[Remote] Principal Group Product Manager- AL Labs

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Paylocity is hiring a Principal Group Product Manager to establish AL Labs’ direction and portfolio of AI product experiments. The role leads incubation from discovery through evidence-based investment decisions, shapes an AI-driven product development lifecycle, and enables successful experiments to transition into scaled product teams.

Responsibilities

• Co-Create and lead the vision, strategy, and operating model for AL Labs, connecting experimentation to Paylocity’s broader product, platform, and AI strategy
• Build a portfolio of high-potential AI opportunities informed by customer needs, market shifts, business priorities, technical feasibility, and responsible-AI considerations
• Design a disciplined incubation process that moves concepts through problem validation, rapid prototyping, customer testing, measurable experiments, investment decisions, and transition or closure
• Personally lead early discovery and experimentation while establishing the case, structure, and talent plan for the team to grow over time
• Establish clear learning goals, hypotheses, success measures, decision gates, and evidence standards so the organization can invest, pivot, scale, or stop with confidence
• Operate across multiple levels of the organization, from executive leadership to individual contributors, to align stakeholders, remove barriers, and create sponsorship for experiments
• Partner closely with Product, Engineering, UX, Data, Architecture, Security, Privacy, Legal, Operations, Sales, Marketing, Service, and Customer Success to test ideas responsibly and accelerate learning
• Create strong pathways for successful experiments to transition into durable product teams, including a clear product narrative, validated customer value, technical context, risks, metrics, and recommended ownership
• Help define and evolve an AI-driven PDLC, embedding practical AI use across product discovery, research synthesis, prototyping, requirements, engineering, quality, instrumentation, launch, and iteration
• Identify where AI can improve the speed, quality, and learning velocity of product development while maintaining appropriate human judgment, security, privacy, governance, and quality controls
• Use customer feedback, product data, market intelligence, and experiment results to communicate what was learned and recommend next actions
• Make complex opportunities tangible through prototypes, narratives, demos, business cases, and concise executive communication
• Build reusable methods, tools, templates, and playbooks that strengthen experimentation and AI-enabled product development across the broader organization
• Foster a culture of curiosity, urgency, constructive challenge, and continuous learning, where teams are rewarded for evidence and outcomes rather than activity
• As the team grows, recruit, lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing, multidisciplinary group capable of moving between exploration and execution
• Create mechanisms, systems, processes, and leadership practices that reinforce Paylocity values throughout the work

Skills

• The role requires experience in an incubator, venture studio, innovation lab, zero-to-one product environment, or a comparable setting where ambiguity is high and speed of learning matters
• It also requires direct experience operating within and ideally helping create an AI-driven product development lifecycle (PDLC) that uses AI responsibly to accelerate discovery, prototyping, development, testing, launch, and continuous improvement
• Bachelor's degree or higher in a related field, or equivalent practical experience
• 8+ years of experience in product management, innovation, product strategy, venture building, or a related field, including 3+ years in a senior leadership role within a fast-paced, technology-driven environment
• Demonstrated experience in an incubator, innovation lab, venture studio, zero-to-one product team, or similar high-ambiguity environment
• Direct experience operating within an AI-driven PDLC
• Proven ability to take ambiguous customer or business problems from early framing through experimentation, validation, and a clear investment recommendation
• Working knowledge of modern AI product patterns, including generative AI, agents, model evaluation, human-in-the-loop design, experimentation, and responsible-AI risk management
• Experience defining experiment hypotheses, measurable outcomes, decision criteria, and scalable handoffs rather than relying on activity-based measures
• Ability to influence and align stakeholders at all levels of the organization without depending on formal authority
• Exceptional communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to translate complex technical and product concepts into clear decisions for executive, technical, commercial, and customer audiences
• Strong cross-functional leadership experience with Product, Engineering, UX, Data, Security, Privacy, Legal, and go-to-market teams
• Comfort operating as a player-coach: setting strategy while personally driving discovery, prototypes, customer learning, and executive-ready recommendations
• Demonstrated sound judgment in balancing speed, customer value, technical feasibility, business viability, responsible AI, privacy, security, and long-term scalability
• A strong sense of curiosity, resilience, and adaptability, with a track record of learning quickly and challenging established assumptions constructively
• Experience helping design, implement, or scale an AI-enabled product development model is strongly preferred
• Experience building a team, capability, or operating model from the ground up is strongly preferred

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, life, and disability benefits
• A 401(k) match
• Career development
• An annual restricted stock unit grant based on individual performance

Company Overview

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