Overview
Survival and Flourishing Corp is seeking an insightful and independent Product Manager to enhance and maintain the existing grant evaluation software and processes used by the Survival and Flourishing Fund. This platform helps philanthropists delegate grant-making discussions and decisions to trusted advisors, driving more effective and impactful giving.
The application is at the bottom of this page.
Qualifications
Experience translating vision into execution:
- Breaking down high-level strategic goals into detailed product specifications
- Creating actionable tickets and implementation plans from product specs
- Reasoning about complex systems with multiple user types, apps, and workflows
- Working independently without established PM processes or structures
Strong communication and influence skills:
- Building consensus and securing buy-in through clear reasoning rather than authority
- Writing for diverse audiences (technical team, leadership, external stakeholders, public)
- Making compelling cases for product direction and priorities
Experience with internal tools and systems:
- Managing products with slow feedback loops toward long-term impact goals
- Improving operational processes, automations, and workflows
- Creating visibility into project status and execution for leadership
Nice to have:
- Strong numeracy (e.g., calculus, matrix operations, utility theory)
- Coding ability, e.g., for web development or spreadsheet automation
- UI/UX design ability, e.g. with Figma
- Familiarity with SFF's approach to grantmaking and high-impact philanthropy, or the ability to quickly gain domain context
You're a great fit for our team if you are:
- Self-driven: you can own projects and get things done without outside prompting
- A great team member: you stay in sync with team priorities through communication, and support/unblock the work of teammates
- Rigorous: you're detail-oriented and thorough in places where consistency and correctness are key
- Pragmatic: you understand when rigor is unnecessary and can move quickly
- Opinionated: you have clear taste and can justify your ideas to teammates
- Open-minded: you care more about becoming right than having been right in the first place
- Versatile: you may be an expert at managing project execution, but you can also design wireframes or rewrite automations
Current state of development
The software, in its current form, has been used by several philanthropists to date, including Jaan Tallinn, Blake Borgeson, and the Future of Life Institute, via the S-Process of the Survival and Flourishing Fund. Our primary focus now is on making the app more information-dense and less cognitively taxing for philanthropists, enabling them to engage in more impactful giving.
Why this position exists
Over the past few years, we've developed the application to a stable state, with a track record of consistent functionality and high uptime. Now, we have a clear roadmap of high-value features, and we're excited to expand the team so we can build more, faster.
Duties of the position
This position will involve full-time product management work, in collaboration with SFC Co-Owner Andrew Critch, CEO Ethan Ashkie, and Lead Engineer Joel Burget. Activities will include:
- Discovering and prioritizing product opportunities across the S-Process app, supporting spreadsheets, automations, and grant administration workflows
- Translating strategic vision into implementable plans and detailed specifications
- Proposing solutions to unexpected issues and triaging competing priorities
- Writing documentation, communications, and materials for team members,Funders, Recommenders, applicants, and the public website
- Meeting with Ethan and other team members as needed (6-12 hours a week), which might include 1:1s, syncing with internal and external development teams, project planning, user interviews, process shadowing, etc.
- Being a team player! Running any project sometimes involves tasks that are not exciting from an R&D perspective. On the margin, we want team members who are excited to chip in and do whatever is needed to keep things moving for our client(s) (currently Jaan Tallinn).
Salary and benefits
The annual salary will be between $150,000 and $200,000 and can be negotiated upward based on experience and qualifications.
Benefits include:
- Fully funded individual health, vision, and dental insurance
- Majority premium coverage for additional dependents
- Available health/wellness discounts and perks through the health insurance provider
- 6% Safe-Harbor 401(k) matching
- 9 weeks off per year, including PTO and holidays
- 12-week paid family leave
Organizational culture
SFC is a small team that works fully remotely; we do meet 2-4 times a year for an in-person week, usually in the Bay Area. We have a clear vision and are ready to execute, and we are looking for a talented product manager to help make it happen.
Work authorization
SFC does not have a standard process for applying for visas, but we can hire remote contractors to live and work outside the United States.
Application