Vice President of Product, New Venture

About the Company

Trade Coffee is shaping the future of specialty coffee at home by connecting customers with exceptional independent roasters. The company operates the country’s largest marketplace of specialty coffee, using personalization technology and deep coffee knowledge to match hundreds of thousands of customers with coffees they enjoy. Its platform features 450+ coffees from top roasters in the U.S., with each bag roasted to order and delivered directly to the customer. The business aims to make specialty coffee more accessible while helping smaller roasters grow and succeed.

This role is for a brand-new business launched under the same corporate umbrella, but it is not an extension of Trade Coffee. The venture will have its own go-to-market strategy, customer promise, and operating model. Trade Coffee will keep running independently with its own GM, while this new brand is built and scaled as a separate platform.

Role Overview

The Vice President of Product will serve as the founding product leader for the new venture, responsible for defining and building the digital experience from the ground up. This is a true zero-to-one position with ownership of product vision, strategy, and execution across the customer-facing experience. The role reports directly to the CEO and works closely with the VP of Engineering to move quickly while maintaining quality. Over time, the leader will help shape and grow a small, high-performing product team. The work is highly hands-on and will involve sketching user flows, speaking with customers, making product decisions, resolving technical tradeoffs, and shipping features that feel intuitive, modern, and compelling.

Ownership

• Set the complete product vision and strategic direction for the new venture
• Own the customer journey from first interaction through long-term retention
• Drive roadmap planning and prioritization
• Oversee the full digital product experience, including every screen, flow, and interaction
• Shape the product development process and team culture
• Define the business and product metrics that matter and monitor performance against them
• Work in close lockstep with the VP of Engineering to deliver quickly

Key Responsibilities

Vision & Strategy

• Create a clear and compelling product vision for the new brand and its experience
• Turn that vision into a focused roadmap that delivers value early and often
• Make foundational choices around positioning, differentiation, and customer experience
• Build a product that feels distinct, fresh, and aligned with the target audience

Customer Experience

• Design onboarding journeys that create immediate value and delight
• Develop personalization and discovery experiences that feel highly tailored and engaging
• Build retention loops that encourage repeat engagement and return visits
• Pay close attention to every detail of the end-to-end customer journey

Execution & Partnership

• Partner tightly with engineering to ship quickly without compromising quality
• Make practical technical and product tradeoffs that balance speed with long-term sustainability
• Build strong cross-functional relationships across the company
• Use customer insights and data to iterate rapidly and improve the product
• Establish the right measurement framework for a new business
• Operate with urgency while holding a high bar for quality

Team & Organization

• Promote a startup mindset centered on experimentation, learning, and shipping
• Help build a strong product team over time
• Create an environment where high-quality work can thrive

Experience & Qualifications

• 8+ years of product management experience, including senior product leadership responsibilities
• Hands-on experience building products from scratch or in early-stage, fast-growing environments
• Proven success launching and scaling consumer digital products in subscription, ecommerce, or marketplace businesses
• Track record of shipping products that achieved meaningful customer adoption and business impact
• Solid background in product strategy and roadmap development
• Experience hiring, coaching, and developing high-performing product teams

Product Strengths

• Strong grasp of subscription and ecommerce mechanics, including acquisition, activation, retention, and monetization
• Sharp product judgment and the ability to understand what customers truly value
• Systems-level thinking and the ability to design cohesive journeys across touchpoints
• Skill in balancing customer needs, business goals, and technical limitations
• Comfort using data to guide decisions without overanalyzing
• Strong instincts for user experience, visual quality, and product storytelling

Collaboration

• Excellent ability to partner with engineering through technical fluency and mutual respect
• Experience working with design teams to create polished, intuitive customer experiences
• Comfort collaborating across marketing, operations, analytics, and data teams
• Clear communicator who can turn product vision into executable plans

Mindset

• Entrepreneurial and comfortable working in ambiguity and fast-moving settings
• Highly accountable for outcomes, not just deliverables
• Hands-on and willing to do what it takes to ship strong work
• Balances urgency with long-term strategic thinking
• Resourceful and able to find creative ways to validate ideas and move forward
• At ease making decisions with incomplete information
• Motivated by blank-slate opportunities and building something new

Work Model

The team is based in Midtown Manhattan and follows a hybrid schedule, with in-office collaboration on Tuesday through Thursday. The company believes great products are built through close collaboration, and that product, design, and engineering work best when they can solve problems together in real time.

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Unlimited vacation
• $500 per year to spend on coffee
• Best-in-class health benefits
• 401(k) plan
• Twice-monthly catered lunches
• Pet-friendly office
• Two paid days each year for company-sponsored community service

Additional Benefits and Policies

The company also provides comprehensive benefits such as employer-paid health, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan, a flexible spending account, and paid leave that includes vacation time and parental leave, subject to applicable plans and policies.

Compensation Range

The New York City base salary range for this position is $150,000 to $250,000 per year.