Top 3 reasons to join us
- Passion for leveraging tech for impact
- Highly diverse and international team
- Environment that fosters entrepreneurialism
Job description
CIAT exists to advance science for a food-secure, climate-resilient and environmentally-sustainable future.
The product management and innovation specialist is a newly-created position that will help launch an initiative to generate more usable and readily accessible knowledge products based on CIAT's research outputs. This position will re-purpose research tools with high impact potential into more widely relevant and usable products that are tailored to user needs. In practice, this means leading the development and delivery of decision support tools to help institutions and companies better address barriers to achieving food-security, climate-resilience and environmental-sustainability.
The ideal candidate is strongly oriented towards users, able to translate external stakeholder needs into requests for internal research teams and external web development agencies. They will be an effective and entrepreneurial self-starter with passion and capacity to go from concept to product, engaging with ecosystem partners for co-development and seeking new opportunities for impact.
Key Responsibilities
Facilitate technology development and enhance market potential for better impact of CIAT tools, including but not limited to:
Required
- Engage with stakeholders such as co-development partners, subject matter experts, and end users in the related domains to understand their sustainability/business priorities and needs, so they can be translated into product solutions that provide positive social impacts and commercial value
- Translate sustainability/business requirements into actionable user stories; communicate them with research teams to make sure they comprehend and develop tools of high relevance; interact with colleagues in other disciplines to establish a support system that enables and nurtures tool development
- Negotiate with product beneficiaries and research teams to ensure the right balance between practical application and scientific rigor of CIAT tools to be developed
- Develop product requirements and specifications including written descriptions (concept notes) of functionality, user interface design, distribution channels, etc.
- Create/maintain/own the product roadmap and the product backlog for CIAT tools
- Develop the internal protocols and processes for product development together with relevant cross-functional team members
Desirable
- Develop a deep understanding of knowledge landscape, and proactively propose solutions using CIAT tools to address market opportunities and challenges
- Coordinate across a diverse set of CIAT scientists to identify and recommend an integration of novel components from their research to address immediate opportunities and strategic planning
- Investigate legal implications of different licensing models necessary for governing distribution of research outputs responsibly and in compliance with institutional and project related agreements
- Propose improvements in existing workflows, internal processes and external cooperation for better efficiency and scalability
- Perform project management activities with cross-functional internal teams and external stakeholders
Your skills and experience
Required
- A minimum of 2 years of professional experience in product development, product management or product owner activities, preferably associated with digital solutions, products of innovative nature or the agriculture sector
- A proven track record in building B2B products/services/solutions from the ground up
- Working knowledge of technical aspects (e.g. product design specification, configuration, integration), common challenges faced in product development and deployment, as well as possible solutions
- Ability and experience in understanding complex technical issues, conveying them clearly in technical concepts or practical application formats to multiple sets of audiences from different backgrounds
- Entrepreneurial spirit with desire to work in a collegial and intellectually stimulating environment
- Empathetic listener used to working with and incorporating diverse perspectives, able to distil new insights and knowledge from unexpected sources
- Strong work ethic and commitment to uncompromising standards of professionalism.
- Passionate about the position’s objective: creating positive impact for vulnerable communities through research advances
- Ability to work with ambiguity and taking ownership of deliverables
- Ability to manage multiple concurrent projects independently
- Excellent communication skills in English, both oral and written
Desirable
- Good negotiation skills to be used with different internal and external stakeholders (e.g. negotiating features, partnerships, licensing contract terms)
- Demonstrated business acumen to take innovative scientific concepts from design to implementation and scaling for practical and impactful application
- Strong interest in new technology and trends, especially in sustainable agriculture, with the ability to relate concepts to practical application
- Experience working with web developers, UI UX designers to create prototypes and products
- Knowledge and experience with technology licensing process
- Experience in environment or agriculture sectors
Why you'll love working here
CIAT's work culture is defined by a collegial, highly diverse and international team of people who are united around a common cause of using research to address serious threats to environment, food security, and vulnerability in tropical countries of Latin America, Africa and Asia. Curiosity, idealism and humility are shared values across CIAT. Diversifying our way of working to include a broader focus on transformation of research outputs into knowledge products for greater impact is a new endeavor that will foster even more intra-preneurship and innovation.
In addition:
- Personal development opportunities such as training, conference attendance and continuing education are encouraged and enabled through different support packages.
- Comprehensive health insurance and attractive benefits for employees and their families.
- Environment focuses on work life balance along with the career growth.
CIAT Asia
CIAT works for a food secure, climate resilient and environmentally sustainable future