Full-Time

Senior Product Manager

Core

Instrumentl

Instrumentl

51-200 employees

Subscription platform for grant discovery

Compensation Overview

$150k - $220k/yr

+ Equity

Oakland, CA, USA

Hybrid

Hybrid role; work from home four days per week and in Oakland office once per week.

Category
Product (1)
Required Skills
Product Management
Machine Learning
Data Analysis
Requirements
  • 5+ years of product management experience in SaaS (B2B preferred).
  • Demonstrated experience owning problem discovery, strategy, and execution end-to-end.
  • Strong judgment in sequencing work and shipping incrementally.
  • Experience building or working with AI-powered features in real production environments.
  • Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
Responsibilities
  • Customer Insight, Domain Fluency & Problem Discovery: Develop a deep understanding of nonprofit realities, including funding volatility, staff burnout, compliance constraints, and multi-persona workflows. Internalize the differences between small nonprofits where people “wear many hats” and larger, more matrixed organizations. Start from problems, not features: clearly articulate user and business pain, distinguish root causes from symptoms, and frame opportunities effectively. Synthesize insights from usage data, customer conversations, internal documents, and competitive research into clear, actionable problem statements.
  • Product Strategy, Sequencing & Delivery Judgment: Build a coherent strategic narrative that connects market context → customer problems → product themes → roadmap. Cluster initiatives into outcome-driven themes rather than isolated features. Sequence work thoughtfully, delivering thin-sliced early versions (MVPs / MLPs) to reduce risk and accelerate learning. Make strong tradeoffs by balancing customer value, engineering effort, and business priorities.
  • AI Product Thinking: Evaluate when AI is genuinely additive versus when rules-based logic, scoring, or analytics are sufficient. Design human-in-the-loop workflows for high-stakes use cases such as grant applications, reviews, and approvals. Build trust by separating authoring and reviewing, and avoiding patterns where AI “grades its own work.” Clearly articulate data and model needs, edge cases, and failure modes (e.g., conditional logic, nested questions).
  • Measurement & Outcomes OrientationDefine and align on a clear product North Star (e.g., multi-workflow adoption). Pair features with both leading and lagging indicators, such as usage, completion rates, win rates, retention, and NRR. For AI-driven features, define what “good” looks like through evaluations and qualitative signals—not just logs and dashboards. Run post-launch reviews to assess impact and guide iteration.
  • Communication, Storytelling & Cross-Functional Leadership: Communicate clearly and structurally, making complex ideas understandable to both technical and non-technical audiences. Craft narratives that connect customer problems to product decisions and business outcomes. Lead through influence by treating product as a team sport—partnering early with Design, Engineering, Customer Success, and GTM. Navigate disagreements productively and ensure features are built with adoption, positioning, and sales enablement in mind.

Instrumentl helps nonprofits, universities, and grant writers find and manage grant opportunities through a subscription platform. Users sign up for a pricing tier, and the system automatically matches relevant grants to their profiles using foundation data and IRS Form 990 filings, while also sending automatic deadline reminders and enabling custom reports. The platform combines data-driven grant matching, deadline tracking, and reporting in one integrated workflow for a wide range of clients. The goal is to save time and increase efficiency in grant work, helping clients maximize funding and reduce administrative burdens.

Company Size

51-200

Company Stage

Growth Equity (Venture Capital)

Total Funding

$55.1M

Headquarters

Fort Worth, Texas

Founded

2016

Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Summit Partners' $55M investment funds AI expansion and accelerates U.S. customer acquisition.
  • 4,500+ customers and $1B+ in grants won create network effects and retention moat.
  • Post-award lifecycle management and reporting tools expand TAM beyond discovery phase.

What critics are saying

  • GrantForward dominates university research offices; 50-70% probability of losing academic clients in 12-24 months.
  • Free AI tools from Google and ChatGPT commoditize grant matching; 70-90% probability of conversion decline.
  • Proposed IRS Rule 2026-12 restricts Form 990 data access; 30-50% probability blocks core matching engine.

What makes Instrumentl unique

  • Instrumentl aggregates 33,000+ live grants with AI-powered matching across federal, state, corporate, and private sources.
  • Platform saves users three hours weekly and increases grant applications 78% within first year.
  • Customers secured $6.7 billion in grants since 2015, demonstrating proven funding efficacy.

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Your Connections

People at Instrumentl who can refer or advise you

Benefits

Competitive salary + equity

Health, dental, and vision insurance

401k

Generous PTO policy

Parental leave

Company laptop + $500 to set up your home workstation

Company News

VC News Daily
Apr 23rd, 2025
Instrumentl Secures $55M Growth Funding

Instrumentl, based in Oakland, CA, has secured a $55 million growth investment.

TechNews180
Apr 23rd, 2025
Summit Partners Invests $55M in Nonprofit Grant Startup

Instrumentl has raised $55 million in growth funding led by Summit Partners to support its mission of simplifying and scaling nonprofit grant fundraising.

FinSMEs
Apr 23rd, 2025
Instrumentl Raises $55M in Funding

Instrumentl raises $55M in funding.

FinancialContent
Apr 23rd, 2025
Instrumentl Secures $55M to Boost AI Platform

Instrumentl, a grant solution platform for nonprofits and universities, secured a $55 million investment from Summit Partners to enhance its AI capabilities and expand U.S. customer acquisition. The platform helps users streamline grant processes, leading to significant time savings and increased funding. Instrumentl's 4,500+ customers have won over $1 billion in grants. Summit Partners' Daniel Kim joins the board to support Instrumentl's growth.

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Portfolio

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