Department: Engineering
Location: Remote - United States
Description
Company Description
In 2019, we started building profitable startups from scratch. We brought together top engineering minds from places like Princeton and MIT to drive a 100% success rate and turn company building into a science.
During that time, we've built ten high-growth companies driving $100M+ in revenue. Along the way, we've developed an engineering approach to entrepreneurship rooted in algorithms and advanced mathematics.
Now, we're working to automate company building to the point that we can press a button to launch profitable companies—ventures that can reinvest their own resources to become enterprises that help millions, or even billions, of people.
Position Description
Mechanism is seeking a VP of Product & Engineering to build our product team and lead our automation efforts. As the team lead, you will be responsible for the strategic direction, operations, capabilities, and reporting of all product & engineering initiatives, working closely with other team members to drive company growth, product, and automation excellence.
We are looking for a creative, analytical, and results-driven overachiever with a strong track record of success in driving revenue growth and automation through product strategies. In addition to being a hands-on individual, you will be a proven leader who thinks strategically about product in an AI-driven world and will guide the team to be successful in this evolving landscape. You will have a passion for entrepreneurship and a hunger for engineering products that drive growth, and be committed to continuous learning and improvement.
As the VP of Product & Engineering, you will also lead the development and management of our Product and Engineering Teams, helping Design, Engineering, Data Science, QA, and IT to increase their impact.
You will work closely with CEOs and other stakeholders to ensure that all product efforts are aligned with the overall business objectives, and you will be responsible for delivering measurable results against key performance indicators (KPIs). Additionally, you will collaborate with the Growth Team Leads to coordinate your efforts on high-impact growth initiatives.
The ideal candidate will be a technical founder who possesses strong consultative skills to educate others on product and automation best practices, fostering strong relationships with CEOs and the Mechanism executive team. You should have experience in managing and developing high-performance product, design, and brand initiatives and a deep understanding of best practices to drive product success. If you are a creative, strategic thinker with a passion for growth and a track record of success, we encourage you to apply for this opportunity to lead a dynamic and fast-paced function.
The role will report to Mechanism's COO.
Key Responsibilities
- You will make Mechanism's product and engineering capabilities the best in the world for a growth-led venture firm.
- You will build Mechanism's Product & Engineering Teams and, when mutually agreed with CEOs, have full ownership or be essential in the support of product efforts for companies, owning or contributing to strategy, execution, and reporting. This may include brand development, digital product development (e.g., SaaS platforms, recommendation engines, analytics dashboards, automation), growth-product (e.g., ecommerce websites, landing pages, A/B testing, ads), and physical products (e.g., physical goods sold by a company). This role entails building and managing a high-performance team, increasing our understanding of product first principles and design excellence to improve the effectiveness of product efforts, and contributing directly to projects to enhance and maintain your execution skills.
- You will oversee product development from inception to scale, including developing agile development processes and the Mechanism Growth-Product Process, company branding, conducting usability tests, surveying customers, partnering with the Growth Team to develop high-performance tests and templates, and optimizing product performance post-launch to increase customer satisfaction and company growth.
- You will research product applications for AI and implement these to amplify results and operational efficiency (e.g., leveraging AI to improve the speed/quality/cost of design and engineering delivery, analysis, and operations).
- In support of the Mechanism and company Growth Teams, you will help execute high-impact CRO tests and engineer customer experiences that increase revenue.
- You will monitor daily performance across the portfolio and provide weekly reports to the CEOs on how your team is tracking against the company goals. You will use this information to identify and recommend actionable opportunities for improvement.
- You will build and manage the Design, Engineering, Data Science, QA, and IT Teams to foster alignment across initiatives and accountability for results.
- You will stay up-to-date on industry and competitor trends, and use this information to evaluate the performance of our teams and companies against the market.
- You will educate company CEOs on product development best practices.
- You will help companies build and develop their in-house product teams.
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
Who You Are
- You are a technical founder and creative overachiever who loves engineering customer experiences that drive growth, building systems, building automation, and solving hard problems in the 0-1 stage.
- You have a strong analytical mindset and love working with data and analytics to inform your decision-making. You believe that data-driven insights are key to making the best decisions, and prioritize them over intuition.
- You have excellent verbal and written communication skills and can effectively communicate with CEOs and stakeholders. You tailor your communications to the appropriate audience, ensuring that your messages are clear, concise, and impactful.
- You thrive in a high-velocity, outcome-oriented environment. You can simplify complicated concepts and foster an environment of efficiency, learning, and fun.
- You should be comfortable making recommendations in ambiguous environments, with incomplete or unclear information. You should be open to evolving your thinking and recommendations as you collect more data.
- You have the ability to seamlessly context-switch between companies to develop and execute product strategies that meet each company's needs.
What You'll Bring
- 5+ years of strategic and operational product experience, with a focus on building in the 0-1 stage.
- Experience in managing and developing high-performance product and engineering teams, with a track record of building and coaching successful teams to achieve their goals. This includes setting clear expectations, providing regular feedback, implementing agile processes that optimize speed/quality/cost, and identifying opportunities for growth and development. You will also have experience in creating a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
- Experience with Google Analytics and product design tools such as Figma, Photoshop, and FullStory.
- Deep experience with Python, Javascript, and SQL as well as popular CMS platforms, such as WebFlow and Shopify.
- Experience in managing and developing high-performance AI and automation.
- Experience in working in a remote environment, and working with colleagues across multiple time zones.
- A deep understanding of the importance of using revenue growth as a key performance indicator (KPI).
- An understanding that the ultimate goal of product efforts is to maximize enterprise value for a business.
- Exposure to areas beyond product, such as growth marketing. This will help you have a more holistic view of the product, enabling you to identify cross-functional opportunities and drive a comprehensive product strategy.
Logistics
Time Commitment
This role is full-time and will need to overlap with US ET for the majority of the workday. It is an exciting opportunity that demands a level of dedication beyond the standard 9 to 5. We need someone who's willing to go above and beyond to help us achieve our ambitious goals, and who's eager to put in the effort to make a real impact.
Location
We are fully remote – you can work wherever you're most productive. We are unable to provide Visa or work permit sponsorship at this time.
Compensation
Our compensation packages are designed to make this your dream job for the short and long term. Each compensation package is tailored to suit your priorities and can include base, equity (in all of our active portfolio companies and any that are launched during your tenure at Mechanism), and performance bonus based on the success of our portfolio companies.
For candidates located in New York, Washington, Colorado, California, and Illinois, the base salary range is $190,000-$250,000 USD. Compensation may vary outside of this range depending on a number of factors, including a candidate's qualifications, skills, competencies and experience, and location.
