Product Manager (San Francisco)

Our mission at Ello is simple and urgent: maximize the potential of every child everywhere. Were building the worlds first AI teacher to close that gap: one that listens speaks adapts and inspires just like the best human educators.

Our first product Read with Ello is already helping tens of thousands of kids each week learn to read. It listens as they read aloud offers support when they stumble and generates magical personalized stories. It works and kids love it.

Now were scaling that success into something even bigger: a complete AI teacher that can help children learn far beyond reading. Our new app combines language speech and memory to deliver interactive learning for kids worldwide; check it out here. Were moving fast: we ship weekly test directly with kids and push the boundaries of whats possible with AI in education.

With the resources of the worlds top investors and the heart of a public benefit corporation were here to revolutionize how children learn globally. Featured on TIMEs Best Inventions and Fortunes Change the World Ello is a small mission-driven team taking on one of the most important challenges of our time: to democratize education.

Were hiring a Product Manager in San Francisco who can work at the intersection of technical engineering and exceptional design. Youll own some of our hardest product problems partnering closely with engineers and designers to turn frontier AI capabilities into experiences that feel simple intuitive and even magical for children.

The best PMs for this role think like engineers care like designers and obsess over the child using the product. Theyre equally comfortable debating system architecture refining interaction details and making difficult product tradeoffs that turn complex technology into deceptively simple experiences. As we scale we need more capacity more clarity and more taste this person brings all three. Youll partner closely with our engineers on the hardest and most exciting parts of the product turn fuzzy possibilities into a concrete plan and ship experiences that feel deceptively simple on the surface while solving incredibly complex problems underneath.

One month you might be inventing a new way for children to learn math with an AI teacher. The next you might be redesigning how the AI teacher responds when a child gets every case your job is to bridge whats technically possible with what feels effortless for a child.

Youll work across product design engineering research and leadership in San Francisco and Nairobi. Youll own meaningful parts of the product experience from identifying user needs and product hypotheses to testing with children and families to shipping improvements that make the product better and more joyful to use.

We care more about the quality of your experience than the exact number of years on your resume. Were looking for someone who clearly learns fast and has the drive to grow into whatever the role demands. The best PMs at Ello are equal parts product strategist systems thinker designer and child advocate if that sounds like you you could be a great fit.

Exciting Things About This Role

• Youll own mission-critical product areas end-to-end and directly shape how children experience learning.

• Youll partner directly with world-class ML engineers on some of the most interesting frontier product work in AI and education.

• Youll shape not just what we build but how it feels sweating the details that make the difference between a feature children use and one they genuinely love.

• Youll work on one of the most important applications of AI: helping children learn.

• Youll ship weekly and test directly with the children and families youre building for.

• Youll help a fast-scaling product org move with more momentum and more order.

• Youll collaborate with world-class engineers designers and researchers across continents and if youre excited about spending meaningful time in our Nairobi office even better. Wed love for this role to help strengthen the bridge between our two hubs.

• 35 years of experience in product management or closely adjacent roles (engineering design or UX research). AI-forward candidates coming from engineering with fewer years of formal PM work are welcome; quality of experience matters more than years.

• Track record of shipping high-quality products from concept to launch including large or complex efforts you carried through ambiguity.

• Hands-on experience using AI-native prototyping tools (e.g. Claude Bolt Replit etc.) to build quick demos test product ideas and accelerate workflows.

• Strong design sense: able to recognize great UX and collaborate closely with designers to create simple delightful experiences.

• Technical fluency: comfortable getting into system tradeoffs partnering closely with ML and engineering teams and making sound decisions on technically complex work.

• Ability to bring structure to ambiguous fast-moving projects: aligning stakeholders sequencing the work and keeping momentum without adding process for its own sake.

• Deep curiosity about users: comfortable talking to users observing behavior identifying patterns and turning insight into product direction.

• Structured thinker: naturally able to break ambiguous problems into clear decisions and thoughtful tradeoffs.

• Creates clarity: communicates decisions tradeoffs and context in a way that brings teams together and accelerates execution.

• Demonstrated ownership mindset: proactive accountable and outcome-driven.

• Software engineering experience or equivalent experience building highly technical products.

• Experience working closely with ML or AI teams on production features.

• Experience with data analytics tools (A/B testing tools visualization tools basic ability to write queries).

• Past experience working on consumer products for kids/families or the education market.

• Familiarity with game design mechanics engagement loops and motivation frameworks.

• Experience conducting UX research or play testing with real users and using those insights to drive product decisions.

• Comfortable mocking up ideas directly in Figma

• Want to build products that create impact with delight.

• Move with urgency because opportunities like this dont come around often.

• Default to ownership instead of waiting for permission.

• Obsess over craft from interaction details to product strategybecause children deserve exceptional constantly especially with AI because yesterdays workflows wont build tomorrows products.

• Have a strong opinionated sense of what good design looks and feels like

• Are excited to build engaging and educational experiences for children worldwide.

• Build meaningful relationships and communicate with honesty empathy and respect.

About Ello

Ello is a public benefit corporation on a mission to maximize the potential of all children. Were currently around 45 people headquartered in San Francisco with a second office in Nairobi Kenya.

Our team has deep expertise in artificial intelligence K-12 education and child development across institutions such as Stanford Berkeley Google Apple and more. We were part of Y Combinators W20 batch and are funded by world-class investors including Goodwater Capital Homebrew Reed Hastings Common Sense Growth Ravensburger Project A Ventures Reach Capital Khosla Ventures WndrCo Visible Ventures and K9 Ventures.

Were a small collaborative team that takes each others voices very seriously. Because our mission is to support all children it is critical that our team is representative of the communities we work in; we place significant emphasis on ensuring diversity in our team and inclusion in our culture. If you have questions about immigration reach out to us at .

We feel enormously privileged to be building at this moment. Advances in AI have made it possible for the first time to imagine giving every child a truly personalized teacher. We dont take that opportunity for granted.

We work with urgency because millions of children cant wait. We care deeply about craftsmanship because learning experiences should feel magical. And we believe its possible to build ambitious technology while building a company where people do the best work of their careers.

If that excites you wed love to meet you.

At Ello diversity is a moral imperative and a competitive advantage. We do not discriminate based on race religion skin color national origin gender sexual orientation age marital status veteran status or disability status. We plan and structure our interviews to assess skills and experience directly. If you need accommodations throughout the interview process please contact

Required Experience:

IC