Chief Product Officer/Co-Founder (SaaS/AI Regenerative Agriculture)

Purdue University’s Digital Innovation in Agri-Food Systems Laboratory (DIAL), a part of the Purdue Applied Research Institute (PARI), is a venture studio focused on creating startups that bring digital innovation to our food and agriculture system. In our work, we explore unmet needs in the agri-food value chain and develop potential solutions. We’ve partnered with High Alpha Innovation to launch new companies that bring these solutions to market. 

Part strategy consultancy, part venture builder, High Alpha Innovation is a diverse mix of highly-experienced company builders, designers, and strategists who work with corporate and university partners to source, launch, and invest in venture studios and advantaged startups.

We’re looking for a proven entrepreneur as a Co-founder for our newest company (hereafter referred to as “StealthCo”) in the role of Chief Product Officer—someone with a recent track record of launching successful ventures and turning ideas into reality. 

StealthCo makes regenerative, conservation-focused, and low-impact production the most profitable path for every farmer. We enable a sustainable future for agriculture—one that honors its deep-rooted ethos and the vital bonds of trust—ultimately benefiting rural communities and preserving fertile farmland for generations to come. 

Our first product is a SaaS-based, AI-powered incentives catalog providing comprehensive coverage across public, commercial, corporate and NGO programs. It aligns farms with optimal incentives at the field level to maximize ROI per acre, and uses smart automation to streamline enrollment, and simplify reporting. Initially offered to ag retailers and cooperatives, this solution enables them to open new revenue opportunities for farmers, create additional revenue streams for themselves, and strengthen their position as trusted farm advisors.

As the CPO and Co-Founder, You’ll help manifest this product from the ground up, building upon our current business thesis to shape the company from the beginning and ultimately grow an important and durable business. You will own the product roadmap, starting with building the MVP. You will hire, lead and retain a market-leading team of digital product developers and partner with the CEO to define our value and go-to-market strategy.  This is a unique opportunity to be a creator, builder, and innovator that transforms a market essential to our survival as a species. 

What You'll Do:

• Develop and own our product portfolio, including each individual product roadmap, ensuring it serves important customer needs that align with StealthCo business goals. 
• Recruit, retain, mentor, and manage both in-house and outsourced product and technical teams, ensuring they have the resources and training needed to succeed.
• Create an intuitive and proactive customer experience, including complementary and integrated digital and human interactions. 
• Facilitate an agile/lean culture and operation that maximize our efforts to create customer value.
• Influence the message communicated to the market for the company holistically and each offering individually.
• Regularly engage with customers and partners to gather feedback, validate product assumptions, and ensure the solution is on target. 
• Represent the company in customer meetings and conferences (travel required ~1 week per month).
• Work closely with the CEO and other leadership team members to inform fundraising efforts, identify new product opportunities, and contribute to strategic decision-making.
• Oversee the full product lifecycle from ideation to delivery, collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure product excellence.
• Implement product instrumentation, A/B testing frameworks and other tools and strategies to understand product utilization, track performance, and incorporate feedback loops to refine and enhance the user experience.
• Work closely with the product development team to ensure high-quality code and product delivery.
• Manage the product development budget, ensuring efficient resource allocation and maintaining a focus on delivering value within budgetary constraints.
• Establish and maintain processes for risk management, data protection, privacy, and security policies, ensuring contractual obligations, regulatory requirements and best practices are followed throughout the product development process.

• Successful track record as a CPO, CTO or similar product leadership role at an early-stage startup. Industry experience in Fintech or Agtech is an added bonus.
• At least 10 years of demonstrated experience in SaaS product roadmap creation and management, from inception to release and a proven track record of creating user experiences that are sticky, drive adoption, and satisfy & delight users.
• At least 7 years of experience leading and managing teams, including recruitment, mentoring, and performance management.
• Deep understanding of Agile and Lean methodologies, including backlog grooming, sprint planning, product testing and feature design.
• Strong technical background with the ability to collaborate with development teams and understand product architecture (no coding required, but must have a technical understanding). A former engineer turned product owner would be ideal. 
• Track record of delivering development projects on time and on budget; proven ability to motivate teams and create a positive, challenging and enjoyable work environment 
• Experience building teams from scratch as well as managing on-shore or off-shore development partners and budgets.
• Desire and ability to be customer-facing, comfortable directly engaging customers at all levels; business rules documentation through to C level sales presentations with the ability to communicate complex subjects in a clear, concise manner.
• Experience working in an early stage venture backed company in a key leadership role. Co-founder experience is preferred. 
• A positive, proactive and collaborative attitude. Must be ready, willing and able to jump-in and lend a hand and be comfortable working in an ambiguous, ever-changing environment. 
• A bias for action, with the ability to assess risk and continuously course correct as new information is discovered. 
• A creator mindset that enables you to derive personal satisfaction from building from the ground up.
• Willingness to travel approximately 1 week per month for customer meetings, conferences, and product-related events.
• Strong communication and presentation skills with the ability to positively represent the company to both small and large audiences.
• Venture capital fundraising experience preferred.

• Salary plus equity plan
• Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance 
• Flexible work location within the United States 
• A collaborative, entrepreneurial environment with a proven venture studio playbook
• A highly validated concept and business model hypothesis developed by our team
• Pre-seed funding committed by our partner 
• The support of the venture studio and platform services, we surround the startup with world-class expertise in every discipline required to build a market-leading company