design.
• Comfortable and adept at working in an agile development environment and guiding the product development team to augment and adapt processes as needed.
• Demonstrable ability to creatively resolve technical issues and resource conflicts, and quickly assess risk and reward of new opportunities.
• Experience recruiting, retaining and continuously developing exceptional product talent, including team leaders and managers.
• Excellent organizational, analytical and influencing skills, with proven ability to take initiative and build strong, productive relationships.
• Strong team player who can work cross functionally in a fast-paced, high-performance start-up environment.

Minimum qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software product management or technical product ownership roles in automotive or engineering design.
• Strong presentation and communication skills and ability to influence internal and external stakeholders.
• Demonstrable experience defining, developing and deploying successful multi-product business-to-business SaaS, AIaaS or PaaS strategies and products.
• Proven ability to successfully enter new markets with early-stage software proofs of concept and prototypes.
• Excellent leadership, management and mentoring skills.
• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent required.

Our culture / what we can offer you

We offer a working environment that is inclusive, stimulates innovation and continuous learning, and that thrives on growth and change.

Our culture is underpinned by our values; they are what we stand for, part of our DNA. They help us to attract and retain the right talent and customers, help us make the right decisions and clarify how we should all behave and treat one another, they are:

• Delight every customer (Customers)
• No bar too high (Excellence)
• Give more than take (Sustainability)
• Make the impossible, possible (Innovation)
• Celebrate differences, act as one (Inclusion)

In addition to a creative work environment that fosters innovation, we also offer a number of benefits including:

• Competitive salary
• Contributory Salary Sacrifice Pension Scheme
• 25 days annual leave, plus statutory bank holidays
• Hybrid working approach within the UK
• Stock Options scheme (where applicable)
• Private Medical Insurance and Dental cash plan
• Salary sacrifice bike-to-work scheme
• Cambridge Botanic Garden membership
• Social events, away days, game nights and sports groups

We are an equal opportunities employer, and aim to ensure all candidates are treated equally and fairly through the application process and beyond. We actively encourage applicants from under-represented backgrounds, and encourage our people to bring their authentic, original, and best selves to work. If you require assistance or an accommodation through the interview process due to a disability, to apply for one of our roles, please contact our HR team at: hr@secondmind.ai.

Job location

The office is based in central Cambridge, UK.

We offer a hybrid working environment, with a flexible work schedule to support a work life balance within the UK.