Senior Product Manager, Agentic Foundations

Instacart Instacart · Consumer · United States · Remote · Product Management

Instacart is seeking a Senior Product Manager to lead the Agentic Foundations for their AI-native, vendor-agnostic, API-first customer support orchestration platform. This role involves defining foundational APIs, data models, knowledge systems, and agent harnesses for both human and AI agents, with a focus on enabling rapid experimentation and resilience in AI architecture.

What you'd actually do

  1. Own the Agentic Foundations vision, strategy, and multi-year roadmap; define a north star for an AI-native CX foundation—vendor-agnostic, API-first, and policy-consistent—while setting quantified targets for self-serve resolution rate, agent handle time, and platform reliability.
  2. Design and scale the API and data foundation that powers every CX surface, including structured APIs for refunds, cancellations, credits, redelivery, identity, order actions, a unified contact/case data model, and a policy engine that ensures consistent outcomes across channels.
  3. Modernize the Agent Knowledge Base for an LLM-first world by establishing structure, governance, lifecycle, semantic retrieval, and citation patterns—closing the loop between policy, knowledge, and resolution behavior through continuous feedback mechanisms.
  4. Champion a vendor-flexible, AI-native architecture so switching or layering new AI harnesses is a configuration change—not a multi-quarter migration—enabling rapid experimentation and resilience.
  5. Define and own platform KPIs (e.g., API coverage, latency, reliability, percent of CX operations exposed via standardized APIs, time-to-integrate a new surface) and translate them into business outcomes (self-serve resolution rate, AHT, cost per contact).

Skills

Required

  • 6+ years of product management experience, including 3+ years owning platform, API, or infrastructure products serving multiple internal or external surfaces.
  • Proven track record shipping API-first platforms or orchestration layers, data labeling systems, or human-in-the-loop AI harnesses that other teams built on, with measurable outcomes in adoption, developer velocity, and reliability.
  • Hands-on experience with LLM-powered products, agentic systems, or AI/ML platforms, including data modeling for AI consumption (e.g., LLM-readable knowledge, structured tool definitions, context contracts).
  • Demonstrated ability to define product vision and strategy independently, build conviction with leadership, and drive a multi-year roadmap anchored by quantified goals and clear KPIs.
  • Strong cross-functional influence across engineering, operations, vendor management, legal, and finance, aligning multiple stakeholder groups to a single roadmap.
  • Comfort with data and experimentation, including proficiency with SQL or equivalent, A/B testing, and instrumentation to size opportunities, validate hypotheses, and measure impact.

Nice to have

  • Experience building for operational users (BPO and in-house specialists), including workflows, policies, and guardrails.
  • Familiarity with PII, privacy, and compliance considerations for customer support data.
  • Exceptional storytelling and communication skills for executive and cross-functional alignment.
  • Background working in large-scale marketplaces, support platforms, or customer service tooling.

What the JD emphasized

  • API-first platforms
  • orchestration layers
  • human-in-the-loop AI harnesses
  • LLM-powered products
  • agentic systems
  • AI/ML platforms
  • data modeling for AI consumption
  • multi-year roadmap
  • quantified goals
  • clear KPIs
  • operational users
  • policies
  • guardrails
  • PII
  • privacy
  • compliance considerations

Other signals

  • AI-native orchestration platform
  • Agentic Foundations
  • LLM-first world
  • AI harnesses