The posting
Infilla is looking for a Product Manager to deepen Infilla's core products, Forum and Calculator, into daily-use tools that can be configured without engineering.
Infilla’s mission is to make more housing happen faster by making permitting unremarkable. The U.S. is short 4-7 million homes, and local permitting is one of the top bottlenecks with approvals taking months to years. Infilla is building the modern permitting platform that helps local governments review projects faster, more consistently, and more transparently. Customers include San Francisco, New York City, and the State of Delaware, among others. We’re backed by Basis Set Ventures, Base10 Partners, Urban Innovation Fund, SHAKTI VC, 20Growth, Bloomberg Beta, and 20+ founders/operators who’ve built products at scale.
WHAT YOU’LL DELIVER
- Instrument and baseline what success means for Forum and Calculator, including search quality, and set the targets
- Make Forum a tool staff open on most working days — search is good enough that they reach for it instead of asking a colleague
- Make our core products configurable so a new jurisdiction can go live without an engineer writing code
WHAT YOU’RE GREAT AT
- Product judgment. Prioritizes ruthlessly and cuts scope — runs field research and uses product analytics to identify the core problems worth solving, and leaves the rest. Designs for how work actually happens.
- Ownership with urgency. Independently gets features from spec to trained users fast, including the unglamorous last mile of training, migration, and chasing adoption after launch. Treats shipping as how you learn and would rather be wrong in front of users than right in a doc.
- Collaboration. Has the design taste and technical depth to hold their own as a respected equal to design and engineering. Works well with users and stakeholders, whose stated requests can conflict, to get to the need under the request and to push back diplomatically when needed.
- Systems thinking. Designs for the customer that hasn't onboarded yet. Knows which differences belong in the core product and which belong in configuration.
- Written communication. Writes specs, updates, and decisions that a busy reader understands in one pass. Structures a clear and cohesive argument, states the recommendation up front, and cuts what doesn't serve the reader.
- AI fluency. Uses AI daily as a working tool — prototypes with it, drafts specs and synthesizes research with it, and keeps experimenting as the tools change. Has a clear view of where AI belongs in the product and in the work, and where it doesn't.
WHAT YOU’VE DONE BEFORE
- Has fully owned a complex B2B web product as an IC PM
- Has been a founding or early PM at a seed or Series A company
- Has owned search or content retrieval as a core part of a product
- Has shipped AI features users actually rely on, and uses AI in the work itself
NICE TO HAVE, NOT NEEDED
- Has worked in a regulated or procedurally dense domain — planning, construction, insurance, healthcare billing, etc.
- Has shipped a mobile responsive product built to WCAG AA 2.1 standards
- Has made a product deployable by non-engineers
- Is a former founder beyond being a solopreneur or consultant
Research shows women & minorities are more likely to consider themselves unqualified if they don’t meet every single requirement in a job description. This represents what we’re ideally looking for, but everyone is unique. We hire for strengths & potential, not lack of weakness or a perfect resume fit.
DETAILS
- This is a full-time hybrid role, working 3x a week in Downtown San Francisco near the Montgomery BART station. Though we prefer those in the Bay Area, exceptional remote US candidates will be considered.
- You will join as the 3rd PM and report to the CEO / Founder, who is a former PM.
- Meaningful equity, with flexibility to weight your package toward more equity and less cash
- Benefits: healthcare / vision / dental insurance, 401K, and 26 days of PTO including federal holidays.
- We cannot sponsor visas at this time.
THE PROCESS
We aim to make this happen in 2 weeks:
- Initial call with Savanna to assess mutual fit (20 min).
- Founder introduction with Jenny to assess ownership with urgency (45 min)
- Share artifacts (1 spec, 1 strategy document) with Carl to assess written communication
- Team day onsite (virtual onsite for remote candidates) - Jam session with Phi & Daria to assess product judgement (45 min) - Systems thinking case study with Brandon to assess systems thinking (45 min) - Stakeholder role play with Carl to assess stakeholder management (30 min) - Team lunch if in-person (60 min)
- Reference checks (manager, PM peer, designer peer, engineering peer)
WHAT’S HARD
- Multiple products to own — 2 products plus discovery; prioritization is critical
- Government stakeholders — planners, examiners, applicants, officials all want different things
- Existing products with real users — you're stepping into things people depend on
- High independence — support is available, but you drive your areas
- Slow domain, fast team — government moves slowly; we don't
YOUR FIRST 60 DAYS
Day 14 — learn
- Deep dive into the Forum and the Calculator
- Write your first spec; make your first design decision
- Shadow government staff at 1–2 agencies to ground your product intuition
- Build working relationships with engineering and design
Day 30 — own
- Own 3–4 features end-to-end across your product areas
- Run your first usability test with real users
- Share AI prototypes or workflow improvements with the team
- Begin discovery work on future product opportunities
Day 60 — lead
- Drive your product areas independently with minimal oversight
- Present discovery findings and recommendations for future features and products
- Represent Infilla in customer conversations related to your product areas
- Be a net-positive force on the team — provide clarity and drive answers to enable others to do their best work
OUR PRODUCT BELIEFS
Most permitting software treats the permitting process like a black box. We think that’s wrong and we believe:
- Transparency should be a given — applicants and staff should see progress in real time
- Software should help people, not just store records — existing systems prioritize compliance over usability
- Data-driven policy is possible — the right system enables actionable insights
HOW WE WORK
- Ideas > Hierarchy - Best idea wins regardless of source. Be intellectually honest.
- Kind > Nice - Share clear, helpful feedback often. Voice your concerns and listen.
- Courage > Comfort - We do the right thing, even when hard or uncomfortable.
- Hours > Weeks - Solve it in hours, not "eventually." Speed is our biggest edge as a startup.
- Fix > Flag - See a problem, own it, and fix it — don't wait for someone else to.
LEGAL
Infilla is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. If you need an accommodation at any point in the interview process, let us know and we'll make it work.
