Principal Product Manager - AI-Powered Personalization & Discovery

ABOUT SLATE

At Slate, we’re building safe, reliable vehicles that people can afford, personalize and love—and doing it here in the USA as part of our commitment to reindustrialization. The spirit of DIY and customization runs throughout every element of a Slate, because people should have control over how their trucks look, feel, and represent them.

| WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

Slate sells direct to consumer, which means the entire design and shopping journey, from a customer's first visit through years of accessorizing their vehicle, is ours to build. Many buyers start that journey without a clear idea of what they want, and more of them are turning to AI to help figure it out.

Slate is looking for a Principal Product Manager to own how AI and personalization guide every Slate customer toward the designs and accessories that are right for them, not just responding to what customers ask for, but anticipating what they'd love before they know to ask.

This is a broad, high-ambiguity mandate spanning the full design and shopping experience, not a single funnel step or feature. You will set product strategy and vision, work closely with engineering and design on what actually ships, and align Sales, Growth, Brand, and Customer Service around a shared approach to personalized vehicle designing and shopping, one that works well broadly while still feeling tailored to each individual customer.

| WHAT YOU GET TO DO

Own the product vision and roadmap for AI-powered personalization across the customer journey, from first visit through vehicle design, purchase, and ongoing accessorizing.

• Define the product principles that keep AI-guided shopping genuinely helpful: learning from customer behavior and signals over time rather than putting the burden on customers to spell out what they want.

• Own the design and shopping experience end to end, including vehicle design, virtual garage, accessory discovery, and cart, ensuring it works well for customers broadly while adapting to each one individually.

• Build discovery features that surface vehicle designs and combinations customers hadn't considered themselves, informed by both individual signals and patterns across the broader Slate customer base.

• Partner cross-functionally with Sales, Growth, Brand, and Customer Service to find and prioritize the moments across the customer lifecycle where personalization and AI guidance can remove friction or create genuine delight.

• Set strategy for how personalization and recommendations extend consistently across every channel a customer touches (e.g. web, email, push, and in-app).

• Write and drive alignment on PR/FAQs for major initiatives, using data rigorously and honestly.

• Run a disciplined experimentation program for personalization and AI-guided features, with clear hypotheses, success metrics, and guardrails.

• Represent the customer-experience point of view in company-wide strategy discussions, and mentor other PMs on personalization and experimentation practice.

| WHAT YOU BRING TO THE TEAM

• 8+ years of product management experience, including leading 0-to-1 or highly ambiguous initiatives with no existing playbook.

• Direct experience with personalization, recommendation systems, or AI/LLM-powered product experiences. You can speak credibly to both the customer experience and the underlying system design.

• A track record of owning an end-to-end customer experience that spans multiple teams and systems, not just a single feature or funnel stage.

• Strong, structured writing. You can produce (and iterate rapidly on) a PR/FAQ-style strategy document that survives scrutiny from skeptical stakeholders.

• Rigorous but pragmatic approach to experimentation and metrics: comfortable defining guardrail metrics for a system that is supposed to feel invisible when it is working.

• Demonstrated ability to align cross-functional partners, such as Sales, Growth/Marketing, Brand, and Customer Service, around a shared roadmap.

• Comfort operating at both altitudes: company-level vision and strategy narrative, and the granular product details (a single guardrail metric, a single line of customer-facing copy) that make or break trust in an AI-guided experience.

Preferred

• Experience with e-commerce configurators.

• Experience in the automotive or EV space.

Why This Role

Because Slate sells direct to consumer, the full design and shopping journey is ours to build. This role offers the chance to define how AI and personalization guide customers through that journey, with broad ownership across the customer lifecycle and a voice in company-wide strategy discussions.

We're fueled by grit, determination, and attention to detail. Slate's start-up spirit of ingenuity and resourcefulness moves our business forward. Team Slate fosters a culture of excellence, innovation, and mutual respect and is motivated by shared principles, Safety First, Delight Customers, One Team, Relentless Improvement, Fast, Frugal and Scrappy, Respectful Collaboration, and Positive Legacy.

SALARY RANGE 

The compensation for this position is the range Slate reasonably and in good faith expects to pay for the position taking into account the wide variety of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions, including job-related knowledge; skillset; experience, education and training; certifications; work location; and other relevant business and organizational factors. 

Annual Base Pay Range: $156,000 to $260,000.00 USD

ADDITIONAL COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS 

Slate offers a wide range of competitive benefits, including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, disability insurance, vacation, and 401k. The successful candidate may also be eligible to participate in the equity program and/or a discretionary annual incentive program, subject to the rules governing such programs. 

Location: Seattle, WA OR Troy, MI- Hybrid

WHY JOIN TEAM SLATE?

At Slate, we’re fueled by grit, determination, and attention to detail. The start-up spirit of ingenuity and resourcefulness move our business forward. Team Slate fosters a culture of excellence, innovation, and mutual respect, and is motivated by shared principles.

• Safety First

• Delight Customers

• One Team

• Relentless Improvement

• Fast, Frugal, and Scrappy

• Respectful Collaboration

• Positive Legacy

WE WANT TO WORK WITH PEOPLE THAT REFLECT THE COMMUNITIES IN WHICH WE OPERATE.

Slate is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, marital status, parental status, cultural background, organizational level, work styles, tenure and life experiences. Or for any other reason.

Slate is committed to providing reasonable accommodation for qualified individuals with disabilities in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at

[email protected].