Building and maintaining standardized 3P model integrations (LLM providers, generative model APIs).
Make build vs. buy decisions : Evaluate when to train our own models vs. integrate third-party solutions based on market gaps, competitive advantage, and ROI
Guide research direction : Use product insight to inform what the team trains and develops; use research understanding to guide product direction Evals & Quality
Own the evals strategy : Design evaluation frameworks that are productionized and tied to real user needs, not just academic metrics
Drive quality standards : Establish quality bars for 1P and 3P models before they ship to users
Build feedback loops : Instrument data pipelines to continuously learn from user behavior and improve model performance Cross-Functional Orchestration
Enable fast iteration : Build infrastructure and processes that let product teams experiment with AI capabilities quickly
Manage dependencies : Coordinate research timelines with product roadmaps and feature launches Cost & Infrastructure
Optimize COGS : Make strategic decisions on model selection, caching strategies, and infrastructure to balance quality, latency, and cost
Scale research infrastructure : Ensure the team has the DevEx, training infra, and tooling to move fast Required Experience Product Sense
Track record of making sound build vs. buy decisions in the AI space •
Track record of partnering with engineering teams on infrastructure and platform work
Designs experiments and A/B tests to validate hypotheses
Requirements
Back in the day you needed like six monitors and a bachelor’s degree to edit video.
Descript lets you do it by editing docs & slides, and increasingly by just asking AI.
We’re looking for a Product Manager to help build the future of video editing with AI.
You’ll work alongside a small, flat, highly collaborative team of experienced PMs, AI researchers, engineers, designers, and marketers.
experience with cutting-edge AI technology in a product users love and grow fast in your PM craft.
We're looking for a Product Manager to lead the AI Research and Enablement roadmap at Descript.
This role sits at the intersection of cutting-edge AI research, production ML infrastructure, and product strategy.
You'll be responsible for ensuring our AI capabilities are best-in-class while enabling our product teams to ship AI-powered features that delight users.
Teams You'll Partner with AI Research
The AI Research team leverages, trains, and validates powerful models for our product use cases across two core areas:
LLM Research : Evaluating and optimizing LLMs for Descript products, co-designing agent architecture, experimenting with token optimizations and fine-tuning. AI Enablement
The AI Enablement team supports integrating 1P and 3P models into the Descript product:
MLOps infrastructure (evals framework, inference infra, training infra, data pipelines).
Understanding of modern ML/AI systems and LLMs (you don't need to write the code, but you need to understand the tradeoffs) •
Experience shipping AI/ML products to production at scale •
Experience with evals frameworks, model training pipelines, and inference infrastructure
Understanding of ML cost structures (training compute, inference costs, token economics)
Experience working with research teams and helping them focus on high-impact work
Comfortable with SQL, experimentation platforms, and analytics tools
You know how to motivate researchers and give them space to explore while keeping them aligned to product goals
You're deeply curious about AI
You have a point of view on where AI is headed and what it means for creative tools
You're excited about the opportunity to build AI-native products, not just add AI features
You understand that great AI products require great infrastructure
Impact : Your decisions will directly shape Descript's AI strategy and competitive positioning
Team : Work with world-class researchers and engineers pushing the boundaries of AI for creativity
Timing : Join at an inflection point as we scale from early AI features to building the world's best agentic video editor
Learning : Constant exposure to cutting-edge AI research and the challenge of productizing it
Descript is building a simple, intuitive, fully-powered editing tool for video and audio — an editing tool built for the age of AI.
Experience
4+ years of product management experience, with at least 1-2 years working on AI/ML products
Benefits
Descript’s vision is to put video in every communicator’s toolkit.
Can articulate a multi-year vision while executing on near-term priorities
The base salary range for this role is $171,000-235,000/year.
Benefits include a generous healthcare package, 401k matching program, catered lunches, and flexible vacation time. Our headquarters are located in the Mission District of San Francisco, CA.
Additional details
In the future, maybe you won’t even need to ask! But building a new way to record or generate (or both!) videos that look & sound good comes with a series of unique design, technology, and business challenges.
In other words, we need really good product managers.
Audio/Video Research : Models for understanding, augmenting, and generating audio/video content (transcription, lipsync, video regenerate, TTS, avatars, etc.).
Balance research investment : Allocate team resources between long-term research bets, feature work, and maintenance
Partner with product teams : Advise on which models or architectures are best suited for specific features over time
Experience balancing research exploration with shipping product value
Ability to translate technical capabilities into user-facing product features
Comfortable operating in ambiguity and setting direction when the path isn't clear Skills & Competencies Strategic Thinking
Understands when to make strategic long-term bets vs. tactical short-term wins
Evaluates competitive landscape and market trends to inform research direction