The posting
Smalls is on a mission to make nine lives ten, building a brand and a digital experience that cat people genuinely love. Our website and product aren't just a storefront; they're the clearest expression of who we are and the engine of our growth. This role owns both.
We're looking for a VP of Product & Engineering to set the vision for our digital product, digital experience, and the technology that powers them — and to be accountable for the business results that vision delivers. Reporting to Ed (SVP, Growth & Data), you'll sit on the leadership team and act as the connective tissue between what we want the business to become and what we build to get there.
WHAT YOU’LL DO
PRODUCT & TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY
- Define a multi-year vision for our digital product and the platform beneath it, and turn it into a roadmap the team can rally around.
- Decide where to invest, what to build, and how team resourcing and tech stack need to shift to support that roadmap.
- Tie every call to the long-term vision and financial goals of the overall business in a way that is clear and motivating for the teams you lead.
DIGITAL PRODUCT EXPERIENCE
- Hold the vision and the bar for everything a customer touches once they reach us — the onsite experience, paths to purchase and checkout, the account and subscription experience, and the product surfaces that keep them coming back.
- Bring a real perspective on how UX, merchandising, and onsite flows shape behavior, and make sure the experience we ship reflects the brand at its best.
METRICS & REVENUE ACCOUNTABILITY
- Own the product and experience metrics that ladder up to revenue — conversion, AOV, LTV, retention — and feel personally accountable for the topline you influence.
- Bring that commercial lens into every prioritization decision; be as fluent in the economics of the business as in the product.
PRODUCT & MARKETING PARTNERSHIP
- Build a shared agenda with Marketing across acquisition, retention, and reactivation.
- Bring a strong point of view on how product and brand compound each other to grow the business.
ENGINEERING LEADERSHIP
- Set the technical direction and build an org that ships with quality and speed.
- Make the build-vs-buy and platform calls, keep the stack healthy, and make sure engineering is pointed squarely at what matters most.
TEAM BUILDING
- Attract, develop, and motivate a cross-functional product and engineering org.
- Get the best out of your people, put resources where they'll have the most impact, and create a culture where ambitious builders do the best work of their careers.
WHAT WE’LL LOVE ABOUT YOU
- You lead with a point of view: you arrive with a bold, well-formed take on the experience and where it should go. You can describe a future others can't yet see and build the organizational conviction to chase it — while staying honest enough to update when the evidence says you're wrong.
- You start from the customer: your strategy is grounded in a genuine understanding of who you're building for. You use data, testing, and research to sharpen your bets, not to make them for you.
- You're commercial: you think in business outcomes and are comfortable being measured by them. You can articulate the tradeoff between a long-term experience investment and this quarter's number to anyone in the building, including the board.
- You've scaled consumer commerce: you've built and grown across DTC subscription and traditional ecommerce, and understand what changes when a subscription-first business opens up to one-time purchase and subscribe-and-save. You know the modern DTC stack well, Shopify included, and carry enough technical depth to set engineering direction and earn your engineers' trust.
- You operate at the product–marketing seam: you've owned the place where growth, brand, and product meet, and know how to make those functions pull in the same direction.
- You're a builder of teams: an exceptional people leader who attracts strong talent, manages resources with judgment, and creates the conditions for a team to do its best work.
- You communicate with clarity: your team and peers always understand the why behind the roadmap. You can go deep enough to debate architecture with engineers and high enough to align the exec team.
- You have the track record to back it up — 12+ years (or equivalent) across product and technology leadership, with proof you've set strategy, led teams, and grown the metrics that matter.
- You're a cat person: you care about cats and the people who love them, and you're genuinely excited to build for this community.
- You lead with gut and opinion, and validate with data — not the reverse; purely analytical, data-first decision-making is not the right fit for this seat.
- Your orientation is closer to a GM of ecom than a features-focused PM — you've owned broad commercial outcomes, not just a narrow conversion/CRO scope.
- Subscription and Shopify experience are strong signals.
WHAT YOU’LL LOVE ABOUT US
- Mission-Driven Company: We love cats and we're here to make nine lives ten.
- People-Driven Company: We treat our people like people; we're committed to Smalls, and we work hard but also respect everyone’s lives outside of work.
- Data-Driven Culture: We love using data to guide decision-making where appropriate, but we also know when to move quickly and go with our gut.
- Competitive Salary: Make some $$$.
- Very Competitive Benefits: Fully paid Health, Vision, and Dental insurance. 4-day work week. Unlimited PTO.
- Fully Remote Office & Culture: Our team is spread across the US day to day, but we travel for department & company off-sites and retreats.
- Free Product: Free cat food every month.
