Interested in this AI Product Manager role at SharkNinja?
Apply Now →Skills & Technologies
About This Role
About Us
SharkNinja is a global product design and technology company, with a diversified portfolio of 5-star rated lifestyle solutions that positively impact people's lives in homes around the world. Powered by two trusted, global brands, Shark and Ninja, the company has a proven track record of bringing disruptive innovation to market, and developing one consumer product after another has allowed SharkNinja to enter multiple product categories, driving significant growth and market share gains. Headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts with more than 3,600+ associates, the company's products are sold at key retailers, online and offline, and through distributors around the world.
The Product Development organization within SharkNinja drives our global product roadmap from concept to shelf through the constant lens of the consumer. We are the "product CEOs" and partner cross-functionally with almost every other team within the company to drive high satisfaction for our end user and to drive business results. We are comprised of individuals from a variety of professional and educational backgrounds, from product marketing managers to consumer-focused engineers – but we all have one thing in common: we're consistently striving to deliver a 5-star experience for every customer on every product we bring to market.
The Director - Product Development is a senior-level category owner who will drive a cross-functional team to deliver against consumer satisfaction, revenue, and profitability targets for their assigned category. The ideal candidate will be able to successfully deliver 5-star products to market while also collaborating on the business and go-to-market strategy with key partners across the organization. The role reports to the VP, Shark Beauty.
Responsibilities:
- Support the Shark business and the VP/SVP, Product Development with the development of successful and profitable programs for a full product category to ensure continued growth of the product portfolio – you will lead new product development (creation and management) of assigned product category from brainstorm phase through mass production, as well as partner with the VP/SVP to define the over-arching category roadmap direction to a team of product developers from entry through manager level. You are responsible AND accountable for progressing, reporting on, and actioning your and your team's deliverables.
- Lead, manage, and grow team members (from Intern up to Manager level) within the organization – providing guidance on their assigned projects, ensuring product success, supporting professional advancement within their role and within SharkNinja, and holding them accountable to their specific job responsibilities. You will be viewed as an "expert" people manager who has proficiency navigating people, conflict, and resource management.
- Drive the definition and development of product specifications, marrying consumer wants/needs, white space in the market, and new/flagship product technologies as the primary consumer advocate
- Steer the development of user-relevant design targets for product performance and user experience – and act as the beacon of these targets to the cross-functional team of engineers, industrial designers, and commercial marketers
- Partner with SharkNinja's Consumer Insights team to develop consumer testing objectives, and implement this consumer-driven feedback into product specifications and design iterations throughout the project development cycle
- Partner with SharkNinja's testing and quality organizations to define, develop and manage quality and performance testing procedures
- Manage product cost structure, reporting, and cost rationalization exercises – and collaborate with supply chain, merchandising, and supply planning teams on product sourcing strategy recommendations
- Provide direction and oversight into the creation and execution of go-to-market collateral to support product launch, including instructional material and consumer-facing product specification information
- Provide direction and oversight into the development of product troubleshooting and "FAQs" to support a 5-star consumer experience post-purchase
- Act as the product and/or category "expert" for cross-functional team member questions and concerns
- Be called upon to take leadership of larger cross-functional "breakthroughs" that increase executive visibility and accelerate career growth.
Qualifications:
- 8-10+ years of experience in product development, product marketing, marketing, human factors engineering, or a related field, preferably at a consumer goods company
- Bachelor's Degree (or equivalent experience) in Engineering, Business, Marketing, Management, or a combination of the above
- Prior experience hiring, managing, leading, and goal-setting with team members who have varying levels of professional experience
- A "100% on" consumer-first perspective when it comes to introducing new products/processes or improving current products
- Ability to effectively "manage up" by communicating your top priorities and constantly seeking feedback on your and your team's work product
- A mindset geared toward building relationships across multi-functional teams, coupled with excellent interpersonal skills
- Highly-effective communication skills – both written (presentation/email) and in-person (ability to host succinct, effective conversations that solve problems and ability to make effective presentations to all levels of management, including SharkNinja's executive leadership team)
- Strong project management skills, with the ability to prioritize effectively, manage multiple projects simultaneously, and stay organized in a fast-paced environment
- A desire to learn and grow in a passionate environment
- The ability to embrace transparency and shifting priorities while learning from each decision and focusing on the path forward
Our Culture
At SharkNinja, we don't just raise the bar—we push past it every single day. Our Outrageously Extraordinary mindset drives us to tackle the impossible, push boundaries, and deliver results that others only dream of. If you thrive on breaking out of your swim lane, you'll be right at home.
What We Offer
We offer competitive health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, employee stock purchase options, wellness programs, SharkNinja product discounts, and more. We empower your personal and professional growth with high impact Learning Programs featuring bold voices redefining what's possible. When you join, you're not just part of a company—you're part of an outrageously extraordinary community. Together, we won't just launch products—we'll disrupt entire markets.
At SharkNinja, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are vital to our global success. Valuing each unique voice and blending all of our diverse skills strengthens SharkNinja's innovation every day. We support ALL associates in bringing their authentic selves to work, making an impact, and having the opportunity for career acceleration. With help from our leadership, associates, and our community, we aim to have equity be a key component of the SharkNinja DNA.
Learn more about us:
Life At SharkNinja
Outrageously Extraordinary
SharkNinja Candidate Privacy Notice
- For candidates based in all regions, please refer to this Candidate Privacy Notice.
- For candidates based in China, please refer to this Candidate Privacy Notice.
- For candidates based in Vietnam, please refer to this Candidate Privacy Notice.
