About this role
What you'll do
Product & Methodology
- Own the product roadmap and definition of product-market fit, from MVP through the index family
- Partner with the data and engineering team to define and defend the index methodology — what is measured, how it is weighted, normalized, and chain-linked — to a standard credible to subscribers, investors, and eventually exchange partners
- Translate buyer pain surfaced in research and design-partner work into concrete product requirements, feature decisions, and methodology constraints
- Define the monetizing mini-products (observability, procurement/routing, and the evaluation harness) and prioritize the build sequence that best generates proprietary data
- Own the distinction between the cited flagship index and the sub-index family, and the product logic for what is published free, licensed, and reserved
- Define the agent-native product surface (MCP / micropayment distribution) alongside the human-facing terminal and API
Commercial, Design Partners & Go-to-Market
- Run the design-partner research sprint, converting structured conversations across buyers, supply-side, and the financial side into a ranked view of the most acute, monetizable demand
- Carry the technical and domain half of the sales conversation — credibly demoing the product and engaging FinOps leads, AI engineers, quant funds, and structurers on methodology and value
- Build the early commercial motion from zero: pipeline, pilot conversion, pricing hypotheses, and the path from free benchmark to paid data licensing and index licensing
- Partner with the existing sales/BD function — opening and running relationships together, with this role owning the technical close and the translation of customer needs into product
- Develop the pricing and packaging strategy across the product ladder: terminal/API subscriptions, underlying data licensing, agent micropayments, and index-for-financial-product licensing
- Build the interface on financialization — supporting the path from index to passive products, and the governance and neutrality requirements that lets the index be licensed broadly
- Prepare clear, decision-useful product and commercial reporting for the CEO and group leadership, including PMF signals, design-partner status, pipeline, and go/no-go evidence
Our ideal candidate
- 5+ years of professional experience in product management, data/fintech commercial roles, or related fields, ideally at a data, market-data, fintech, or developer-infrastructure company
- Demonstrated experience owning a data or SaaS product end-to-end at an early stage, from definition through go-to-market
- Strong commercial instinct, with the ability to run a technical sale and translate between buyer needs and product/methodology decisions
- Background in or strong working knowledge of data products, indices, benchmarks, market data, or financial data — enough to be credible to both operators and investors
- Familiarity with AI/ML infrastructure economics (inference, compute, model pricing) strongly preferred; willingness to develop deep domain fluency quickly is essential
- Experience defining or working with methodology-driven products (indices, benchmarks, pricing references) preferred
- Comfort engaging financial-institution counterparties — funds, RIAs, structurers, or exchanges — and an understanding of how data becomes a financial product
- Experience running customer research, design-partner programs, or 0→1 commercial motions
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to make a complex, technical product clear to non-technical buyers
- Commercial judgment and product rigor in equal measure, with the ambition to grow into broader product or commercial leadership over time
- Intrinsically motivated, with the ability to thrive in a fast-moving, entrepreneurial environment
A well-qualified candidate, based in New York City, can expect a base salary of $175,000.00–$190,000.00. A standard offer from Lightyear includes base compensation, incentive-based compensation such as discretionary bonuses or stock options, and a highly competitive benefits and perks package. Offers are determined by a number of factors including (but not limited to) the applicant's experience, skills, certifications, as well as internal equity among our team.