SVP of Product Development

About Topanga

At Topanga, we’re transforming kitchen operations with AI-powered solutions that help leading commercial kitchens waste less and save more. Our products, including the award-winning ReusePass program and StreamLine, a food waste mitigation and workflow automation tool, are used by industry leaders to drive measurable impact and cost savings. Win. Win.

We’re an early-stage technology company with product-market fit, entering our next phase of explosive growth. We have a strong sense of mission and direction, accompanied by constant testing and iteration.

Our team is a passionate mix of technologists, foodies, designers, and problem solvers who believe that building efficient systems can create a future of abundance. We’re passionate about solving hard problems—through questioning, debate, and ultimately committing to a shared direction, we create solutions that matter.

What to Expect

Today, we're a remote-first team with a main office hub in LA, where the team goes in 2-3 days per week. The rest of our team is distributed across the U.S., with a growing presence in NYC. We strive to compensate and offer benefits that are above market for the given role and stage of the company. Pay may be a combination of salary, commission, and/or equity depending on role and seniority. Full time employees are eligible for health benefits and 401k enrollment.

You should expect a self-regulated PTO policy and a culture that promotes using at least three continuous weeks every year. (Yes, 12 days of camping with no cell service is encouraged—fresh air is good for us). We sign off at 2:30 p.m. on Fridays, observe long weekends, and respect that some days, you wake up and your head just ain’t in it.

We encourage each other's pursuit of hobbies, passions, and experiences outside of work. We acknowledge that careers tend to be zig-zags, not straight lines. This is great as long as the time spent working is fulfilling. Basically, our jobs do not define us, but they can add purpose.

The role:

The SVP of Product Development reports to the CTO and is responsible for building, managing, and mentoring a cross functional group of six to eight Product Managers, Product Designers, and Technical Operations leads. The role is primarily a management position, but there may be cases where individual contributions are needed. Team members will work across both of Topanga’s products— ReusePass and StreamLine.

Who you are:

You are a builder of technical products and teams. You’ve spent most of your career focused on the Product Management craft, but have learned that building and delivering great product is a team sport that requires collaboration with designers and engineers throughout the lifecycle. You have also learned that successful B2B products work hard to meet the needs of the user and of the buyer and that exceptional ones don’t just add value but become indispensable.

You have experience building strong teams that collectively make demonstrably great decisions and deliver value to the user and the business quickly. You’ve done this with products that are in their nascency and with established products that are maturing. You’ve also done this with teams of varying sizes and diverse sets of end users. You’ve probably also done this with both software and hardware products and products that require indeterministic machine learning systems to add real value.

The experience you have allows you to better match patterns and identify mistakes early. But, you do not let it hold you or your team back from doing things in novel ways if those ways are better. You believe that the mix of art and science that goes into building great products is also relevant when building great teams.

You are an excellent critical thinker and communicator that deeply values these skills as a necessary part of the decision making process. You do not think it is sufficient just to be right, but that a person or group of people who think they are right must be adept at convincing others too. Sometimes this will require quantitative analysis, market research, user research, or intuition, but it will always require sound reasoning.

• 10+ years of Product Management experience with 5+ years leading groups of Product Managers. Preferred to have experience leading cross functional groups that include Product Designers, Engineers, etc.
• Proven ability to achieve 0-1 success and 1-10 success. Preferred experience managing hardware and ML products.
• Creative problem solver and precise communicator.