*We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability, or any other class protected by legislation, and local law. SharkNinja will consider reasonable accommodations consistent with legislation, and local law. If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, please contact SharkNinja People & Culture at* *accommodations@sharkninja.com*
Salary Context
This $86K-$165K range is below the median for AI Product Manager roles in our dataset (median: $160K across 8 roles with salary data).
View full AI Product Manager salary data →Role Details
About This Role
AI Product Managers define what AI features get built and why. They translate business problems into ML-solvable tasks, work with engineering to scope model requirements, and own the metrics that determine if an AI feature is working. The role requires a rare combination of technical fluency and product instinct.
Unlike traditional product management, AI PM work involves managing uncertainty at a fundamental level. Your model might work 90% of the time. What happens the other 10%? What's the user experience when the AI is wrong? How do you measure 'good enough' for a probabilistic system? These questions don't have easy answers, and the AI PM is the person responsible for finding them.
Across the 37,339 AI roles we're tracking, AI Product Manager positions make up 2% of the market. At SharkNinja, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
AI Product Manager roles are growing as companies realize that shipping AI features requires different product thinking than traditional software. The best candidates combine product management experience with enough technical depth to have productive conversations with ML engineers about model capabilities and limitations.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week includes: reviewing model evaluation results with the ML team, defining success metrics for a new AI feature, conducting user research on how customers respond to AI-generated outputs, writing product requirements that include accuracy thresholds and fallback behaviors, and presenting the AI roadmap to leadership. You're the translator between technical capability and business value.
AI Product Manager roles are growing as companies realize that shipping AI features requires different product thinking than traditional software. The best candidates combine product management experience with enough technical depth to have productive conversations with ML engineers about model capabilities and limitations.
Skills Required
Technical fluency with ML concepts is essential, though you won't be writing models. Expect to understand training data, evaluation metrics, model limitations, and responsible AI practices. SQL and basic Python are increasingly expected. Experience with A/B testing, data analysis, and product analytics is baseline. Understanding LLM capabilities and limitations is now a core requirement.
The differentiator is AI-specific product thinking: knowing when to use ML vs. heuristics, understanding the cost of training data collection, designing graceful degradation for model failures, and building products that improve with usage data. Experience with AI safety, bias mitigation, and responsible AI deployment is increasingly important.
Strong postings describe specific AI products the PM will own, mention the ML team structure, and talk about measurement methodology. Look for companies that have already shipped AI features. Roles at companies that are 'exploring AI' often mean you'll spend a year defining the strategy before any building happens.
Compensation Benchmarks
AI Product Manager roles pay a median of $205,900 based on 289 positions with disclosed compensation. Director-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $230,600. This role's midpoint ($126K) sits 39% below the category median. Disclosed range: $86K to $165K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $190,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $244,000. The 90th percentile reaches $300,688. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Engineering Manager ($293,500) and AI Safety ($274,200). By seniority level: Entry: $85,000; Mid: $147,000; Senior: $225,000; Director: $230,600; VP: $248,357.
SharkNinja AI Hiring
SharkNinja has 2 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI Product Manager, AI/ML Engineer. Positions span Needham, MA, US, New York, NY, US. Compensation range: $165K - $368K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 7% (2,732 positions) offer remote work, while 34,484 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (1,633 roles, $204,100 median); Los Angeles (1,356 roles, $179,440 median); San Francisco (1,230 roles, $240,000 median).
Career Path
Common paths into AI Product Manager roles include Product Manager, Data Analyst, Technical Program Manager.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Director of AI Product, VP Product, Head of AI.
The most effective path is PM experience plus self-directed AI education. Take Andrew Ng's courses, build a small ML project, and learn enough Python to read model evaluation code. The goal isn't to become an ML engineer. It's to have credibility in technical conversations and to understand what's possible, what's hard, and what's a bad idea.
What to Expect in Interviews
AI interviews typically combine coding challenges (Python-focused), system design questions tailored to the role, and discussions about your experience with relevant tools and frameworks. Strong candidates demonstrate both technical depth and the ability to make pragmatic engineering tradeoffs. Prepare portfolio projects that demonstrate end-to-end capability rather than isolated skills.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings describe specific AI products the PM will own, mention the ML team structure, and talk about measurement methodology. Look for companies that have already shipped AI features. Roles at companies that are 'exploring AI' often mean you'll spend a year defining the strategy before any building happens.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 37,339 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 3,672 entry-level, 23,272 mid-level, 7,048 senior, and 3,347 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 7% of the market (2,732 positions). The remaining 34,484 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $190,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $244,000. The 90th percentile reaches $300,688. Highest-paying categories: AI Engineering Manager ($293,500 median, 21 roles); AI Safety ($274,200 median, 24 roles); Research Engineer ($260,000 median, 264 roles).
AI Product Manager roles are growing as companies realize that shipping AI features requires different product thinking than traditional software. The best candidates combine product management experience with enough technical depth to have productive conversations with ML engineers about model capabilities and limitations.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 37,339 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (33,926), AI Software Engineer (823), AI Product Manager (805). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (3,672) are outnumbered by mid-level (23,272) and senior (7,048) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 3,347 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 7% of all AI roles (2,732 positions), with 34,484 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $190,000. Top-quartile roles start at $244,000, and the 90th percentile reaches $300,688. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Engineering Manager roles lead at $293,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $145,600. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Rag (23,721 postings), Aws (12,486 postings), Rust (10,785 postings), Python (5,564 postings), Azure (3,616 postings), Gcp (3,032 postings), Prompt Engineering (2,112 postings), Kubernetes (1,713 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
Get Weekly AI Career Intelligence
Salary data, skills demand, and market signals from 16,000+ AI job postings. Every Monday.