Product Lead

Company Description

SmartDev is an AI-powered software development company headquartered in Vietnam, part of the Verysell Group. We help global businesses deliver faster and build smarter — combining AI-driven development practices with deep expertise across fintech, healthcare, retail, and enterprise technology. Our team of engineers, architects, and AI specialists works across the full stack: from custom software and cloud solutions to generative AI, MLOps, and intelligent automation. At SmartDev, we believe that great architecture and AI-first thinking are a competitive advantage — and we build our teams accordingly. 

The company is at a pivotal point in our journey: transitioning from a pure IT outsourcing provider to an AI-enabled solutions partner. 

We have over 200 talented employees working both on-site and remote/hybrid at locations:

• Danang: 81 Quang Trung, Hai Chau 1 ward, Hai Chau District, Danang
• Hanoi: Zodiac building, 19 Duy Tan Street, Dich Vong Hau ward, Cau Giay District, Hanoi

Job Description

Our Product.

Most companies can now build an AI prototype quickly. Very few ever turn it into something the business relies on every day. NORA exists to close that gap — taking a promising AI pilot, or a manual process that's ripe for automation, and turning it into a system that runs safely and reliably inside a client's real operations. The client brings the workflow and the domain knowledge; NORA brings the industrialization.

NORA sits alongside Build & Run, SmartDev's software engineering business, as a second front door into the company — most clients only need one or the other. NORA's work today falls into three repeatable patterns: Compliance and rule-controlled workflows, document-intensive workflows, and AI-assisted software delivery workflows. Every engagement follows the same four stages: Qualify → Design → Deploy → Operate.

Role Summary

This is a product creation role, not a product management role. The Product Lead decides what NORA should repeatedly sell and build — sitting between market, clients, delivery, and engineering, turning market evidence into repeatable offerings. It suits someone who personally researches the market before shaping an offer, who can argue for one product strategy over another, and who is comfortable saying no to opportunities the evidence doesn't support.

Key Responsibilities

• Discover and validate new solutions. Interview customers, prospects, and delivery teams; size demand and willingness to pay; decide what deserves further investment — proactively, not on assignment.
• Own the solution portfolio. Define the problem, buyer, workflow, value, delivery and commercial model for each solution family, and recommend when to expand, narrow, or discontinue one.
• Turn projects into reusable capability. Work with Engineering and Delivery to turn what's learned on each engagement into reusable templates, datasets, and playbooks — reuse matters more than deal count.
• Define commercial packaging. With Sales and Marketing, convert capabilities into offers clients can buy — pricing logic, commercial models, and hand-off points with Build & Run.
• Maintain strategic discipline. Protect NORA from becoming a general AI consulting practice, a prototype factory, or a platform built ahead of proven demand.
• Stay close to the market. Spend real time with Sales and customers, and report portfolio progress — conversion, reuse, margin — with evidence, not narrative.

Qualifications

Requirements

Must-have

• A track record of creating and launching new products. Not managing one that already exists — you can point to a product you personally identified, researched, and brought to market.
• Strong market research skills. Comfortable personally running customer interviews, competitor analysis, and demand/pricing research — and know the difference between interest and willingness to buy.
• Commercial judgement. Real decisions made on pricing, scope, or margins across professional-services, software, or hybrid models.
• Product strategy fluency. Understand the trade-offs — software vs. services, platform vs. focused solution, project vs. recurring revenue — and choose deliberately, not by default.
• AI literacy. Enough to discuss architecture, limitations, evaluation, and cost with technical teams. You don't need to be an AI engineer.
• Excellent written and verbal English. Able to write and present clearly to clients, engineers, sales, and senior management.

Nice-to-have

• Experience with structured, evidence-heavy workflows. Compliance, KYC/onboarding, document processing, exception handling, or policy-controlled operations.
• A structured, evidence-first mindset. Comfortable saying no to attractive but distracting opportunities, and credible across commercial, technical, and delivery teams.

What This Role Is Not

To avoid ambiguity: this isn't a software Product Manager running an existing backlog, an AI research role, a Delivery Manager, a Solution Architect, a Head of Sales, or a general management-consulting position. It's a solution creation and productization role — finding where SmartDev can repeatedly create value with AI, proving clients will buy it, and making sure every engagement leaves SmartDev more capable than the last one.

Why This Role

AI experimentation is becoming cheap and widespread. Production adoption remains much harder — and that gap is NORA's entire opportunity. The Product Lead isn't hired to manage NORA as it stands today; they're hired to help decide what it becomes.