Staff Product Manager - AI Foundations

Plaid · Fintech · San Francisco, CA · All Cost Centers

Staff Product Manager for Plaid's AI Foundations team, responsible for defining the strategy and roadmap for the core AI and data layer. This role involves building scalable AI systems from embeddings and representation learning to applied model integrations, partnering with Engineering and Data Science to drive initiatives from concept to production, and ensuring responsible AI practices.

What you'd actually do

  1. Define the strategy, roadmap, and success metrics for Plaid’s core AI and data foundation, enabling smarter, more adaptive financial products across the ecosystem.
  2. Partner with Engineering and Data Science to design scalable AI systems, from model training and evaluation pipelines to APIs that deliver intelligence at scale.
  3. Drive initiatives from concept to production, balancing rapid experimentation with reliability, transparency, and responsible AI practices.
  4. Work closely with research, platform, and product teams to embed AI capabilities across Plaid’s products and developer platform.
  5. Use metrics, model performance data, and customer feedback to validate impact, inform prioritization, and continuously improve outcomes.

Skills

Required

  • Product management experience
  • AI/ML product leadership
  • Technical fluency in ML systems (training, evaluation, deployment, monitoring)
  • Strategic thinking
  • Execution skills
  • Platform product development
  • Communication and influencing skills
  • Responsible AI practices

Nice to have

  • Hands-on experience with LLMs, embeddings, or agentic systems in production
  • Familiarity with applied AI in regulated or high-trust domains (fintech, identity, risk)

What the JD emphasized

  • 8+ years of product management experience with direct experience leading AI/ML or applied intelligence products from concept to production with measurable impact.
  • Deep technical fluency in how modern ML systems are trained, evaluated, deployed, and monitored, with the ability to engage confidently with engineers and data scientists.
  • Platform mindset and experience building scalable developer or data platforms through well-designed primitives, APIs, and frameworks.
  • Commitment to responsible AI and transparency, especially in regulated or high-trust domains.

Other signals

  • AI Platform Vision
  • System Development
  • Product Execution
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Measurement and Iteration
  • Communication and Alignment