Product Manager

AwardSpring is an established and growing SaaS company that partners with colleges and foundations to help them award scholarships and manage their donors. We complete the virtuous cycle of giving, getting, and giving again - between donors, students, and the institutions in the middle. We serve hundreds of institutions across the US and Canada with a small, focused team operating on a mature, multi-tenant platform.

We're hiring for a role that didn't exist 6 months ago: a Product Manager who ships. For decades, the PM job was about deciding what to build and handing specs to engineers. AI-native development is collapsing that handoff. One person with strong product judgment and the right tools can now go from idea to shipped feature without a translation layer in between.

Important to know up front: this is a PM role where you ship code in our codebase, not just specs. Engineering will review and harden where appropriate, but you own the work through to production. If that doesn't sound like the PM job you've imagined, this isn't the right one.

Individual contributor role on a small product team. You'll partner with engineering, design, and customer-facing teams, and report to the CTO.

AwardSpring is an AI-native product team. Nearly 100% of the code in our product is AI-generated. Every IC on this team - engineer, PM, designer, builder - ships features end-to-end in our codebase using agentic tooling. The line between traditional disciplines is intentionally blurred: PMs ship code, engineers make product calls, designers prototype in production. We hire for fluency in agentic development, not for time spent in any specific stack. If you've used Claude Code, Cursor, or comparable tools to ship real software at production quality, you already speak our language.

• Own outcomes for a product area: discovery, decisions, delivery. Three months in, we should be able to point to things that exist because you built them
• Ship features end-to-end in our codebase using agentic tooling. Engineers will review and harden; you own the work through to production
• Make the product judgment calls - what to build, what to cut, what good looks like
• Talk to customers regularly; your voice is the customer's voice in the team
• Define and track the metrics that matter for your area

• You've shipped production software using Claude Code, Cursor, or comparable agentic tools. Not "experimented with" - shipped. We'll walk through what you built
• 3+ years in a product role, formal or informal - PM, tech lead, founder, or "owned outcomes" by any other name
• You're comfortable in a codebase. You don't need to have been an engineer, but you need to be unafraid of code
• Strong opinions about what "good" looks like - product decisions and craft
• You'd rather ship one thing that matters than write three specs that get stuck in roadmap purgatory
• Comfortable presenting to customers, executives, and peers

• Top-of-market AI tooling: Claude Max, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and whatever ships next - your call, our budget
• Unlimited token budgets. We don't ration the thing that makes you 10x
• Direct line to the latest models the day they release
• A mature, multi-tenant production codebase - real users, real stakes, real environments to ship in to
• Health, dental, vision, 401(k) match, unlimited PTO, paid parental leave

• ACTION - When in doubt, spring into action. Be accountable. Teach what you've learned.
• DETERMINATION - Simplify and improve everything you touch. Expect obstacles. Be creative and relentless in your effort to overcome them.
• HUMANITY - Show empathy and kindness to everyone you interact with.
• IMPROVEMENT - Work hard every day to grow your knowledge and capabilities. Strive to become invaluable to clients and peers.

We are Chicago-based with an office in West Loop / Fulton Market. This is a hybrid role for Chicago-area candidates; in-office presence is part of the job, with the specific schedule set with your manager.

We use AI tools to assist in screening applications and assessing fit. Final hiring decisions are made by humans. If you'd prefer your application be reviewed without AI assistance, note it in your cover letter — it won't disadvantage you.

AwardSpring is dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. AwardSpring is an equal opportunity employer and hires without regard for race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status. We are committed to an environment free from harassment or discrimination.