Staff Product Manager - AI & Data Foundations

Responsibilities

• Define the vision, roadmap, and success metrics for the shared platforms that power data and AI development across Plaid.
• Platform Development: Partner with data, ML, and platform engineers to design and ship foundational capabilities spanning AI infrastructure, developer tooling, data platforms, pipelines, quality, and governance.
• Build platforms that Plaid teams choose to use. Develop a deep understanding of internal users, remove friction from common workflows, and measure success through adoption, developer velocity, reliability, and quality.
• Balance immediate needs from product teams with longer-term platform investments, identifying where Plaid should standardize, build shared primitives, enable experimentation, and/or leverage an existing external solution.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner with product, engineering, data, research, and security to identify shared needs and embed foundational AI and data capabilities across Plaid.
• Communication & Alignment: Translate complex technical decisions and platform trade-offs into clear narratives that enable decisions across technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Qualifications

8+ years of product management experience including direct experience building AI/ML platform systems, applied intelligence products, or other data infrastructure from concept to production

Deep technical fluency in modern data and AI/ML systems, including how data is stored and processed and how models are developed, evaluated, deployed, and monitored. You can engage deeply with engineers and data scientists on architecture and technical trade-offs without needing to be the engineer in the room.

Demonstrated success operating in ambiguous, early-stage environments, turning loosely defined problems into decisions, shipped capabilities, and measurable adoption or impact.

Ability to operate in a fast-paced startup environment

Platform mindset and experience building scalable developer or data platforms through well-designed primitives, APIs, and frameworks.

Strategic and executional range. Skilled at setting the long-term vision while also delivering near-term experiments, specs, prototypes, and launches.

Strong communicator and cross-functional leader who can translate complex technical concepts into clear narratives to drive decisions for technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Commitment to responsible AI and transparency, especially in regulated or high-trust domains.

[Nice to Have] Hands-on experience with LLMs, embeddings, or agentic systems in production.

[Nice to Have] Experience building AI developer tooling in production.

[Nice to Have] Familiarity with applied AI in regulated or high-trust domains such as fintech, identity, or risk.

Our mission at Plaid is to unlock financial freedom for everyone. To support that mission, we seek to build a diverse team of driven individuals who care deeply about making the financial ecosystem more equitable. We recognize that strong qualifications can come from both prior work experiences and lived experiences. We encourage you to apply to a role even if your experience doesn't fully match the job description. We are always looking for team members that will bring something unique to Plaid!

Plaid is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and values diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion or religious belief, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, military or veteran status, disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Plaid is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance with your application or interviews due to a disability, please let us know at [email protected].

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Additional compensation in the form(s) of equity and/or commission are dependent on the position offered. Plaid provides a comprehensive benefit plan, including medical, dental, vision, and 401(k). Pay is based on factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience and skillset, and location. Pay and benefits are subject to change at any time, consistent with the terms of any applicable compensation or benefit plans.