Associate Product Manager

**Role Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates** Whiteshield is a global policy advisory and AI economics firm known for our ability to respond to global challenges rapidly and incisively. We use the most advanced tools and technology and combine them with our team of leading international experts to engage decision-makers in tackling society's most significant challenges. We are recognized for our rapid decision support, innovation, data science algorithms and deep policy expertise. We are specialists in "connecting the dots" between policy, business and technology. Whiteshield X is Whiteshield’s product business, hosting our PaaS and SaaS product offering. Partnered with Google Cloud, we bring advanced solutions to governments around the world to drastically improve citizen outcomes in areas such as employment, trade, and education. We develop a host of different SaaS modules from job matching to managing scholarship programs, and from delivering financial support to growth support for SMEs. These modules support governments around the world with delivering G2C and G2B services efficiently and significantly improve policy outcomes. **Role Description** APMs play a huge role in our innovation and product design and development. These are roles with a lot of responsbility and ownership to shape completely new modules and services from scratch, providing an opportunity to make a true impact - on the product, within the business, and on societies around the world. We look for entrepreneurial people that want to make their mark on the world and we empower and reward our staff accordingly. There is a lot of room for creativity and big ideas that shift the status quo. We are constantly building large new features and modules. This is not a role where you’ll be making small iterative improvements on autopilot, this is a ‘roll up your sleeves’ role where you’ll tackle huge challenges and create truly meaningful products. You will report to a Product Manager and/or the Head of Product and will become part of one of our cross-functional product studios, closely collaborating with developers, UI/UX designers, business analysts, data scientists, and QA. For high performers, there are significant chances to advance rapidly to the Product Manager level and beyond. **What You’ll Do** Below is an overview of the broad responsibilities of what our APMs might engage in. For those that require a bit more support, this work may be done in collaboration with a product manager. For those who demonstrate high potential, you might take on the responsibilities below more independently by taking ownership of your own SaaS module. - Product Strategy: Develop a product vision, strategy, and roadmap in line with business goals. - Product Discovery: Participate in discovery activities such as client and internal stakeholder to define and break down (policy) problems and ideate product solutions. - (User) Research: Conduct research (competitor research, user research, market analysis, stakeholder interviews, etc.) to inform product decisions. - Experimentation: Design and conduct experiments to verify requirements. - Requirements Definition: Gather and define business requirements and translate them into clear specifications for engineering, design, and QA teams. - Lifecycle Management: Own your team’s product from ideation through development and testing to launch and maintenance. - User Experience: Work closely with UI UX design to define the customer journey and create a great user experience. - Performance Management: Monitor product performance by building a data ecosystem around the product, using KPIs and data analytics to drive continuous improvement. - Stakeholder Collaboration: Work closely with our policy, product, engineering, design, QA and ops colleagues as well as company leadership to make informed product decisions and achieve results. - Client Management: Participate in and manage interactions with client counterparts on the product side, where necessary. **Requirements**: Who You Are - Entrepreneurial and ambitious, with your own perspective and ideas, and with an eagerness to contribute to the success of the studio and the organisation. - Highly independent and self-motivated, with strong leadership skills and a get-things-done attitude to deliver results. - Passion for the public good and eagerness to make a societal impact with their work, ideally with a particular interest in economic development, workforce development, and education. - Highly creative and eager to push the boundary on innovation and really rethink the standard within traditional (policy) areas. - Eager to work in a fast-paced, high-growth environment that challenges you to excel. - Detail-oriented with high standards for quality. What You’ll Need - Some initial experience product management, preferably in a dynamic, high-growth and highly innovative environment. - Exceptional analytical, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. - Hig